How fascinating it is to read about a new research methodology as a fourth year doctoral student! I thought Dr. Paulus had introduced me to about every ontology, epistemology, and methodology in Introduction to Qualitative Methods. Not really, but it sure seemed that way at the time.
Having read numerous articles, books, and one series of monographs by the preeminent phenomenographer Ference Marton (1981, 1982, and 1989), I have found a research methodology which speaks to my grandiose desire to know. Marton describes a method which seeks to capture, organize and make use of the various ways of knowing a concept through what he calls the “outcome space” of a concept (Renstrom, Anderson, & Marton, 1990). Having gathered the most varied possible responses to questions during “clinical deep interviewing,” a hierarchical diagram of the ways of knowing are produced (Neuman, 1999). Imagine the possibilities for teachers when they are able to identify precisely how a student understands a concept and concurrently knows the next step needed for advancement in that student’s understanding!
Powerful stuff, it is! In educational psychology, we refer to this as teaching within the zone of proximal development (Vygotsky).
The challenge for teachers is to determine the current level of understanding of each of our students. Armed with this knowledge, we are able to provide the learning activities and experiences necessary to help the student advance in their present level of understanding to a more mature knowledge of the concept. Ference Marton has developed the research methodology which will provide the mapping of concepts (understood from research, but with a strong foundational knowledge in the particular conceptual domain) needed to pinpoint the present level of knowing. It is heady stuff and I look forward to applying this methodology in the immediate future.
Marton, F. (1981). Studying conceptions of Reality: A metatheoretical note. Scandanavian Journal of Educational Research, 25(4), 159-169.
Marton, F. (1982). Towards a phenomenography of learning. Mölndal, Sweden: University of Göteborg Press.
Marton, F. (1989). Towards a pedagogy of content. Educational Psychologist 24(1), 1-23.
Neuman, D. (1999). Early learning and awareness of division: A phenomenographic approach. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 40, 101-128.
Renstrom, L.; Anderson, B.; & Marton, F. (1990). Students’ conceptions of matter. Journal of Educational Psychology, 82(3), 555-569.
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