Based on his synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to student achievement, Hattie (2008) argues that the question of effective teaching cannot be answered without attending to the experience of learning from the perspective of educational processes and suggests: if “the teacher’s lens can be changed to seeing learning through the eyes of students, this would be an excellent beginning” (p. 252). This is what three teams of researchers including 15 doctoral students in Austria (University of Innsbruck, Tyrol, and University College of Education Feldkirch, Vorarlberg) and Italy (Free University of Bolzano, Alto Adige) have been trying to do by using a phenomenological approach to find out more about what happens “lernseits” of instruction (Schratz, 2009), i.e. in the realm of learning beyond teaching. They collected data at different schools during three different field visits. At each school, the researchers shared experiences with two children in a 5^th grade class who were initially recommended for the study by their teachers based on their perceptions of difference in gender, ethnicity and achievement. While co-experiencing, researchers attempted to capture the lived experiences of the children in protocols (van Manen, 1990), which then served as the basis for writing what we call “vignettes”. In addition, researchers engaged in recorded conversations with the children, their guardians, their teachers and the school principals and conducted recorded focus group discussions with their peers. Also included in the data instruments were the children’s photo documentation of places where they learn best at school and document analysis.

Rather than focusing on the results of learning (as is the case in most assessment regimes around the world), the research objectives in this project call for a reappraisal of the relation between teaching and learning. The research group understands teaching as a responsive, interdependent and relational encounter (Meyer-Drawe, 2008; Waldenfels, 2009; Tomlinson, 2008) that is mindful of learning (Schratz et al., 2012) and is constituted by the experiences both teachers and students make. Teachers and students are closely entangled with each other, primarily acting in the presence of others. Our research focuses rigorously on the learning experience itself, with primary interest in learning in its nascent state. Understanding learning as experience (Meyer-Drawe, 2008; 2010) rather than learning as a product out of experience, it becomes evident that learning and teaching processes are irrevocably intertwined and codetermining.

Hattie, J. (2008). Visible learning. A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement. London: Routledge. Meyer-Drawe, K. (2008). Diskurse des Lernens. Munich: Fink. Meyer-Drawe, K. (2010). Zur Erfahrung des Lernens. Eine phänomenologische Skizze. In: Santalka: Filosophia vol.18, n. 3, pp. 6-16. Schratz, M. (2009). "Lernseits" von Unterricht. Alte Muster, neue Lebenswelten – was für Schulen? In: Lernende Schule vol. 12, no. 46-47, pp. 16-21. Schratz, M., Schwarz, J., & Westfall-Greiter, T. (2012). Lernen als bildende Erfahrung. Vignetten in der Praxisforschung. Innsbruck: StudienVerlag. Tomlinson, C.A. (2008). The Differentiated School: Making Revolutionary Changes in Teaching and Learning. Alexandria, Virgina: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Van Manen, M. (1990). Researching Lived Experience. Human science for an action sensitive pedagogy. London, Ontario: Althouse Press. Waldenfels, B. (2009). Lehren und Lernen als Wirkungsfelder der Aufmerksamkeit. In.: Ricken, N., Röhr, H., Ruhloff, J., & Schaller, K. (Eds.). Umlernen. Festschrift für Käte Meyer-Drawe. Paderborn: Fink, pp. 23-46.