The Interrogation Room Metaphor: A Teacher’s Use of Phenomenology to Conceptualise and Describe the Thinking and Learning Mind

Abstract

Taking thinking as a subjective human experience, this paper posits philosophical description, alongside explanations derived from cognitive science, as an additional prospective theoretical constituent underpinning modern education and learning theory. A series of phenomenological reflections was carried out, in the tradition of the classical phenomenologists, in an attempt to conceptualise the phenomenon of thinking from an educational perspective, and more clearly define it in the context of learning. Emphasising the situated, contextual and interactive nature of thinking, the resulting description is hereby presented, in the spirit of resonance and catalytic authenticity, together with an accompanying visual metaphor based on an interrogation room set-up in a law enforcement setting.