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This paper reports on part of a dissertation project on the relationships between learning methods and students’ information behavior in Finland. In this qualitative study, information behavior is studied in the contexts of a problem-based learning curriculum and a traditional curriculum. In 1998, 16 theme interviews were conducted at the Tampere University Medical School, which applied the problem-based learning curriculum and 15 interviews at the Turku University Medical School, in which the traditional curriculum with an early patient contact program was implemented. The focus of this paper is on the concept of information literacy as a part of the students’ information behavior and its relationships with students’ conceptions of learning. The findings indicate that students’ information literacy is developed, on the one hand, through active use of information and sources in connection with real information needs, and, on the other hand, through an educational context which offers opportunities to get different viewpoints on issues. Following the same tendency, the more developed conceptions of learning were mostly held by the students belonging to the problem-based group with simple or developed skills in information literacy, although there were exceptions from this pattern.

The purpose of this papers is to provide an overview of how students and teachers in Taiwan conceptualize learning, especially in technology-enhanced learning environments. Their conceptions of learning reveal the extent to which the prevalence of technological use in education has facilitated students to cultivate a more advanced conception of learning and develop a deeper learning approach.

It reviews a total of nine relevant case studies, covering the contexts of conventional schools (from elementary schools to college, and cram schools) as well as technology-enhanced environments (internet-assisted learning and mobile learning); and participants from Grade 2 students to adult learners as well as teachers. Their conceptions of learning and preferred learning approaches are summarized.

Results of the studies show the Taiwanese students’ and teachers’ conceptions of learning in general and of technology-enhanced learning in particular. The students tended to be passive learners to receive instructions and considered examinations as a short-term goal for their study, with surface learning approaches commonly adopted. Despite technology may help to promote their cultivation of a more sophisticated conception of learning, many of them still opted for rote memorization and practice as the major ways to study. The potentials of technology in enhancing learning thus have not been fully realized.

The results shed light on an Asian-specific educational culture which is exam oriented. They reveal the challenges regarding the use of technology in education, which hinder the promotion of students’ advanced conceptions of learning. They also highlight the directions of future work to create a more accessible and gratifying technology-enhanced environment.

The purpose of this paper is to identify teachers’ conceptions of learning study in order to provide the basis for an application of phenomenography/variation theory (PVT) to the improvement of teachers’ learning about learning study.

A phenomenographic study based on semi-structured interviews with 18 beginner teachers of business and economics in England taking part in a learning study during their initial teacher education.

The study identified five conceptions of learning study and five associated critical aspects. Results raise questions about the relationship between the process and instructional design elements of learning study.

The study offers a framework for exploring differences in the quality of learning studies and the relationship between teacher conceptions of learning study and the degree of conceptual change in students in a learning study. It also enables facilitator/researchers to design and manage interventions to develop teacher understanding of learning study that are consistent with the principles of PVT.

As universities are increasingly attracting students from a wider range of cultural and ethnic backgrounds, one of the challenges faced by educational developers is preparing academics to teach in a cross-cultural environment. In order to do this, teacher development programs often need to be adapted and up-dated. A widely-recognised starting point in this process is the examination of teachers’ conceptions of teaching. This paper presents a small-scale, qualitative study which looks at the conceptions of teaching held by lecturers from different ethnic and educational backgrounds at a multicultural university in the United Arab Emirates. The university in question is a small, off-shore campus of a western university. Building on existing research in this field, a phenomenographic approach is taken in which the participants were interviewed and the resulting transcripts were analysed for emerging categories of conceptions of teaching. Four qualitatively different categories were found, which had some similarities to previously established categories, but which also added some interesting dimensions to the particular context of this study, especially the emphasis placed on the syllabus. The categories are: syllabus transmission; syllabus comprehension; syllabus adaptation; and independent learning. The categories found are hierarchical and represent a general move from a teacher-focused approach to one which is more student-centred. The findings of this study were used as a starting point to revise the teacher development program at the university. Although the study is confined to one university, it is relevant to educational developers in similar off-shore institutions in the Gulf region.

This paper aims to first, examine teachers' conception of e‐learning and second, is to reveal how e‐learning is applied in teaching and learning in the field of Chinese higher education.

Various issues are reviewed in the instruction part, i.e. e‐learning applications in China, research and practices of e‐learning. The methodology applied in this study is phenomenography. Twenty‐four Chinese participants were interviewed in‐depth based on a protocol developed in the planning stage. The interviews are analysed from a grounded theory perspective and a set of conceptual categories are proposed.

Five categories, i.e. the centrality of the lecture, online cooperation learning, network learning, student learning, and infrastructure and access are identified in terms of the phenomenographic study. The findings demonstrate that the traditional teaching methods that dominate in China are unlikely to present conditions for mainstreaming e‐learning in the near future.

Traditional Chinese teaching culture still dominates in higher education, and teachers' conceptions do influence their teaching behaviours. Therefore, a training programme could be developed based on the categories of teachers' conceptions of e‐learning.

This study helps us to understand how Chinese teachers understand e‐learning and how they utilise e‐learning in their teaching and learning.

The purpose of this paper is to report on a study aimed at understanding the different conceptions that University of Northampton teachers hold of “Changemaker”, an institutional initiative to develop capacities for social innovation.

The study took a phenomenographic approach to identify a small number of qualitatively different conceptions of Changemaker among teaching staff. Face-to-face, phenomenographic interviews were carried out with 30 teachers across the university. Transcript data were analysed using thematic inductive analysis.

Five different conceptions of Changemaker were found: Changemaker as university strategy; Changemaker as critical thinking, perspective shifting and problem solving; Changemaker as employability; Changemaker as social betterment; and Changemaker as personal transformation.

The outcome space of conceptions represents the beliefs of teaching staff at the University of Northampton. The approach to research and plans for the practical application of findings may be of direct benefit to other education providers as they develop their own models for teaching and learning.

The findings from this study will inform the next phase of the project, which involves the development of a skills/attributes/behaviours matrix for social innovation education.

An initiative, such as Changemaker, works to enhance the capacities of university students to work as agents of positive social change. By building a research programme around this initiative, the findings from this work can be disseminated and used by other higher education institutions.

The findings of this study will address the absence of literature on teachers’ conceptions of phenomena related to social innovation, social entrepreneurship and intrepreneurship. Understanding teachers’ beliefs of such phenomena is relevant to the growing number of universities that address these subjects in the curriculum.

This study aims to compare similarities and differences in library and information science (LIS) and non-LIS undergraduates’ conceptions and perceptions of smart libraries via drawing analysis.

In this study, a total of 156 undergraduate students described their perceptions of smart libraries as drawings and textual descriptions. A modified coding scheme with 8 categories and 51 subcategories was used to analyse the undergraduate students’ drawings.

Most of the undergraduate students’ conceptions of smart libraries still involve self-checkout and learning/reading, focusing on information appliances, technical services, activities and objects. The differences are that the LIS undergraduates’ drawings showed smart libraries with robots, interactive book borrowing with technology tools, intelligent services, location-aware services or mobile applications, whereas non-LIS undergraduates presented smart libraries as readers (learners), other activities and no smart technology services. LIS undergraduates focused on providing patron services with technologies. Non-LIS undergraduates were more likely to draw a complex space with immediate access to books or digital resources, quiet reading and the freedom to engage in library activities.

The results provide a baseline for future research on the topic and provide preliminary evidence of using the methods to discern LIS and non-LIS undergraduates’ conceptions of smart libraries.

The purpose of this paper is to report on a study of teacher learning through participation in sustained collaborative subject-based professional development groups supported by a facilitator, using a model of teachers’ conceptions of teaching developed from phenomenography to identify what are the critical features of teaching that must be present if teachers are to learn, and using a variation theory of learning to explain how they learn.

The groups engaged in cycles of lesson study action research to improve the learning outcomes of their students. The authors intended to engage the teachers in an exploration of their own and their students’ experiences to understand the relationship between the enactment of the research lesson(s) and the educational outcome. The authors collected over 157 hours of video recorded teachers’ meetings involving 15 groups, 47 hours of follow-up interviews and 97 hours of lessons. In this paper the authors report on the progress of one of those groups. The authors analysed the transcripts to see what, if any, dimensions of variation were opened in discussion, affording the opportunity for learning. The authors sought the simultaneous juxtaposition, the bringing together, of threads that have entered the discussion that have the potential to open dimensions of variation – to add critical features to the “what” and “how” dimensions of teaching.

The authors identified necessary conditions for teacher learning through collaborative subject-based professional development groups. Any member of the group might bring this about. The facilitator or coach might be expected to perform this role in the group, and to sustain the group’s attention on the critical features of the object of learning.

The paper provides valuable insights into strategies to change teacher perspectives from a transmission oriented to a construction oriented view of teaching in the face of new and challenging curriculum demands.

In the work reported here the authors have used variation theory to design lesson study. This is rather different from a learning study where the teachers engaged in the study use variation theory to design their research lesson(s). It is a learning study of teachers’ professional development.

Judgement is a pivotal notion for understanding learning. But how we view judgement is crucially shaped by our favoured conception of learning. The favoured conception of learning is shown to distort judgement, while an emerging conception of learning does justice both to judgement and learning from work.