Exploring teachers' learning conceptions

This study investigates how practicing teachers conceive of learning in their teaching. Recent research indicates that learning is viewed as part of either a transmission or a constructivist paradigm. Categorizing learning into such constructs can be quite difficult and somewhat misleading. Iran-Nejad (1990) proposed that learning can be thought of in terms of three clear conceptions—piecemeal, modular, and wholetheme—for the purposes of this study. A Learning Conceptions for Reflective Teaching (LCRT) inventory was developed by Cound and Iran-Nejad (1998) to explore the tendency of practicing teachers to make realistic teaching decisions based upon these three conceptions of learning. The LCRT was completed and returned by 119 practicing teachers in the North Alabama region. Relationships between these conceptions of learning and teachers' experience, educational training, and actual patterns of practice were also investigated in this study. The goals of this study are represented by four research questions. Research Question 1 was as follows: What are the psychometric properties of the Learning Conceptions for Reflective Teaching inventory? An exploratory factor analysis revealed that responses to the LCRT clearly loaded on three discrete factors represented by the piecemeal, modular, and wholetheme conceptions. Research Question 2 was: What conception of learning do practicing teachers tend to use to make teaching decisions? ANOVA tests revealed that practicing teachers were significantly more likely to view learning in a modular manner (as a process of connecting information to previously learned information with the use of an independent model) as compared to piecemeal or wholetheme views. Research Question 3 studied the relationship between teachers' classroom and educational experiences and their conceptions of learning. While no significant results emerged, data were discussed suggesting that intensive educational training can have an impact on teachers' conceptions of learning. Research Question 4 investigated the relationship between teachers' conceptions of learning and their actual classroom practices. No significant results were found using a multiple regression analysis with a small number of subjects, although responses from the wholetheme conception were the only ones that tended to contribute to one's teaching performance. Implications of these results point to further need of intensive, ongoing training to help shape the learning conceptions of practicing classroom teachers.