It’s happening – I’m now scheduled to defend my PhD research dissertation on Tuesday August 22nd, starting at 9 am (PST). Yay! It’s taken a lot of work to get here and I endured some epic challenges along the way: major health injury and surgery, Covid pandemic, other personal-family issues, and still I completed it!

I’m feeling pretty chuffed about this but also really excited to share the fruits of my research into ‘the nature of learning.’ That’s the best outcome of all – continuing to be excited and inspired by the research I explored and investigated. Basically my research involved reflecting on my own learning, exploring insights into learning from autobiography (very interesting) and a fieldwork study spanning 9 months and involving six teenage research participants.

My main finding is that learning is idiosyncratic, with other important characteristics illuminating the subjectivity of learning. I believe my research will be of interest to educators, parents, students and administrators who support personalized/personalizing learning or are considering this. My research questions the precepts and practices grounding conventional schooling, including its assumptions about the psychologistic nature of learning and the standardized practices that drive it.  

Here is a link to the invitation to join my defence on the 22nd if you’re so inclined (click on the link and you’ll see a ‘reserve ticket’ link on the right for free reservation). Click on the link below to view my abstract if that is of interest to you. 

Please contact me directly if you wish to follow this up in any way. Sincerely, Michael Maser 

(michaelrmaser @ gmail.com or maser @ sfu.ca )