Variation Theory: Seeing What Matters in Learning
10 October, 2025
Author Dr Will Zoppellini
Imagine a child raised in a world where only the colour blue exists. Skies, grass, flowers, jumpers, food, an endless azure. In that world, “colour” doesn’t exist as an idea. Then one day, someone holds up a red apple. In an instant, colour becomes visible because now there is contrast. But until that moment, our blue-world child would be justified in believing that everything is blue. It is the only way of seeing, or the only experience they have had.
Learning unfolds much the same way. Without the introduction of contrast, our inner worlds remain flat, detailed perhaps, but without depth. We see a way, not the structure. We move through familiar patterns mistaking recognition for deep understanding. It’s only when something unexpected enters the scene that we start to perceive difference, and from difference, a new meaning.
During my journey as a researcher, I spent years exploring how people learn, what helps understanding deepen, and what keeps it shallow. Again and again, I encountered the work of Ference Marton and his colleagues1. Their research drew me in because it spoke not only to cognition but to perception itself, to how we see what we learn. After reading, re-reading, and talking with others who applied it in education, I realised this might be the best learning theory most educators have never heard of. It is called Variation Theory, and it suggests that understanding grows when learners experience what varies against what stays the same, allowing the essential features of an idea to come into focus1. Through this lens, a learner does not just know a concept in one situation or context, but they grasp its whole structure and can carry that insight into new contexts.
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That realisation led me back to the heart of Marton’s work. Where he argues that understanding is not about being told what something means but about learning to see the difference between what varies and what remains.
In this first post, I will introduce the foundations of Variation Theory and explore why it matters for teachers, educators, coaches, and parents who want to move learning from surface to depth. I’ll look at what the theory is and how it works in practice, uncover the principles that guide it, and see how carefully designed variation can transform understanding.
Grab your coffee, clear a little space to think, settle in, and join me as to explore the best learning theory you’ve probably never heard of.
What is Variation Theory?
Few ideas in education are as elegantly straightforward as Variation Theory. At its core, it proposes that people grasp new ideas when they experience variation in the critical features of a concept against a background of invariance2. Put another way, learning occurs when we recognise how one aspect of something changes while others stay the same. It is this act of noticing difference, or of contrasting the new against the familiar, that allows meaning to emerge.
Consider the challenge of teaching the idea of a triangle. If every example shown to students is identical or with little contrast, they may memorise the image but fail to understand the concept. However, if they see triangles that are wide, tall, scalene, isosceles, and even other shapes that almost fit the rule, they begin to see what truly defines a triangle: three straight sides that connect to form a closed shape.
This is the heart of Variation Theory, teaching by designed difference. The theory emerged from the research tradition of phenomenography, developed by Swedish educational researcher Ference Marton and colleagues1. Phenomenography studies the different ways people experience or understand the same phenomenon. It recognises that experience is always partial, because we never perceive everything about an idea at once3. Instead, each learner attends to certain features while overlooking others.
Ference Marton and Shirley Booth1 argued that learning depends on which aspects of a phenomenon are brought into our awareness. To help learners discern, distinguish, and understand new features, teachers can deliberately vary some elements of what is being learned while keeping others constant3. In this way, learners are guided toward the features that matter most, what Marton called the critical aspects of learning.
This approach reframes what it means to teach. Instead of delivering information, the teacher designs patterns of variation that make the invisible visible. Meaning that they bring out the full structure or ways of seeing a concept or skill. Marton and his collaborators4 describe this as the interaction between three dimensions of learning:
The intended object of learning - what the teacher aims for students to grasp.
The enacted object of learning - what the lesson actually presents or makes possible.
The lived object of learning - what the student ultimately perceives and understands.
In practical terms, this means that effective teaching involves more than having clear objectives. It requires an awareness of what students currently see, what they fail to see, and how to structure variation so that new aspects come into focus. By carefully designing how learners encounter difference, we can guide them to see the world in richer, more nuanced ways.
Why it matters: Learning Through Designed Difference
Variation Theory helps learners move from surface recognition to deep, flexible understanding5. It encourages learners to search for patterns, differences, and boundaries, all habits of thinking that strengthen problem-solving and analytical skills. When children encounter only one version of an idea, they risk seeing it in only one way. But when they meet it in multiple forms, their understanding expands and becomes more adaptable1,5.
This approach helps to eliminate early generalisation in understanding, as Vygotsky once noted, “The word flower appears in a child’s vocabulary long before the names of concrete flowers.” If the word “rose” is learned first, the child often uses it to name all flowers1. Variation Theory helps prevent this over-generalisation by encouraging learners to encounter examples and non-examples, distinguishing the essential from the incidental.
In Variation Theory the application includes the use of an example, a contrast and the use of non-examples,things that are almost the same concept, but not quite the concept6,7. Non-examples help learners define boundaries and avoid misconceptions. For instance, some students believe all living things must move, and therefore think plants are not alive. Showing both moving non-living things (a robot, a river current) and unmoving living things (plants, fungi) helps learners discern the critical features of life, such as growth, reproduction, and cellular structure.
This approach has been studied in many fields from mathematics, science, art, physical education, engineering, as well as blended with other approaches such as play-based learning. The results of applied studies from early years, secondary education, and university learning have displayed positive results in learning8. Overall, Variation Theory is not simply a teaching technique, but a way of shaping attention. By designing lessons that reveal both difference and sameness, teachers help students see more, think more deeply, and apply their understanding more flexibly.
Using Variation Theory
To put Variation Theory into practice, learning must be designed so that the right kind of difference is visible. To do this there are four key patterns of variation3 that guide attention to the features that matter most:
*flip the tiles to discover more
Contrast
Separation
Generalisation
Fusion
Underlying all of this is the principle of focal awareness, the idea that we can only attend to a limited number of aspects at a time9. Because humans can only hold so much in mind at once, teachers therefore need to sequence learning carefully, introducing variation gradually and deliberately. When designed well, these patterns transform lessons into moments of discovery. They shift focus from memorising information to discerning meaning10.
Two Examples That Bring Variation Theory to Life
The best way to understand Variation Theory is to see it in action. Below are two examples that show how learning deepens through carefully designed contrast. Open each section to explore how difference and sameness work together to reveal meaning.
“Is This an Elephant?”
How do we know what makes an elephant an elephant? Most of us would say the trunk, tusks, or size. Yet none of these alone defines the species. Some elephants are tuskless, others smaller or darker, yet we still recognise them instantly.
Through variation, we learn the critical features, those that stay consistent even as other details change. The trunk, the shape of the ears, the way the body moves. These patterns anchor our recognition.
Now consider a final image of a hippo. It’s grey, large, and heavy, yet not an elephant. This non-example helps refine our understanding further, showing us what does not belong.
Variation Theory works in exactly this way. By presenting multiple examples and contrasts, we uncover what is essential to a concept and what is incidental.
“Throwing the Ball”
In a study on throwing accuracy, two groups practised hitting the same target.
- Group A threw from one fixed distance every time.
- Group B threw from different distances and angles.
When both groups were later tested at the original distance, Group B, the one that had experienced variation, performed significantly better. Why? Because they had learned to separate what was context-specific (the distance) from what was invariant (the throwing technique).
By encountering difference, learners build adaptability. They no longer rely on rote memory of a single situation but understand the deeper pattern that applies across many.
Getting Started: Steps for Using Variation in Practice
These are good steps to follow when you first begin using Variation Theory. In practice, the critical aspects that learners need to discern come from understanding how they see the concept or object of learning. Effective use of Variation Theory grows from knowing your learners and how they currently understand something, what they overlook, and how they make sense of difference. As you build experience, you will design variation around those insights. For now, you can begin by assuming the critical features to highlight, using the steps below as a foundation.
Identify the Critical Features
Before designing a task, decide what truly defines the concept or skill. Ask yourself: What must learners notice for this to make sense? Keep that feature at the heart of your design.
Vary One Thing at a Time
Change one element while keeping the rest constant. Too many variations at once create noise. One deliberate change helps learners focus on what matters.
Use Contrast to Reveal Difference
Place examples side by side that show clear differences. Seeing contrast first helps learners understand why something is this and not that.
Include Non-Examples
Show what the concept is not. These near misses define boundaries and strengthen understanding far more than repetition of correct examples alone.
Build Awareness Gradually
Cognition has limits. Sequence experiences so that learners can attend to one new feature at a time, layering complexity as confidence grows.
Connect Variation to Real Contexts
Link classroom examples to real-world applications. Whether in sport, science, or language, variation only builds depth when learners see its relevance beyond the task.
Final Thoughts
When we design experiences in education around variation theory, learners begin to notice structure, connection, and meaning. It shifts learning from memorising content to discerning patterns and understanding structures. Or from knowing that something works to understanding why it does. When children at any age begin to discern these relationships clearly, their critical thinking and creative problem-solving deepen, and they start to see how ideas connect. This is applicable in any subject like learning how music or dance blend together, how to shoot in basketball, how to use equations in mathematics, or how patterns in nature repeat and evolve.
This encourages us to see learning not as repetition but as exploration. A process of guiding attention to discover rather than delivering answers. By helping learners discern difference, we open space for creativity, transfer, and genuine understanding. Every small contrast we create can change what someone is able to see, and in that moment, real learning begins.
Until next time, stay curious
Dr Will Zoppellini
References
- Marton, F. and Booth, S. 2013.Learning and awareness. Routledge.
- Marton, F. and Pang, M.F. 2006. On some necessary conditions of learning.The Journal of the Learning sciences, 15(2), pp.193-220.
- Marton, F., Tsui, A.B., Chik, P.P., Ko, P.Y. and Lo, M.L. 2004.Classroom discourse and the space of learning. Routledge.
- Kullberg, A., Runesson Kempe, U. and Marton, F. 2017. What is made possible to learn when using the variation theory of learning in teaching mathematics?.Zdm, 49(4), pp.559-569.
- Lo, M.L. and Marton, F. 2011. Towards a science of the art of teaching: Using variation theory as a guiding principle of pedagogical design.International journal for lesson and learning studies, 1(1), pp.7-22.
- Pang, M.F. and Ki, W.W. 2016. Revisiting the idea of “critical aspects”.Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 60(3), pp.323-336.
- Lo, M.L., Pong, W.Y. and Chik, P.P.M. 2005.For each and everyone: Catering for individual differences through learning studies (Vol. 1). Hong Kong University Press.
- Kullberg, A., Ingerman, Å. and Marton, F. 2024.Planning and analyzing teaching: Using the variation theory of learning (p. 122). Taylor & Francis.
- Marton, F. 2000. The structure of awareness.Phenomenography, 10216, pp.102-116.
- Marton, F. 2014.Necessary conditions of learning. Routledge.