Many members of the Transdisciplinary Phenomenology Research Group presented at the 2019 Conference on Higher Education Pedagogy held at Virginia Tech January 31st and February 1st. Members of the group have been presenting at the conference since 2012.
On Thursday, Brian Sohn, John Smith, Kathy Greenberg, Neil Greenberg, and Sandra Thomas presented a research session titled, Can They Learn Without Grades? A Phenomenological Approach to Assessment. In the presentation they shared a thematic analysis of student-reported learning outcomes from a course in which every student received an A (no matter what they did during the course). The study was part of the new book, The Phenomenological Heart of Teaching and Learning: Theory, Research, and Practice in Higher Education.
On Friday, Kathy Greenberg, Neil Greenberg, Sandra Thomas, Brenda Murphy, Brian Sohn, John Smith, and Lauren Moret presented a workshop titled Messing About at the Phenomenological Heart of Teaching. This session was inspired by the same book the research session came from. In this workshop, the presenters shared the concept of a phenomenological approach to teaching. Each presenter shared a metaphor that captured how they use a phenomenological approach, and workshop participants were asked to come up with a metaphor for their teaching. Discussion followed.
Our work received positive feedback and we were energized, as usual, by the conference and its attendees.