People’s concept on ‘learning’ is influenced by the interrelation among individuals, contexts and cultures. The student’s age, his family and cultural conceptions and the learning context are some of the main aspects that can influence the conceptions regarding the student’s learning process. Under the framework of phenomenographic theory, this paper focus on people’s description of the learning conceptions which are present in daily life phenomena. Mapping fifth grade students and their parents’ conceptions concerning the learning process is the main goal of this study. Semi-structured interviews were used; data were treated by following qualitative and quantitative approaches. The outcomes suggest that parents use to conceptualize ‘learning' as something ‘processual and experimental' , whereas their children, the students, understand ‘learning' under a processual, but also instrumental perspective. The implications of such findings, in relation to the learning process, are also discussed in the paper.
Learning concept; phenomenography; self-regulated learning
