In the past three weeks, a famous Swedish educational psychologist, Ference Marton, the founder of Phenomenography and the Variation Theory of Learning, was invited to teach a doctoral course by Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University. During the course, Professor Marton conducted five lectures with the topic of THE PEDAGOGY OF LEARNING. He also had some conversation and discussion with professors of the Institute of Curriculum and Pedagogy.
Professor Ference Marton is Professor Emeritus at the Department of Education, the University of Gothenburg since 2006, after having served as Professor of Education between 1977 and 2006. He was Pro-Vice Chancellor-Quality, University of Gothenburg. Presently he serves as Advisory Professor at the Hong Kong Institute of Education and as Honorary Professor at the Faculty of Education, the University of Hong Kong. As the founder of Phenomenography and the Variation Theory of Learning, he is best known for his work on surface and deep approaches to learning, on students' conceptions of learning and on the development of a phenomenographical approach to the study of the student's experience of learning. He was a recipient of the European Association for Learning and Instruction 2007 Oeuvre Award for 'Outstanding contributions to the Science of Learning and Instruction'.
The course focused on phenomenography which is a qualitative method for analyzing differences in students’ understanding of what they learn, Variation Theory which a conceptual tool for enhancing learning and learning study which refers to teachers’ trying to find more powerful ways of teaching specific objects of learning. With many concrete examples of psychological experiment and learning study, professor Marton elaborated Variation Theory systematically. He addressed some key concepts of Variation Theory, such as object of learning, critical aspects, features, and discernment, etc. The patterns of variance and invariant in teaching were also introduced including induction, contrast, generalization, and fusion. In the meeting on October 16th morning, professors from the Institute of Curriculum and Pedagogy had a warm discussion with Professor Marton about Variation Theory, the trend in pedagogy research in the world, and the responsibility of researchers to provide conceptual tools for teachers doing learning study and improving teaching. The course as well as the meeting was hosted by Professor Wang Benlu, Director of the Institute of Curriculum and Pedagogy. Many professors from the Institute attended both the course and the meeting.
Professor Marton’s courses were enlightening and filled with vigorous discussion and burning interests. and even some researchers and students from other universities made efforts to listen to his lectures.
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