Students' conceptions of learning in an engineering context

Research on student learning in higher education has highlighted the centra l role that students' conceptions of learning play in influencing their app roaches to learning. This article reports on a study of conceptions of lear ning among engineering students on a one-year foundation course. Students w ere interviewed about their conceptions of learning at three intervals duri ng their academic year. The data was analysed using a phenomenographic pers pective and from the data five qualitatively different conceptions of learn ing were identified. The resulting characterisation of these conceptions of learning is presented using excerpts from the interviews and some implicat ions for student learning are discussed.