University students’ and teachers’ conceptions of teaching and learning in the biosciences Viivi Virtanen Æ Sari Lindblom-Yla ¨nne Received: 7 January 2008 / Accepted: 16 December 2008 / Published online: 13 January 2009 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009 Abstract In this study we compare university teachers’ and first-year students’ con- ceptions of teaching and learning at the Faculty of Environmental and Biological Sciences. The conceptions were analysed using data from open-ended questionnaires. The results showed that at the beginning of studies the gap between teachers’ and students’ concep- tions of teaching and learning is substantial. This finding has important implications for the educational process. In order to enhance successful studying from the beginning of stu- dents’ university careers, it is important for teachers to become aware of the differences between students’ and teachers’ conceptions of learning. Keywords Higher education Á Conception of learning Á Conception of teaching Á Biology Á Science Á Education Introduction One target of the academic community is to help students to produce quality learning outcomes in order to build up academic scholarship. Many studies on higher education have shown that learning outcomes are dependent on a complex network of factors that influence the teaching-learning environment, including teachers’ approaches to teaching, students’ approaches to learning, motivation, self-regulation and conceptions of learning and teaching (Biggs and Tang 2007; Entwistle et al. 2000; Marton et al. 1993; Prosser and Trigwell 1999; Vermunt and Vermetten 2004). Students come to learning situations with their perceptions, prior experiences and personal motivation, and quality in learning can be only partly regulated by teachers’ activities (see, for example, Vermunt and Verloop 1999). It is the interplay between learning and teaching that produces learning outcomes, which V. Virtanen (&) Faculty of Biosciences, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 56, 00014 Helsinki, Finland e-mail: viivi.virtanen@helsinki.fi S. Lindblom-Yla ¨nne Centre for Research and Development of Higher Education, Department of Education, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland 123 Instr Sci (2010) 38:355–370 DOI 10.1007/s11251-008-9088-z