Reflections on Students’ Conceptions of Learning and Perceptions of Learning Environments

This paper extends work discussed by Taylor (1994) which provided, amongst other things, an analysis of the conceptions of learning displayed in the extended written comment'; of a large sample (N = 842) of undergraduate students on their ‘ideas about learning’. This paper is based on a detailed examination of the responses of 12 of those students to questionnaire and interview questions, classifications of those questionnaire responses, and the grades they received in the subject which was the focus for those responses. It is a reflexive tale, arguing that classificatory schema are ways of classifying statements, no more. I also argue the need to develop students’ capacities to become ‘co‐authors’ of their opportunities to learn, and comment on the value of student ratings of teaching as measures of the quality of that teaching.