| The relationship between theory and practice in BA art, media and design courses, is often cited as being a crucial aspect in distinguishing how ?education? is different from ?training? in higher education. Yet what do students understand by this relationship and how does it make itself manifest in students? work? This article attempts to unravel and analyse the different conceptions that undergraduate students of photography have about the nature and relationship of theory to practice in making their own work, as they move through their course of study. Influenced by phenomenology, the author attempts to interpret these different conceptions in relation to different learning approaches that students adopt. The article concludes by asking to what extent do we as lecturers understand how our students come to reach this range of understandings, and if so, are they the understandings we intend them to gain? |