Phenomenography
How one understands, perceives, breaks down, and or sees a certain learning activity can be considered Phenomenography. Ference Marton, a Swedish educational psychologist, along with others (including students) was one of the first people to consider that the world and the learner are related.
According to Phenomenography, learning occurs through experiencing the content and the preconceived ideas that the learner comes to the table with. Learner's conceptions of what learning actually is are crucial for the way in which they experience the act of learning, and thus for what approach they adopt in relation to specific learning tasks (Säljö, 1982; Marton, Dall'Alba, Beaty, 1992).
Broken down Phenomenography means description of appearances. If a group of students were each given a text to read for example, and then through a series of unscripted questions were asked to give reference to how and what they learned from the text, a researcher could categorize ways students experienced the given task. Then, differences in the approaches the learners adopted to the specific learning task - i.e. in terms of differences in their way of experiencing the specific situation could be analyzed.
This can be applied to learning and education by looking at how students attack a concept to be learned. Students have different understandings of specific content, which they developed in a certain situation, and preconceived notions and background knowledge all play a part in how someone learns. If we as educators looked more into what is going on inside of them as they work through a given task we would be more aware of how they see if a given task is correlated to the world around them.
The best example that I could think of as I read about this theory of learning is how I personally add numbers in my head. When I add or multiply numbers in my head I automatically rearrange numbers so that they are easier to manipulate. For example: When someone says to me “What does 8+6+3+2+7+9+4 =?” I, without any thought, put together the numbers that add up to 10 and then add the rest. So, in my head the question looks like this; 8+2=10, 6+4=10, 7+3=10, +9. Then I can easily respond with “39.” Not all learners see the same problem the way I do, and for learners that can’t see numbers this way they may have there own perception of numbers.
This was really interesting and I found myself thinking of how I work through given content to be learned, and how I perceive the world in regards to that content.
http://www.ped.gu.se/biorn/phgraph/home.html
http://www.ped.gu.se/biorn/phgraph/civil/faq/faq.phen.html
Säljö, R. (1982) Learning and understanding. A study of differences in constructing meaning from a text. Göteborg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis.
Marton, F., Beaty, E. & Dall'Alba, G. Conceptions of learning. International Journal of Educational Research. (In press)
According to Phenomenography, learning occurs through experiencing the content and the preconceived ideas that the learner comes to the table with. Learner's conceptions of what learning actually is are crucial for the way in which they experience the act of learning, and thus for what approach they adopt in relation to specific learning tasks (Säljö, 1982; Marton, Dall'Alba, Beaty, 1992).
Broken down Phenomenography means description of appearances. If a group of students were each given a text to read for example, and then through a series of unscripted questions were asked to give reference to how and what they learned from the text, a researcher could categorize ways students experienced the given task. Then, differences in the approaches the learners adopted to the specific learning task - i.e. in terms of differences in their way of experiencing the specific situation could be analyzed.
This can be applied to learning and education by looking at how students attack a concept to be learned. Students have different understandings of specific content, which they developed in a certain situation, and preconceived notions and background knowledge all play a part in how someone learns. If we as educators looked more into what is going on inside of them as they work through a given task we would be more aware of how they see if a given task is correlated to the world around them.
The best example that I could think of as I read about this theory of learning is how I personally add numbers in my head. When I add or multiply numbers in my head I automatically rearrange numbers so that they are easier to manipulate. For example: When someone says to me “What does 8+6+3+2+7+9+4 =?” I, without any thought, put together the numbers that add up to 10 and then add the rest. So, in my head the question looks like this; 8+2=10, 6+4=10, 7+3=10, +9. Then I can easily respond with “39.” Not all learners see the same problem the way I do, and for learners that can’t see numbers this way they may have there own perception of numbers.
This was really interesting and I found myself thinking of how I work through given content to be learned, and how I perceive the world in regards to that content.
http://www.ped.gu.se/biorn/phgraph/home.html
http://www.ped.gu.se/biorn/phgraph/civil/faq/faq.phen.html
Säljö, R. (1982) Learning and understanding. A study of differences in constructing meaning from a text. Göteborg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis.
Marton, F., Beaty, E. & Dall'Alba, G. Conceptions of learning. International Journal of Educational Research. (In press)
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Any opinions expressed here, except as specifically noted, are those of the individual authors or commenters and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of the Department of Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences, the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services, or Utah State University.
