Contextualised Meaning Making: One way of rethinking experiential learning and self-directed learning?

Experiential learning and self-directed learning are keystone constructs in adult education. This paper examines ideas underpinning these constructs and offers a rethinking of experiential learning and self-directed learning as contextualised meaning making. In exploring this concept, the paper discusses contextualised meaning making as a multi-layered experience incorporating exposed meanings, hidden meanings and unheard voices. These ideas are illustrated by reference to practice in an adult education degree program.     

The concept of experiential learning and John Dewey's theory of reflective thought and action

The conception of experiential learning is an established approach in the tradition of adult education theory. David Kolb's four-stage model of experiential learning is a fundamental presentation of the approach. In his work Experiential Learning, Kolb states that John Dewey, Kurt Lewin and Jean Piaget are the founders of the approach. The article discusses Kolb's eclectic method of constructing his model of experiential learning. It studies how Kolb introduces and uses the Lewinian tradition of action research and the work of John Dewey to substantiate his model. It is concluded that Kolb generalizes a historically very specific and unilateral mode of experience- feedback session in T-group training- into a general model of learning. Kolb's interpretation of John Dewey's ideas is compared to Dewey's concepts of reflective thought and action. It is concluded that Kolb gives an inadequate interpretation of Dewey's thought and that the very concept of immediate, concrete experience proposed by the experiential learning approach is epistemologically problematic. The theory historical approach of the article discusses both substantial questions related to experiential learning and the way concepts are appropriated, developed and used within adult education theory.     

Experiential education at the graduate level: A perspective on faculty role and development

Adult development is an implicit component of graduate education. Yet, this idea is often ignored as traditional programs continue to view graduate education as largely a process of intellectual growth, usually detached from other life experience. Sponsored experiential learning provides one context through which adult developmental and intellectual goals may be simultaneously recognized and pursued. Required are a recognition of new roles for faculty and new efforts to help faculty in implementing these roles. The issues surrounding faculty role and faculty development are addressed in the context of a nontraditional graduate program which maximizes opportunities for the use of experiential learning.Dr. Byxbee is Program Director for the Saint Mary's College Graduate Programs in Human Development, Education, and Educational Leadership. He has consulted widely on the topic of nontraditional program development and has recently been active as a consultant to Latin American Educators on the topic of Nontraditional Education and Public Service Administration.     

体验学习视域下的社区教育方式研究

社区教育的发展告诉我们,社区教育的活力在于学习方式的不断变革和创新。近年来,体验学习方式在社区教育的尝试和应用,引发了我们对社区教育方式的新思考。体验学习方式坚持以学习者为中心,强调学习过程的反思性、开放性和合作性,对于改进社区教育方式具有积极意义。因此,把体验学习方式应用于社区教育,有助于进一步体现社区教育的取向、提升社区教育的品质、激发社区教育的活力、完善社区教育的载体。为此,我们需要用体验学习的理念指导社区教育工作,开展多维度的体验学习方式实践,探索基于网络环境的互动体验方式、基于实践基地的社会体验方式以及基于实训基地的培训体验方式,从而寻求社区教育的新途径和新方法。     

成人学习特征与成人高等教育专业教学改革浅论

成人学习特征是开展成人高等教育专业教学改革的基础和条件。成人学员具有较强的学习能力、独立的人格、丰富的经验和突出的问题意识等学习特征。成人高等教育专业教学改革必须注重师生主体间性、教学内容针对性、启发式教学和学员自我导向学习。     

“It has very good intentions but it’s not quite there yet”: Graduates’ feedback of experiential learning in an MPharm programme Part 2 (TELL Project)

There is a paucity of studies assessing graduates’ perceptions of experiential learning and its effectiveness in preparing them for practice. This information would be important in informing changes to the experiential learning component of pharmacy education. We present Part 2 of a mixed-methods study involving graduates to obtain feedback on their experiential learning experience. Online survey responses and qualitative interviews provided suggestions on improving the experiential learning,which included adopting block placements which would allow for a better placement experience. Having a pre-registration trainee present was beneficial, highlighting the possible value of adopting a tiered-teaching model. Given the poor experience at certain placement sites, quality assurance measures should be adopted to ensure tutors and sites are suited and able to train students for the real-world. The majority wanted feedback from tutors, and indeed this should be formalised as it is a key component in the experiential learning cycle.     

基于体验学习理论的高职综合实践课程实施

高职综合实践课程是融合了技术知识学习和技术实践培养的综合性课程。基于体验学习理论,高职综合实践课程的教学应以工作项目为核心,采取由具体体验、反思观察、抽象概括和行动应用四个阶段构成的体验学习圈模式,使学生在做、思、学、再做的循环过程中生成经验。     

A distance education contribution to a social strategy to combat poverty: Open University Community Education courses in Glasgow

Attacking widespread under‐education with limited resources in the scattered, oppressed adult population of South Africa is a formidable challenge. One way of meeting this challenge could be to develop adults’ critical thinking skills, using their own experience as their main educational resource. Experiential learning technology, facilitated from a distance, could provide a means of achieving this aim. Research carried out at a conference on experiential learning at Natal University, Durban, provided an opportunity to assess the viability, desirability and usefulness of this educational method and aim. Participants’ responses indicate that the method is promising, although further experiment and development are necessary, particularly with different groups.

Three issues are discussed in this paper: the nature of the South African educational context, the promotion of critical thinking skills as an adult education aim, and the potential of employing experiential learning technology, facilitated from a distance, as a method of developing critical thinking skills.     

Exploring MBA Students’ Preferences for Experiential Learning

In 1992, the writer presented a core MBA subject about strategic management which used experiential learning as the major educational strategy, at an Australian university. At the start and end of the subject, students were surveyed about their preferences for the applied/theoretical orientation and the lecturer/student locus for the subject. This paper's aim is to explore how those preferences changed and why, using quantitative and qualitative information provided by the students. Generally speaking, the subject was well received and matched students’ expectations and ideals on the two dimensions. Moreover, their preferences for experiential learning grew as their experience of it increased through the semester. The experiential methods of case analyses and role plays were especially useful in explaining these preferences. However, the students apparently consider their management development to be more multi‐faceted than the two dimensions would indicate, involving various structures and forms of involvement within a context that is realistic to them. Implications for team learning and learning about experiential learning are developed.     

Principles in the use of experiential learning as a source of prior knowledge

The importance of experience and experiential learning is investigated in this report. An attempt is made to chart this concept and attention is paid to the manner in which experience can be measured and be used within the system of higher education. Since distance education attracts many mature adults with experiential learning, an indication is given of the direction that developments should take within Dutch higher education, and in the Open University in particular, in order to make an optimal use of this experience.     

体验式日语阅读教学探讨

人本主义教育观提倡以学生为本,体验式教学很好地体现了这一教育观。结合日语学习的特点,在日语阅读教学中可以进行体验式教学。提出了培养学生真正成为学习的主体,能主动思维,有一定反思能力的教学策略。     

新媒体、新技术体验学习的设计与实践

新媒体、新技术正以各种方式广泛而深刻地影响社会的方方面面,但是其在教育中的应用情况究竟如何?在新理念构建下的体验式学习环境中开展新媒体、新技术的学习是一个全新的课题。目前教师和学生对教学中引入新媒体与新技术并未给予足够的重视,一个很重要的原因是缺乏相应的学习体验。体验学习在促进学习者知识理解、激发学习者主动性、培养批判性思维等方面有积极影响。基于新媒体、新技术进行体验学习时,一方面要使物理环境遵循未来课堂、体验学习、场馆学习环境设计基本理念,以人为本,重视多角度、多方式地对事物进行呈现,尽可能地促进学习者直接经验的获取和反思;另一方面在体验学习活动设计时要将具体体验、反思观察、抽象概括、行动应用四个学习阶段贯穿其中,充分利用物理环境所提供的空间和技术支持,把获取经验(感知经验和领悟经验)与转换经验结合起来,实现体验学习过程的螺旋上升。     

构建高校“积极、体验式”心理健康课堂教学

积极心理学是心理学研究的一股新兴力量,致力于研究人类的积极心理品质,对心理学重新进行诠释。学习体验既是一种生命体验,又是建构知识意义、焕发生命活力、提升生命价值的手段和途径。该文旨在吸收、整合积极心理学及学习体验理论的精华,探索高校“积极、体验式”心理健康课堂教学的构建。     

Creative approaches to staff development: global education in ITE in The Gambia

The elements of global education should be at the heart of all learning and teaching. In ITE we often protect ‘our subject’ in the belief that it should have more prominence in the curriculum and more teaching time in school. In this article a group of ITE tutors comment on their learning about global education and its inclusion in their subject following a study trip, with students and teachers, to The Gambia. A truly cross-curricular strand develops and ideas within subjects are matched to key concepts of global education. An experiential model of tutor CPD evolves which includes personal challenge of values and attitudes.     

Experiential learning in youth work in the UK: a return to Dewey

Experiential learning has explicitly, since the publication of the Kolb ‘treatise’ been a cornerstone of youth work practice in the UK. It is the contention of this paper that there is a significant misinterpretation of Kolb’s theory by those who have applied his theory to youth work. Not least that experience is framed as: ‘concrete experience’ and therefore something ‘other’ or additional to the life experience of those being educated. This concrete experience is interpreted in youth work as the undertaking of discrete activities upon which, via subsequent reflection, learning is elicited. What is argued in this paper is that what is required is a return to the formulation of experiential education conceived of by Dewey which locates ‘lived experience’ at the heart of the educational process. For Dewey experience involves a dual process of understanding and influencing the world around us, as well as being influenced and changed ourselves by that experience, what Dewey referred to as ‘trying’ and ‘undergoing’. This important aspect of experiential learning is omitted from the interpretation of Kolb as a simplistic four‐stage learning cycle, though not ironically from his own theory. Finally learning by experience is according to Dewey necessarily concerned with growth and therefore lifelong education—in addition a commitment to Dewey implies rather than denies a curriculum in youth work, a point that those who advocate experiential learning tend to deny.     

成人学习理论下教师教育与教师专业发展再思考

研究目的在于应用成人学习理论指导教师教育的实践,促进教师专业发展。首先,通过诺尔斯的成人教育学理论分析了成人学习理论对教师教育的适用性,探究各个成人学习论对教师教育的指导作用和对教师发展的促进作用,构建了较为完整的指导框架。然后,分别阐述了自我导向学习理论指导下教师教育生成内生动力,促进教师知识发展;转化学习理论对于教师教育提供新途径,促进教师伦理发展;熟练理论指导教师教育产生外部动力,帮助提升教师专业能力;情境学习理论指导下创设多元的教师教育环境,丰富教师实践经验。最后,成人学习理论于教师教育领域具有很强的适用性,应充分尊重教师成人身份和主体地位。     

新生代农民工经验学习研究——基于杜威的经验学习模型

杜威的经验学习模型是其经验学习理论的重要组成部分,对新生代农民工经验学习具有重要指导意义。借鉴杜威的经验学习模型,为更好地促进新生代农民工的经验学习,应激发学习动机,增强经验学习的积极性;立足现实生活,营造积极的经验学习情境;重视经验的作用,使学习内容与经验相联系;注重经验反思,培养批判性反思能力;倡导从做中学,采用多样化的学习方式。     

INVOLVEMENT IN LEARNING: ITS IMPACT ON STUDENT OUTCOMES

Learning is not a passive activity. Recent research findings concur that students learn through participation. The more time, energy, and effort they invest in the learning process and the more intensely they engage in their own education, the greater will be their growth and achievement, their persistence in college, and the more likely they will continue their learning after college.

Recognizing the consensus of studies for improvement of undergraduate education, CCCCD has focused on active, experiential learning in both the classroom and the laboratory. The college's goal was to be unique, not in what was taught, but in how it was taught – the focus being on the how rather than merely the what, and on inquiry, critical analysis, synthesis, and the application of knowledge.

The specific structure of the experiential component purposefully remains fluid and individualized according to the needs of the subject area and creativity of the teaching faculty. “Hands on” laboratory experiences are provided in most courses. Beyond the classroom, internships and cooperative work experience programs provide additional student involvement.     

Multidisciplinary Decision Making Through Experiential Learning: Perspectives from Practical Trials

Recently many business management programs in institutions of higher learning have undergone significant change in orientation, content, and delivery. In order to ensure that the graduates acquire the education and skills needed in the organizations of the future, these institutions have attempted to bridge theoretical underpinnings with practical content. In so doing, administrators and instructors have given more emphasis to deliberate integration of discipline-specific material. In this article we draw on previous research in both adult and experiential learning to develop an innovative approach for role-playing using case studies in management education. However, unlike the traditional use of cases, our approach builds an experience around the case study company by surrounding learners with additional props to use in the decision-making process. We describe an experiential learning process that provides an opportunity for integration while capitalizing on the characteristics of adult learners. We have used the approach successfully in MBA programs in both Canada and the United Kingdom to challenge students to resolve some of the complex, multi-dimensional issues facing today's organizations. We have also found this approach to be transferable to other learning situations.     

库伯经验学习理论视域下的成人学习模式研究

库伯的经验学习模式是在杜威、勒温、皮亚杰思想理论的基础上发展起来的。库伯将经验学习模式描述为四个阶段:(1)具体经验;(2)反思与观察;(3)抽象概念化;(4)积极实践。库伯认为学习者应在这四个阶段中往复循环,从而产生不断上升的复杂体的学习螺旋。由于成年学习者的经验更加丰富,因此库伯的经验学习环模式更加适用于成年学习者。在成人经验学习的四个阶段中,教师的工作是引导成年学习者在每个水平上发展、拓展他们的话题。