Chinese Undergraduates’ Conceptions of Learning in Higher Education: A Phenomenographic Perspective

Abstract

As a qualitative research approach, phenomenography has been widely employed to explore people’s distinct conceptions of certain phenomena. By employing the approach, the present research aims to explore a group of Chinese undergraduates’ (n=17) conceptions of learning. Data has been collected through individual in-depth interview and followed a seven-step phenomenographic analytical process. Ultimately five conceptions are found, namely: learning as acquisition of knowledge and skills, application, understanding, seeing something in a different way, and continuous and informal education phenomena. The limitations as well as some implications for future research have been discussed at the end of the paper.