ABSTRACT
All of the view of learning being espoused has its origins in an empirical research approach to studying student learning collectively known as phenomenography (Marton, 1981; Marton and Booth, 1997) and the emergent variation theory of learning (Marton and Booth, 1997; Bowden and Marton, 1998; Pang and Marton, 2003). And the initial empirical research was a study of how students go about their tasks of learning, and with what results (Marton et al., 1997). The overriding outcome of that research is now rather well known. It points to two distinctly different approaches to learning tasks: a surface approach in which focus is on the task as given, on the sign, on doing what the task seems to call for in the educational situation; and a deep approach with focus on the meaning embedded in the task, that which is signified, on relating the task to prior knowledge and experience. These approaches are not characteristics of individual students but are, rather, the result of the student’s interaction with the task in the learning context in which it is experienced. Thus, a student might well (and without choosing) take a deep approach in a task that is of intrinsic interest, where it is felt that the teacher will give significant feedback, and where the context invites engagement with the subject matter. And the same student might take a surface approach in a context that is uncertain, where the task seems arbitrary or busywork, where the study programme is crowded and time is short.
