Category Archives: Phenomenology
Good Teaching is about Tact, not Interaction or Scaffolding
Pedagogical tact has been a topic of significant international interest in educational discourse since it was initially defined by J.F. Herbart in 1802—specifically as a “quick judgment and decision” able to address “the true requirements of the individual case.” This … Continue reading
What is it like to learn? An introduction to "Learning-as-Experience"
Learning-as-experience, learning as it one lives or undergoes it everyday, exposes the Achilles heel of any learning “theory:” Namely, that we have almost no quantifiable, empirical access to learning as a phenomenon, and that the only thing of this kind we … Continue reading
Unsettling the Pedagogical Relation – Starting with a Glance
This image from Ghirlandaio’s An Old Man and his Grandson (recently restored, left), was used as the cover image by Klaus Mollenhauer for his 1983 book, Forgotten Connections: On Culture and Upbringing (translated 2014), and eight years later, on the cover of … Continue reading
Herbart on Pedagogical Tact
In 1802, J.F. Herbart (1776-1841) gave a brilliant lecture on pedagogical tact, which provides many insights that remain relevant today. Here’s a 1898 translation of Herbart’s lecture, provided courtesy of Google Books. See the whole PowerPoint presentation, which situates Herbart’s discussion of tact … Continue reading
Hiedegger – the Magus of Messkirch
A 1989 documentary about Martin Heidegger, born and raised a Roman Catholic in Messkirch, Baden-Württemberg. An excellent video with well-translated English subtitles. In a number of interview fragments included here, Heidegger explains his thinking with atypical simplicity and clarity. His … Continue reading
Waldenfels' Responsive Phenomenology
Bernhard Waldenfels has been taking phenomenology in a new direction –one that has implications for phenomenologies of technology. Instead of focusing on intentionality and the relationship between self and other, he has, over more than a dozen books, articulated a … Continue reading
Faculty ProD Keynote: Simulation, Stimulation & Silence – Learning Online and Off
I gave this keynote at an excellent professional development event at my alma mater, the University of Alberta in August. CTL TECHKNOWLEDGY Symposium Keynote Here’s the abstract: Almost 20 years after the popular adoption of the Internet, we are still … Continue reading
Bernhard Waldenfels: Responsivity and Tele-absence
Two things regarding the contemporary German phenomenologist, Bernhard Waldenfels (pictured, right, with his wife Christine on his way to a Merleau-Ponty seminar in 1961): I’ve tracked down a hard-to-find piece by Waldenfels in which he explains one of the main … Continue reading
CFP: Special issue of Phenomenology & Practice on "Being Online"
Phenomenology & Practice announces a special issue devoted to the phenomenological description and exploration of the experience of being online in educational or pedagogical contexts. The intent of this special issue is to focus particularly on epistemology of practice, on … Continue reading
Reviews for Forgotten Connections & The Place of the Classroom
Two reviews are in for a couple of my book projects: The first is for The Place of the Classroom and the Space of the Screen (Peter Lang, 2011), which has just been reviewed by Robert Rosenberger at Georgia Tech for the … Continue reading