Lakhasly

Learning and awareness

A later section presents background information about the cases studied, but the general theoretical framework of the investigation is summarised here.Key elements of the frame- work are variation theory and theories of mediated experience and awareness, rooted in pragmatism and (post-)phenomenology.

Learning and awareness

A later section presents background information about the cases studied, but the general theoretical framework of the investigation is summarised here. Key elements of the frame- work are variation theory and theories of mediated experience and awareness, rooted in pragmatism and (post-)phenomenology. However, most of the results and conclusions are also consistent with, and could be described in terms of, the main tenets of other theories, such as “conceptual conflict” (e.g. Hewson and Hewson 1984) and “cognitive conflict” (e.g. Posner et al. 1982) theories.
An important concept in various educational philosophies and theoretical frameworks (such as pragmatism, phenomenography, phenomenology, and activity theory) is inten- tionality—the idea that learning, thinking and experience cannot be studied in isolation from their content. Meaning emerges as a person directs his or her awareness to an object; “There is no learning without something learned, there is no thinking without something thought, there is no experiencing without something experienced” (Bowden and Marton 1998). Awareness is the totality of our experiences, but it is differentiated in such a way that some aspects are brought to the fore, i.e. focal awareness, while other aspects are mar- ginalised and constitute the background (Gurwitsch 1964). Hence, learning is seen as “a qualitative change in the relation between the learner and that which is learned” (Booth 2004, my italics).