Who Is Ference Marton?

Ference Marton is professor of Education and Education Research at the University of Goteborg, Sweden. He is an international expert in the field of student learning and is best known for his work on surface and deep approaches to learning, on students' conceptions of learning and on the development of a phenomenographical approach to the study of the student's experience of learning. He has also played a significant leadership role in the development of student learning as a major focus of research both within his own institution and internationally.

A recent acquisition to the Teaching and Learning Centre's resource collection Ramsden, P. (ed) (1988) Improving Student Learning - New Perspectives, Kogan Page includes a paper by Marton and Ramsden on `What does it take to improve learning?'. In this paper, and in the book, the authors argue that educational research can be more closely related to teaching through researching how and what students learn. Though we may never be able to predict a relationship between teaching intervention and learning outcomes, finding out the student's perspective will bring us much closer.

Professor Marton will be at U.W.A. in the last two weeks of October as part of the Distinguished Visitors programme. He will be running a series of seminars and workshops on research into student learning and working with interested staff on ways of initiating research into their own students' learning. For more information please contact Sarah Mann, CSD, on x. 1502.