Ph.d.-prøveforsvar, Martin Hauberg-Lund Laugesen

Ph.d.-prøveforsvar ved Ph.d.-studerende: Martin Hauberg-Lund Laugesen

Ph.d.-prøveforsvaret vil blive afviklet med fysisk deltagelse i mødelokale Romeo

Titel: Written Engagement: Towards an Empirically Grounded Phenomenology of the Experiential Relation between Undergraduate Students' Exam Writing and Study Engagement

Abstract: As university teachers and supervisors, we sometimes find ourselves wondering: Why do some students really like to write their exams and engage themselves eagerly? And why do others dread it and procrastinate irrationally in the face of a deadline? In my PhD project Written Engagement I explore how undergraduate students in biology, philosophy and economy experience the relation between their exam writing and their study engagement. More specifically, I employ an inductive and grounded approach to empirical analyses and theory generation on the basis of extensive interview material and samples of students' written assignments. Informed by sensitising concepts from socio-cultural theories of learning and development, new literacy studies of writing, motivation and engagement psychology and phenomenological philosophy, Written Engagement is an interdisciplinary research project aiming to weld creative and productive connections between otherwise unconnected research areas. The aim of the project is 1) to investigate how undergraduate students feel and think about their exam writing at the university in relation to their study motivation and engagement, 2) to philosophically theorise the nature of writing on the basis of the findings of the empirical analyses and 3) to develop new and better pedagogical approaches to teach and supervise student writers in order to make their exam experience altogether more motivating and engaging with positive consequences for their academic learning as well as their personal and professional development. Thus, I consider Written Engagement to be an innovative PhD project that combines inductive and systematic empirical analyses with philosophical theorisation under the headline of 'grounded thinking' enabling a threefold research output of both analytical, theoretical and pragmatic value.