Background:
The purpose of this study was to analyze the relation between students’ cognitive learning strategies and conceptions of learning biology.

Material and methods:
The two scales, “Cognitive Learning Strategies” and “Conceptions of Learning Biology”, were revised and adapted to biology in order to measure the students’ learning strategies and conceptions of learning.

Results:
it was found that students preferred higher-level conceptions of learning such as ‘increasing knowledge’, ‘seeing in a new way’, and ‘understanding’ to lower-level conceptions such as ‘memorizing’, ‘preparing for exams’ and ‘calculating and practicing’. According to the results of regression analysis, it was seen that ‘memorizing’ and ‘application’ was common among the high school students while predicting the cognitive learning strategies. Moreover, the students who had higher-level conceptions of learning had a tendency to use strategies such as “organization,” “elaboration,” and “critical thinking.” The students who adopted “memorizing” as a lower-level conception of learning preferred “rehearsal” learning strategy. However, “memorizing” as a lower level conception of learning also positively predicts “organization,” “elaboration” and “critical thinking.”

Conclusions:
The special condition, which did not show parallelism with the related literature, was taken into consideration and interpreted when discussing the relational analysis of link between conceptions of learning and cognitive learning strategies.