Learning and Teaching Centre

Anna Reid: Research

Anna has an interest in exploring in the relations between perception of professional work and learning. She has several publications that explore this issue from teacher and student perspectives. Her most significant contribution to this field is the knowledge of phenomenographic research methods and learning theory. Her research output from her PhD onwards has been concerned with describing the variation in teachers' and students' conceptions of learning. As a result of these investigations, she has identified what is now known as the "Professional Entity", a perception of professional work. People's experience of the Professional Entity can be described in three qualitatively different ways: Extrinsic Technical, where work is understood to be a series of techniques and fragments that have to be carried out for some external purpose; Extrinsic Meaning, where work is understood to have its own meaning; Intrinsic Meaning, where work is understood to have a personal significance. The idea of the Professional Entity is critical for higher education as students' ideas of work can determine what they focus their learning on. Similarly, teachers' understanding of work is related to what they consider is important to teach. The idea of the Professional Entity is significant in the higher education context as perception of work is closely related to conceptions of teaching and learning. Students' and teachers' conceptions of teaching and learning, and their perception of work can be considered to be part of the Total Learning Environment. The Total Learning Environment is the term she has given to students' and teachers' overall experience of the learning situation. The Professional Entity was first described as the 'Music Entity'. Since then, research in other disciplines has supported the relations between conceptions of teaching and learning in a discipline and work. These ideas have already made a significant contribution in the areas of Music Education, Design Education, Theological Education, Legal Education, Statistics Education and Environmental Studies. Extensions of this work include the way in which students and teachers understand ideas of Internationalisation, ethics, creativity, cross-cultural sustainability and sustainable development.

 

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