Sorry I missed last Monday’s stimulating discussion.
I’ll be presenting the next paper on January 20th at noon in Faculty Centre room 1. (full schedule is below).

Here’s the reading and some background – looking forward to our meeting,
margy

Marton, F. (1975). On non‐verbatim learning: 1. Level of processing and level of outcome. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 16(1), 273-279.

The article I’d like to discuss is, as far as I know, the first one describing phenomenography as a method. The tricky part about selecting this reading is that MRU doesn’t own it. So I’ve arranged for permission for 15 copies. If you want to come to the article discussion, email me (margy – mmacmillan@mtroyal.ca) and I’ll send you one.(alternatively, if you have access to library privileges elsewhere, UofC has it).

Phenomenography is at its simplest the study of variations in experience of a phenomenon, and it’s used a fair bit in studies that cross the boundaries between SoTL and my field, information literacy.

The early work with this method was done by Ferenc Marton and the Gothenburg school in the 1970’s who started with the questions why do some students succeed and others not – classic SoTL. It laid the foundation for understanding surface and deep approaches to learning taken up by Biggs and others.

If you want to read up on phenomenography, a great place to start are the intro and first 3 chapters of a book that IS accessible
http://www.ed.ac.uk/institute-academic-development/learning-teaching/research/experience-of-learning

Marton, F., Hounsell, D. and Entwistle, N., (eds.). (2005). The experience of learning: Implications for teaching and studying in higher education. 3rd (Internet) edition. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh, Centre for Teaching, Learning and Assessment.

And there’s solid background in an article by Louise B. Limberg here
http://library.mtroyal.ca:2048/login?url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412963909.n316
note – Click on Sage Knowledge

SoTL Reading Group Schedule:
Jan 9th, 3:30pm (Presenter: Jon Mee)
Jan 20th, 12:00pm (Presenter: Margy MacMillan)
Feb 3rd, 12:00pm (Presenter: Sally Haney)
Feb 15th, 11:00am (Presenter: Melanie Rathburn)
March 10th, 9:00am (Presenter: Ana Colina)
March 23rd, 11:00am (Co-presenters: Margot Underwood and Stephanie Zettel)
April 4th, 11:30am (Presenter: Michelle Yeo)