In recent decades, university students' learning has attracted increasing interest, reflected in a growing number of publications (Batanero and Sanchez, 2005; Entwistle and Peterson, 2004; Gargallo et al., 2007; Muñoz and   Gómez,  2005; Richardson, 2011; Vermunt and Donche, 2017; Vermun and Vermetten,  2004; Winne and Jamieson, 2002, among others). Most of these studies adopted a logical-positivist psychological approach, in which researchers' views were prevalent, with little space to listen to students' voices and consider the contextual dimensions of learning (Phillips, 2014) and students' conceptions and experiences.

In this context, in 2021,  Educational Researcher, the American Educational Research Association (AERA) journal, published an article by Nasir, Lee, Pea and McKinney in which these authors reviewed the dominant perspectives on learning in psychology and education. They also explained what these approaches contribute, what they omit and how they complement each other. The paper also offered several contributions to what might be an interdisciplinary view that can illuminate how we approach learning and identified three learning theories with different framing foundations: behaviourism, cognitivism and social theory (social-constructivism). Each provides lenses that foreground some learning phenomena and neglect others. From a behaviourist perspective, learning is the accumulation of facts and skills learned through processes of reinforcement (e.g., behaviour management charts). From a cognitivist perspective, learning is best cultivated by active exploration in the service of real-world tasks. Teaching young people how to learn is critical to developing the habits of mind to manage their learning. A socio-cultural perspective also involves paying attention to teaching and learning social contexts; being sensitive to forms of belonging, prejudice and inclusion; respecting the variety of 'repertoires of practice' learners bring to the classroom (Gutierrez and Rogoff, 2003); and focusing on the social routines and connections that support learning.

Considering Nasir et al. (2021), our paper explores the following questions based on how university students say they learn in the research project [anonymised]. More specifically:  1) How are the students' statements linked to the contributions of psychology and pedagogy to learning? 2) What insights can we draw from this study to improve our understanding of university students' relationships to learning? 3) What insights can we gain from the research participants' reflections on the situations that help and hinder their learning?

The aim of the  [anonymised] research project and this paper is not only to give an account of university students' conceptions of learning but also to deepen our understanding of learning as an interdisciplinary process and bring new conceptual and methodological approaches to studying learning. In line with the invitation of Nasir et al. (2021, p. 562, paraphrased), our purpose is not only to generate new knowledge about how learning takes place. We also try to make university learning experiences emancipatory and to overcome the current boundaries and limitations imposed by deficit assumptions and research frameworks and methods that reaffirm deficits and inequalities.

In the first phase of the [anonymised] research project, aimed to explore how young university students learn, we developed 50 learning trajectories with students. Thirty were women, 20 were men (55.6% and 44.4%, close to the distribution observed in Spanish universities in 2019-2020), and seven had specific needs (14%). From a collaborative and participatory perspective (Bergold & Thomas, 2012; Hernández-Hernández, 2017; Nind, 2014; Wilmsen, 2008), we conducted four individual encounters with each of them. In the first gathering, we made sure we had conveniently explained the research scope and aims and the compromise it entailed for them and us. We signed the ethical protocols. We invited them to discuss several contradictory views based on research and media discourses about young people's attitudes and positions. Finally, we asked them to reflect, over several days, on how, where, with whom and what they learned. We encourage them to use any means of expression they wish. In the second meeting, they shared the narrative (most of them have visual components) of their learning trajectory. They gave an account of their learning movements (Jornet & Estard, 2018) over time and in different scenarios. For the third meeting, we requested them to make and share a learning diary that allowed them to situate their visions about learning, learning experiences and meanings. We collaboratively constructed the global narrative of their learning life trajectory for the fourth encounter in which they validated the final version. We recorded and transcribed all conversations. For this paper, we focus on the 12 participants with whom the authors of this contribution have worked. From the transcripts, we made a table with the selected students' statements on the following subjects: what learning is, in which circumstances they learn best and in which ones they have difficulties. We extracted 88 sentences and fragments of conversations and placed them in the first column. In the second column, we related them to learning theories, not to link them to what the students said but to dialogue with them. In the third column, we included our reflections on what the students' statements allowed us to think about their conceptions of learning.

From the students' perspective, teaching and learning deeply relate. They form an intra-action (Barad, 2003) between students, teachers, grades, and institutions' dynamics. Students' conceptions of learning are not linked to psychological or pedagogical 'theories', although we can identify some relationships. They base on reflection on experiences arising from and taking place in teaching-learning situations and different learning contexts. That leads researchers to think about the meaning and usefulness of some theories and how they are created. Students emphasise the difference between studying and learning. They study to pass an exam or to respond to a particular situation. They learn when they understand, make sense of the information, relate it to practical situations, can take it to everyday life or open themselves to new challenges. In this sense, learning is about 'transferring' to new situations or expanding understanding. For some participants, sometimes learning is about what is achieved (a job, passing a subject, understanding 'something'). At other times, with difficulties, e.g., in the face of new information in a field, they need to update their mental framework for organising their learning, Finally, learning has to do with a movement of affects, which involves a displacement that implies a change of 'state' and takes place when the learner's agency feels affected by an intra-action of relations (Cvetkovich, 2012, p. 2 paraphrased). This movement of affection leads to a change in their view of themselves, others, and the world. In this framework, as Atkinson (2011) points out, authentic learning is configured as part of an event that transforms the learner (and the teacher). This transformation is a movement of affection because this real learning is about 'feeling affected' and constitutes a movement linked to the capacity to exist in transit between states.

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