Learning conceptions or conceptions of learning are about people's views and beliefs about the nature of learning. Benchmark studies on learning conceptions have addressed this topic from a phenomenographic approach. According to Marton (1981) such an approach seeks to outline qualitative differences in the way people experience and perceive reality (for example: events, phenomena, things, etc) from their own stated points of view. In the example of western Europe, Banyard and Hayes (1994) have quoted Säljö(1979) in the analysis of the conceptions of learning held by a sample of Swedish citizens within and beyond school/college age, and identified the following conceptions (or 'philosophies') of learning:
1 Learning is about getting lots of information (it brings about increase in knowledge); 2 Learning is memorising (storing information for easy recall and reproduction);
3 Learning is about acquiring facts and developing skills, methods and procedures that can be used when necessary
4 Learning is about abstraction of meaning (making sense of information, extracting meaning, and relating information to everyday life
5 Learning is an interpretative process (it is about understanding the world through reinterpreting knowledge).
For Säljö (1979), these five conceptions of learning underpin qualitatively different and hierarchically related perceptions of what learning is from the viewpoint of the learners. In the case of the current research, the same applies to teachers as learners, as argued in the next two sub-sections. In this sense, conceptions 1 to 3 entail a reproductivist style of learning, while the latter (conceptions 4 and 5) reflect an interpretive/constructivist view of learning, thence entailing an emphasis on understanding.
Another study undertaken in the UK by Marton, Dall'Alba and Beaty (1993) put forth a similar but conceptually more refined description of the six learning conceptions proposed by Säljö (1979):
1 Learning as increasing one's knowledge; 2 Learning as memorising and reproducing; 3 Learning as applying;
4 Learning as understanding;
5 Learning as seeing something in a different way; 6 Learning as changing as a person
Marton et al (1993, p. 297) contend that
The idea of this more elaborate characterisation of the conceptions of learning is to describe the wholes of which we usually see only fragments in the interview transcripts. The students focus on one aspect or component or on another: they
very seldom give a full conceptualisation of the phenomenon in question. If we have a better grasp of the whole, it is easier to recognise it through its parts.
The idea for Marton and his co-researchers (1993) was to regard the above conceptions of learning as forming a hierarchical model, in which the ‘lowest’ point (comprising
conceptions 1,2 and 3) congregates those perceptions accounting for learning as a process of accumulating factual information, without reworking or processing it in an integrated and coherent way. That is to say those learning conceptions were seen as based on 'non- sophisticated' views of learning. At the same time, learning conceptions standing high in the hierarchy (conceptions 4, 5 and 6) were interpreted as reflecting ‘sophisticated’ views of learning. These conceptions of learning were interpreted as expressing the realisation that learning consists of several processes aimed at integrating new information into a coherent whole, and implying changes in the learner's perspectives of the related subject or phenomenon.
Conceptions of learning in Africa seem to feature slightly different elements. It must be pointed out that, in general, studies on conceptions of learning undertaken in non- European contexts have, to some extent, replicated the general typology of learning conceptions put forth by Marton et al (1993). However, some studies undertaken
elsewhere have brought to light some conceptions of learning that, as said earlier, appear less common in the so-called Western contexts. In their study in Japan and Australia, Purdie et al (1996, p. 94) discovered three such additional (new) patterns of conceptions of learning:
1. Learning as a duty; learning is an obligation necessary for a student (Purdie et al 1996, p.94)
2. Learning as a process not bound by time or context (learning is not something just related to school)
3. Learning as developing social competence (”I learn so that I can become a good member of society and get on with other people easily”).
In Africa, Meyer’s study (1997, in Cliff, 1998) on conceptions of learning amongst Black South African university students revealed that a significant number of students
perceived learning as a means to attain some kind of empowerment. Of particular relevance to the subject of the current research is Cliff’s (1998) self-report based studies which he conducted with the aim of depicting the conceptions of learning held by education postgraduate black students in the country (i.e. South Africa). His informants completed self reports on their philosophies of learning and in interpreting that, Cliff came across two particular aspects: (a) that most students at that level were (still) reporting conceptions of learning that would be typified as 'non-sophisticated’ under the conventional categorisation (see Marton et al., 1993); and (b) the researcher was
reportedly struck by the evidence of a conception of learning that, in his view, could not be classified as 'fitting' within the conventional taxonomies of learning conceptions— the conception of learning as "a moral obligation or service to the community" (Cliff, 1998, p. 213).
A conclusion can be drawn from these two studies undertaken in South Africa that the emergence of 'strange' conceptions of learning is to be understood taking into account the specific social, cultural and political context of the target group. It has been discussed that studies undertaken in Asia and Australia (Purdie et al.,1996) indicate that learning was, in some cases conceived as a means to an unspecified end, but in South Africa, according
to Meyer (as cited in Cliff, 1997), that end (of learning) was explicitly stated by the students as empowerment. Sitoe (2006) interprets this as students’ own vivid perspectives towards an improved class status or/and personal material, and/or intellectual fulfilment. Hence, the presumption to be laid with respect to learning as empowerment may be that this conception of learning reflects a strong eagerness of Black South Africans in overcoming the remnant aspects and the enduring effects of social and economic exclusion, to which they were devoted during the recently abolished political system of apartheid. This being the case, it can be assumed that a longstanding strong desire for emancipation may pervasively act as one of the featuring forces of the overall current culture amongst Black South Africans. That culture has the potential to influence people's perceptions (and expectations) about education and, in turn, bring about such a specific conception of learning ('learning as empowerment').
With regard to the conception of learning as 'a moral obligation or service to the
community' (Cliff, 1998), it is not far fetched to posit that its emergence could be rooted on the presumption of some of the relics of traditional African culture, namely that of 'humanness', currently echoed quite strongly in Southern Africa (particularly in South Africa) through the Ubuntu ideology, and through the African renaissance discourse. Ubuntu is a Nguni term that means African humanism, or 'humanness'. Equality, dignity, brotherhood and sacredness of human life are the main values it embraces. This ideology focuses on people’s allegiance and relations with each other and fundamentally
challenges the underlying individualism of many Western theories of learning. The influential undertone of this term is found in the African Adage: ‘Umuntu Ngumuntu
Ngabantu’ translated as ‘A person is a person through other people’ (Venter, 2004, p. 24).
Outcomes of the baseline and main study data in chapters 5 and 6 of this thesis have been interpreted as suggesting that the classical conceptions of learning identified by Säljö (1979) and by Marton et al (1993), as well as those 'uncommon' found by Purdie et al (1996), Meyer (as in Cliff, 1997), and Cliff (1998) in non-Western contexts, can also be found amongst both untrained and the so-called ‘qualified’ teachers in Malawian primary schools.
Based on the above reported conceptions of learning, identified in contexts other than Europe and North America, Säljö (1979, 1978) has acknowledged that (a) the assumption is that learning means different things to different people; and (b) the assumption is that learning does not occur in a vacuum, and that it is not a general phenomenon. Instead, "to learn is to act within man-made institutions and to adapt to the particular definitions of learning that are valid in the educational environment in which one finds oneself” (Säljö, 1987, p.106).These assumptions hold particular relevance for this current study. They have enlightened and guided our quest for conceptualising the construct of perceptions of education from individuals' (i.e. teachers’) conceptions of learning in the Malawian context.