Connecting student learning and classroom teaching through the variation framework

Abstract

In a recent paper in The Harvard Educational Review, Graham Nuthall, has called attention to the lacking link between student learning and classroom teaching (2004). This lack is as evident in educational research as is in the minds of teachers. Lack in the first respect means that research does offer any theoretical tools for teachers for learning from their own experiences, hence lack in the first respect contributes to lack in the second respect. Accordingly, 'Teachers often feel that learning outcomes are unpredictable, mysterious and uncontrollable' (Kennedy, 1999 quoted by Nuthall, 2004 p 276). The aim of our presentation is to describe a framework, the variation framework from phenomenography, which we believe to be useful in connecting student learning and classroom teaching. By using it, researchers can learn about the nature of the relationship between the two, and teachers can learn from their own experiences about how their students' learning relates to their teaching. This can be done by telling apart what is critical in teaching for the students' learning, from what is not critical. First, however, we have to point out the kind of learning outcomes in relation to which features of teaching might be critical.