Lectures are a a highly prevalent mode of teaching in universities. During lectures, students are first introduced to new material and therefore begin their learning process in that environment. Researchers do not agree on a single definition of learning. From a cognitivist perspective, learning is understood as an active mental process that includes the formation and reorganisation of cognitive schemata. Cognitive psychologists identify multiple cognitive processes as part of the larger learning process, including perception, attention, memory, problem solving, and emotions. Although cognitive phenomenology provides a framework for researching conscious cognitive processes from a first-person perspective, learning processes from a phenomenological standpoint remain largely unexplored. In this master’s thesis we aim to address this gap. We conducted a deductive-inductive thematic analysis of a subset of data from a completed study, in particular 10 students’ experiences of lectures, as documented in the samples from a modified descriptive experience sampling method and semi-structured diary entries. Our results revealed four broader categories of learning experiences during lectures that center around students’ connection with learning material, reshaping of learning material, intensifying of the presence of learning material in their experiential field, and the relationship between different learning processes that are present simultaneously in a student’s experience. With this research we aim to deepen our understanding of learning during lectures in the hope of contributing to the lecture design that will further support students on their educational journey.
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