Phenomenography is a research approach that focuses on the qualitatively different ways in which people experience, understand, perceive, or conceptualise a phenomenon. The phenomenographic approach has had a profound influence on educational thinking in Australian universities. For example, the dual concepts of deep and surface learning are derived from phenomenographic research.
This workshop will feature a keynote presentation by Dr Anders Berglund, Uppsala University, Sweden. Dr Berglund carried out a a phenomenographic study of learning among IT students who were participating in a distributed project course. Berglund has also co-organised two international workshops on phenomenography in computing education.
People wishing to attend should register by emailing their name and affiliation to Raymond Lister (raymond@it.uts.edu.au). There is no registration fee for the workshop, and attendees will bear their own costs for lunch and coffee.
Day 1 Programme (Wednesday February 21)
9:45-10:00
Anders Berglund, Uppsala University, Sweden.
Opening Remarks.
10:00-10:30
Raymond Lister, University of Technology, Sydney.
A Pragmatic and Personal Introduction to Phenomenography.
This talk will set the scene for the day. Raymond will first briefly
recount his activities in phenomenography, with a focus on the motivations
leading to
those activities. He will then reflect on the reasons for applying
phenomenography in computing education.
10:30-11:15
Keynote: Anders Berglund, Uppsala University, Sweden.
Learning computer systems in a project course: Aims and approaches.
This empirical phenomenographic study discusses the aims,
which students in a project course in computer systems, strive to reach
and how they go about in their efforts to reach these aims. Three
different motives have been identified: academic achievement; project
and team working capacity; and social competence. Certainly, a student
aims by taking a course largely influence the nature of her or his
learning. Thus, the students can be thought of as taking different
courses. The students can further approach these "different courses" in
a variety of ways. The paper demonstrates that some of the ways to
approach the learning are better than others in terms of a good learning
outcome.
11:15-11:30 Morning Coffee (level 2 coffee shop)
11:30-noon
Simon, University of Newcastle.
The Distinctive Role of Lab Practical Classes in Computing Education.
This talk will describe work which began as part of the PhICER
workshop, in Hobart, in January 2006. The work explored the varying
understandings of teachers with regard to computing lab practical
classes. Four distinct categories were discovered. We consider which
of these categories appear comparable with non-lecture classes in other
disciplines, and which appear exclusive to computing. An awareness of
this range of approaches to conducting practical lab classes will
better enable academics to consider which is best suited to their own
purposes when designing courses.
noon-12:30
Mary Coupland, University of Technology, Sydney
Students' actions and goals in learning mathematics..
As part of a larger study into students' learning of mathematics in
first year university, 113 responses to an open-ended set of questions
were analysed using an approach inspired by phenomenography. Initially
a concept map of the information in the responses was constructed by
the principle researcher, focusing on the activity theory constructs of
operations and actions. Then an iterative process of sorting responses
into categories and defining those categories was conducted with the
help of three co-researchers. In this presentation the process and the
results will be discussed.
12:30-1:30 lunch - Building 6, on Harris Street.
01:30-02:00
Sue Gordon, University of Sydney
Teaching service statistics - variation in conceptions.
In recent research (Gordon, Petocz & Reid, 2007) we
investigated the experiences of educators teaching statistics as a
'service' course at university. We conducted interviews by email with
participants from many countries and whose teaching reflects diverse
settings, student groups and disciplines. Our aim was to explore the
variation in these educators' ways of experiencing their teaching, to
examine core aspects and investigate associated tensions. Since we are
focussing on the range of ways that participants experience a
phenomenon-their collective awareness-phenomenography provides an
appropriate research tool. The study contributes to a research framework
for understanding the nature of pedagogical awareness in contexts beyond
the setting for this study and aims to stimulate discussion about
teaching service courses. A further topic for discussion in this workshop
is the evaluation of the e-interview for phenomenographic research.
2:00-2:30
Ilona Box, University of Technology, Sydney.
Professionals' Ways of Experiencing Analysis & Design: PhD in progress.
To be initiated into analysis/design, one learns about software life
cycles, methods, tools, and techniques. This is a challenging task.
Surveys have provided evidence that the use of methods, tools, and
techniques in industry is about 50% in practice and that software
project failure is about 70%. Yet an understanding of what professional
analyst designers do is not clear. This presentation provides results to
date of a study of professionals ways of experiencing analysis and design.
2:30-3:00
Jo McKenzie, University of Technology, Sydney,
Variation in ways of experiencing 'enacted' phenomena: university teaching and the dissemination of teaching innovations.
Phenomenographic studies have focused on variation in experiences of a wide
range of phenomena. Some phenomena are abstract academic concepts such as
Newton's laws in Physics or the mole in Chemistry. Others, such as learning,
are enacted by people in their everyday lives or working practice. This talk
focuses on ways in experiencing two enacted phenomena of relevance to
academics in IT, Science and Engineering: university teaching and the
dissemination of teaching innovations. It will describe and compare the
experiences of academics in ITSE disciplines.
3:00-03:30 Afternoon Tea (level 2 again)
03:30-04:00
Leo Hitchcock, Auckland University of Technology,
Phenomenography and Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis: Researching understanding of a phenomenon and the phenomenon itself through actors' experiences.
Over the past several decades industry certification has expanded into
a multi-billion dollar business, with the number of
certifications impossible to quantify.
Industry certification is being integrated into academic curricula at
secondary and tertiary level. But is it a pedagogically robust form of
credentialing? Does it have value to those who hold such
certifications, and to the industry and consumers they represent? New
research using a joint methodology, Phenomenography and Interpretive
Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), suggests that certifications that are
well designed, have elements of performance-based assessment and/or
experiential content, and are well administered, are indeed
pedagogically sound, with significant value.
04:00-04:30
Bernard Doyle, University of Technology, Sydney.
Student and academics conceptions of Unix.
Fifteen interview transcripts have been analysed phenomenographically;
six from students and nine from academics. A small number of
qualitatively different conceptions of Unix were identified, within two
broad categories, which we call "technical" and "non-technical". Both
academics and students manifested the same non-technical conception of
Unix, in which Unix is seen as a resource that is cheap, secure and
robust. In the technical conception of Unix, three categories forming
a linear hierarchy were identified in the student transcripts. Those
categories are, from lowest to highest: (1) Unix as a set
of commands, (2) Unix as a tool for solving certain problems, and (3)
Unix as a professional computing environment. Academics also manifested
a three-level linear hierarchical technical conception of Unix, by the
categories were slightly different.
Day 2 Programme (Thursday February 22)
Day 2 is restricted to the day 1 speakers.
Link to the Complete Call for Participation (Word Document)