A Longitudinal Study of Learning Conceptions on the Transition between Primary and Secondary Education

Research shows that learning conceptions are susceptible to change during possible critical transitions in students' school careers: such as the transition from primary to secondary education and the transition from secondary to higher education. This study aims to determine whether students' learning conceptions developed during the four years of transition between primary and secondary education. The study consists of four measure moments in a longitudinal multilevel design and is based on a sample of 102 students. The results show that changes are present in students' learning conceptions during the last years of primary education and the first years of secondary education. Where change occurs, it is primarily a negative trend: avoidance orientation increases significantly when development orientation decreases. Boys develop a more negative conception towards school and learning than do girls. Deep processing activities, which focus on metacognitive skills, decrease from as early as one year before students leave primary education, when they are 11 years old, and continue to decrease until the end of the second school year of secondary education, when they are 14 years old.