ABSTRACT
Transformation of experience entails that people’s experiences change as they encounter one another and the physical world in speech or action. Using a practical epistemology analysis terminology, transformation of experiences means that people construe new relations between what is and occurs in these encounters (Wickman & Östman, 2002b). When they construe a new relation, they have filled a gap. Because every experience has unique aspects, experiencing always entails transformation and change, which in turn requires that people constantly fill gaps with new relations. This implies that when we as researchers observe people talking, or when we as teachers are listening to what our students are saying, the filling of gaps is evident from the relations these persons construe between the words of the language. That a gap has been filled with a relation can be seen from its immediate consequence of making the activity continue. Filling gaps with relations doesn’t always run smoothly, and students may sometimes try out different relations before deciding that a specific relation furthers their undertakings. However, when people encounter gaps that they cannot fill with any relations at all, their current activity stops, without leading to completion. Such a gap is a lingering gap, and remains so as long as it is not filled (Wickman & Östman, 2002b).
