Phenomenographic perspectives on the learning experience and process in higher education physics

Abstract

The focus of phenomenographic research has been the experience of learning (Marton & Säljö, 1976a; Marton & Säljö, 1976b; Säljö, 1979; Marton et al., 1984/1997; Booth, 1997; Marton & Booth, 1997; Pang, 2003). Drawing on our recent research into the process of learning in higher education physics contexts, we present a discussion of the experience and process of learning, and perspectives from which it can be analysed and understood that emerge from the phenomenographic tradition. First we will relate our empirical work, then elaborate on it as an example of a study of learning. Then we will enter into a reflection on phenomenography as a research approach for the 21st century, in the delimited field of researching learning and teaching practices in higher education, and make an argument that phenomenography has a role to play in the transformative processes demanded by a changing society.