Learning as experience. A phenomenological oriented research approach for understanding learning: the Vignette-Research

Abstract

The research approach presented in this article was developed within the scope of a research project at the University of Innsbruck in Austria and is now being carried on by other universities too (Free University of Bolzano, Faculty of Education Sciences in Bressanone, and University of Klagenfurt in Austria). The primary interest addresses processes of learning understood as lived experience.
Paradoxically, despite the numerous results gathered from a wide variety of disciplines, learning is still considered an inexplicable phenomenon. It is generally analyzed by putting the initial moment and its effects out of play, and with this, it is empirically comprehensible only on the results.
The research on the “Vignettes” or “scenes of sense” (in German “Vignettenforschung”) is led by a phenomenological oriented perspective and based on observation of phenomena of learning in school classes and other learning groups with particular regard to bodily expressions and interaction.
The observation is more focused on actions and interactions by children and pupils than on interventions and efforts aimed by teachers. This does not imply a lack of consideration of the teachers’ work, but tries to bring out phenomena that normally escape not only to teachers, but also to other research methods (which in turn make other aspects of learning evident). In this way, the approach presented does not intend to outplay other approaches, but rather seeks to enrich the study of learning with an additional point of view.