Immersion Learning in Social Work Education: A Pedagogical Tool for Enriching Knowledge and Practice Skills among BSW Students

Immersion learning is one form of experiential education and has great utility in social work education. However, there is limited research on student learning outcomes from immersion learning courses in social work education. This ethnographic research describes an immersion learning course offered to BSW students (N = 9) and the learning outcomes gained. This semester-long course focused on macrolevel practice with people experiencing poverty, homelessness, and the sexual exploitation of women. As part of this course, students went on a weeklong immersion trip, where they visited a dozen human service organizations and interacted with people experiencing poverty and homelessness. Qualitative analysis produced three findings. First, students reported that these interactions helped them realize their biases and impacted their understanding of poverty. Second, students reported enhanced social work practice skills, such as cultural competency, self-awareness, and interpersonal expertise. They also gained a better appreciation for macrolevel practice. Third, students reported a better understanding of how to deploy classroom knowledge in practice and how to apply what they learned back in the classroom. These findings have implications for undergraduate social work education and how immersion learning programs can be a tool for enriching both knowledge and practice skills.     

Adult learning: ‘A Key for the Twenty‐first Century’: Reflections on the UNESCO fifth international conference 1997

Experiential learning is part of the canon of the theory and practice of adult learning. However, most of the writing on this subject tends to be normative, i.e. arguing whether or not experiential learning is a ‘good’ thing, or mechanical, i.e. how it occurs and how it can be facilitated. Less has been said about why or how this ‘progressive’ educational idea has become important in educational/training discourse in a period of ‘new right’ government. Drawing on the debates surrounding the notion of postmodernism and, more specifically, the sociology of postmodernism, I suggest that experiential learning offers a space in which the conflicting assumptions and values of the ‘new right’ and ‘new middle class’ (the burgeoning cultural producers and intermediaries) compete for ascendancy, as part of the construction of a ‘common sense’. In general, support from the government for practices that recognize and develop experiential learning have been met with positively by adult educators/trainers, as giving recognition and status to our work. It is suggested that the support for these measures has more to do with the government's desire to restore (self‐)discipline within the social formation. It is argued that experiential learning is integral to postmodernism and, therefore, as adult educators/trainers, in order to understand our own practices better, we need to understand and engage in debates about postmodernism.     

Subjectivity, Learning and Work: Sources and Legacies

Individuals’ dispositions have long been held to direct and energise cognition in ways that shape how they experience and respond to events in the social world. Therefore, a consideration of these dispositions is likely to be helpful in understanding the inter-psychological processes between individual and social world that frame contemporary socio-cultural accounts of learning. Here, the specific concern is to elaborate the sources, legacies and potency of individuals’ dispositions in the learning of occupational practice through these processes. Having reviewed ideas about the dispositional underpinnings of individuals’ construal and construction of the knowledge required for work, these conceptions are exercised through illuminating the roles dispositions play in the process of constructing the knowledge required for an occupational practice (i.e. hairdressing). The study reported here combines workplace ethnography and problem-solving tasks to identify the source of these subjectivities, how they shape individuals’ cognitive processes at work tasks and their learning through participation in vocational practice. In all, it identified how individuals’ dispositions arise through socially-shaped life histories or ontogenies, albeit in person-dependent ways. The participants’ conceptions, preferences and procedures that shape their learning and the enactment of their practice were found to be products of earlier socially-derived experiences, thereby making them personally-subjective. These personally-subjective dispositions were identified as shaping how these individuals engage in work, learning and the ongoing remaking of work activities, because they influence inter-psychological processes that comprise the immediate experiences that constitute the enactment of these activities. So, this suggests that the sociogeneses of knowledge and learning likely includes personally unique social contributions that arise through ontogeny.     

Encouraging the development of higher-level study skills using an experiential learning framework

Teachers have only recently considered how study skills support in higher education (HE) can be delivered in a way that encourages experiential learning. This paper aims to substantiate, or otherwise, the idea that a carefully developed initiative can encourage the experiential learning of study skills. In addition, it considers whether such an approach might also allow student access to some of the higher-level study skills required for successful university study. Focus group data were used to evaluate a module delivered to sports students at a post-1992 university in the UK. This data suggested that the module facilitated learning in each stage of Kolb's experiential learning cycle. Moreover, there was evidence that the module encouraged students to undertake an ‘epistemological shift’ in which they moved from seeing knowledge as a set of uncontested facts to seeing it as something that they are expected to question and contribute to themselves.     

A Meta‐Analysis of the Relationship Between Experiential Learning and Learning Outcomes

Experiential learning activities have been used for over 40 years with the hope that they increase students learning. However, a definitive study that showed their overall effectiveness has not been produced. The purpose of this study is to address this gap in the literature. This meta‐analysis examined a 43‐year span and identified 13,626 journal articles, dissertations, thesis articles, and conference proceedings written about experiential learning and found only 89 of these studies contained empirical data with both a treatment and control group. Meta‐analysis of these studies show that students experienced superior learning outcomes when experiential pedagogies were employed. Further, learning outcomes were almost a half standard deviation higher (d = .43) in classes employing experiential learning pedagogies versus traditional learning environments. This review definitively, and quantitatively, shows the importance of experiential learning activities. We use these results to discuss future research areas that need to be addressed based on our analysis of potential moderators and provide recommendations on how to best employ experiential learning pedagogies.     

Moral deliberation and environmental awareness: reviewing Deweyan-informed possibilities for contemporary outdoor learning

The recent surge in interest in progressive education ideas has often been accompanied by an increased advocacy for learning outdoors, with experiential and holistic learning approaches considered the most beneficial method for cultivating personal and social development and raising awareness of contemporary environmental concerns. However, theoretical and practical unease exists about how increased opportunities to learn outdoors can help young people to reflect on their experiences and make sound decisions. The paper reviews the contribution of John Dewey to debates about experiential education and the development of moral deliberation; as for Dewey there are strong connections between cognition, character and actions. This leads, in conclusion, to analysis of outdoor learning prospects and the extent to which these can benefit personal responsibility and social interaction, and provides learners with the capacity to make dependable voluntary decisions that display stable states of character.     

Experiential learning,self-beliefs and adult performance in Senegal

Ability to update skills constitutes a key element in the process of improving adults' performance. Professional skills are usually updated through engagement in active learning by connecting prior experiences to new ones and also sharing information with others through reflection and hands-on activities. Such learning processes can be achieved through experiential learning. Experiential learning can lead to creation of retrievable knowledge, which can be applied to their daily professional activity. Results of this study indicated that experiential learning needs to be rooted in the culture and values of the social environment in which adults live. Further, individual characteristics may influence the impact of experiential learning on adult professionals' abilities to reach higher levels of performance. A random sample of 126 farmers was selected. Data were collected through a questionnaire and were examined by quantitative as well as qualitative data analysis techniques.     

Children's learning preferences for the development of conservation education programs in Mexican communities

Learning theories are rarely considered in the design of conservation education programs in Mexico. However, if students are taught in a way in which they can easily relate, this could improve the educational experience through better attitudes toward the natural environment. The learning preferences of 354 Mexican children at the primary level were evaluated to identify the effect of context (rural or urban) and gender on learning preferences. Statistical differences related to the children's context and gender-associated context were found. The authors discuss different discourses of critical thinking and experiential education, the predominance of traditional education found in rural communities, and how conservation education could enrich these processes. Studying how children learn can provide valuable information for the development of effective conservation education programs, establishing a dialogue about learners' strengths and weaknesses, enhancing their participation, and empowering them to take action.     

False Dichotomy? ‘Western’ and ‘Confucian’ concepts of scholarship and learning

Discourses of ‘internationalisation’ of the curriculum of Western universities often describe the philosophies and paradigms of ‘Western’ and ‘Eastern’ scholarship in binary terms, such as ‘deep/surface’, ‘adversarial/harmonious’, and ‘independent/dependent’. In practice, such dichotomies can be misleading. They do not take account of the complexities and diversity of philosophies of education within and between their educational systems. The respective perceived virtues of each system are often extolled uncritically or appropriated for contemporary economic, political or social agendas. Critical thinking, deep learning, lifelong and lifewide learning are heralded as the outcomes of Western education but these concepts are often under‐theorised or lack agreed meanings. Equally fuzzy concepts such as ‘Asian values’ or ‘Confucian education’ are eulogised as keys to successful teaching and learning when Asia prospers economically. They are also used to explain perceived undesirable behaviour such as plagiarism and uncritical thinking when Asian economies do not do so well. We argue that in general, educationists should be aware of the differences and complexities within cultures before they examine and compare between cultures. This paper uses the Confucian‐Western dichotomy as a case study to show how attributing particular unanalysed concepts to whole systems of cultural practice leads to misunderstandings and bad teaching practice.     

Taking active learning into the primary school: a matter of new practices?

This paper examines the extension of active learning pedagogical practices familiar in preschool settings to the first class of primary school. Policy and practice guidance in the UK is advocating the benefits of experiential learning as a way of engaging young children as they move into primary school but for teachers this means a move to new practices which can be in tension with other expectations. In this paper, the rationale for active learning is considered along with an account of the classroom activities of teachers and children in five primary schools that were implementing the policy shift to active learning. The children in these classes spent varying amounts of time in whole class activities led by the teacher or in small groups directed to engage with specific activities. They had opportunities to engage and respond verbally, through manipulating objects and with physical actions but the emphasis was on planned, teacher-directed learning activities. The characteristics of active learning as introduced in these innovative classes are compared with the expectations of practice guidance and theorising about early learning.     

Socially biased learning in monkeys

We review socially biased learning about food and problem solving in monkeys, relying especially on studies with tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) and callitrichid monkeys. Capuchin monkeys most effectively learn to solve a new problem when they can act jointly with an experienced partner in a socially tolerant setting and when the problem can be solved by direct action on an object or substrate, but they do not learn by imitation. Capuchin monkeys are motivated to eat foods, whether familiar or novel, when they are with others that are eating, regardless of what the others are eating. Thus, social bias in learning about foods is indirect and mediated by facilitation of feeding. In most respects, social biases in learning are similar in capuchins and callitrichids, except that callitrichids provide more specific behavioral cues to others about the availability and palatability of foods. Callitrichids generally are more tolerant toward group members and coordinate their activity in space and time more closely than capuchins do. These characteristics support stronger social biases in learning in callitrichids than in capuchins in some situations. On the other hand, callitrichids’ more limited range of manipulative behaviors, greater neophobia, and greater sensitivity to the risk of predation restricts what these monkeys learn in comparison with capuchins. We suggest that socially biased learning is always the collective outcome of interacting physical, social, and individual factors, and that differences across populations and species in social bias in learning reflect variations in all these dimensions. Progress in understanding socially biased learning in nonhuman species will be aided by the development of appropriately detailed models of the richly interconnected processes affecting learning.     

Teaching science or cultivating values? Conservation NGOs and environmental education in Costa Rica

A key ongoing debate in environmental education practice and its research relates to the content and goals of environmental education programmes. Specifically, there is a long history of debate between advocates of educational perspectives that emphasise the teaching of science concepts and those that seek to more actively link environmental and social issues. In practice, educators and organisations respond to these tensions in a variety of ways, often strongly reflecting the particular social and economic contexts in which they are located. Much of the research in the area, however, has tended to take a narrow focus on either purely theoretical concerns or on individual programmes in schools or protected areas. In contrast, this research used an ethnographic approach to explore debates about the content and aims of educational programmes between diverse educational actors in one community in Costa Rica. The research revealed that environmental education: (i) is an important local site for the active contestation of understandings of the natural world and humans’ relationships to it; and (ii) can be part of wider struggles over the control of processes of local development and environmental management. The study further suggests that while theoretical discussion about the relative merits of diverse approaches to environmental teaching and learning is important, if that analysis is not situated within a particular social, economic and political context, it is likely to reveal relatively little about how or why particular perspectives on environmental education may dominate or remain marginal in a specific place.     

Education quality,and teaching and learning in the post-2015 education agenda

At present, there is an intense and wide-ranging debate on the future of global development. This debate occurs in a context of increasing global inequality, global economic recession, conflict, and climate change. Discussions about the post-2015 education and development agenda in this context ambitiously seek to eradicate poverty, promote social and economic inclusion, tackle climate change, promote equity, and access to quality education. While the exact goals are not yet agreed and the shape of the final post-2015 development is still to be settled, there is a widespread consensus that education is priority and that equitable and quality education is core to the agenda. In this context, this paper discusses the continuities and discontinuities in the proposed post-2015 quality agenda through a textual analysis of UNESCO consultations on Education for All (EFA). In particular, this article focuses on the UNESCO post-2015 position paper and the Muscat Global Education meeting agreement in April 2015. They are significant policy texts as they evidence the current global education discourse on education and the development agenda and reflect the broad consultations and thinking reflected in the thematic consultations. They also are important as they seek to clarify and secure the focus on the Education for All goals within a future post-2015 development agenda. The analysis of these texts pays particular attention to how quality is conceptualised in these texts, how it is translated into targets and how teachers are located in the global education quality discourse. The paper argues that while potentially broad conceptualisations of quality emerge from these texts, quality is still being defined as literacy and numeracy and still being constrained by what can be measured. While teachers are identified as crucial to the quality agenda, there is still a failure to engage more broadly with teaching and learning as well as the diverse contexts of teaching and learning. The article argues that what is needed is a continued foregrounding of quality as a dynamic, process oriented social justice endeavour to give effect to a holistic and comprehensive approach to the broad quality agenda.     

Under-threes’ mathematical learning – teachers’ perspectives

This project highlights preschool teachers’ views of toddlers’ learning in mathematics. The Swedish national curriculum covers even the youngest children who are 1–3?years old. Interesting questions are thus: what should mathematics be for this age group and how should preschool teachers work with maths to achieve the curriculum objectives? Data were collected through interviews with six preschool teachers working in four different preschools. The data show that the teachers emphasize the body as very important for the learning process, which means that for these children, it is not a matter of simply talking about mathematical concepts, but experiencing them bodily. The teachers also report that they now pay more attention than previously to what material the children use and how they interact with it. They are more aware of how they organize and offer the various materials in the preschool and how this influences the way children use them and, consequently, their learning processes.     

Collaborative Learning in a Web-mediated Environment: A study of communicative practices

New opportunities for conceptualising, designing and facilitating collaborative learning are rapidly expanding with the technological innovations and proliferation of web-mediated learning and teaching. By enabling social interactions via an electronic medium, web technologies are not only expanding but also transforming the social interaction space of collaborative learning. This paper explores collaborative learning viewed from these social interaction processes. More specifically, the paper applies a Communicative Model of Collaborative Learning to make sense of students' interactions in a management subject taught in a combined face-to-face and web-mediated mode. This model provides a methodological instrument for the analysis of communicative practices in concrete learning processes. By analysing the empirical data from linguistic interactions among students, the paper investigates not only what these interactions mean but also what they produce in a particular learning situation and how they affect learning. In particular, the paper investigates processes of knowledge co-creation that are integral to the development of capabilities for life-long learning.     

A Student’s Guide to Strengthening an Online Community

Students usually have plenty of experience with online social technologies, but they lack understanding about how to use these tools and methods for course learning. This article is designed to help college students who are anxious about participating in an online learning community or do not know how to build one effectively. With ideas derived from research and practice, this guide has been written to inform online students about learning communities, the benefits they offer, and how students can assist in building a successful online community.     

Case studies of teachers' understandings of the pedagogy of classroom talk: some critical moments explored

This case study research is informed by Vygotsky's view that talk is essential to organise our thoughts and extend our thinking and that, as Barnes suggested, the teacher needs to use the social situation effectively in the classroom to promote talk for learning. This article focuses on pedagogy and teachers' understandings of how talk works in the classroom, as I sought to illuminate teachers' intuitions and insights and their views of what they find challenging in organising classroom talk. Three case studies of ‘critical moments’ in a lesson suggest that teacher knowledge about talk is located in concrete practices. The three teachers viewed a recorded lesson and chose a moment they defined as ‘critical’ because the moment helped them to learn something about the way they use talk in the classroom. They then discussed this moment with me. These collaborative but critically evaluative processes are particularly useful for exploring and probing teachers' knowledge about talk for learning, an area of pedagogy that has proved so resistant to change over quite a long period. These three teachers suggest that such talk is becoming more marginal under the impact of performativity and the new cultural restorationist English curriculum.     

Favouring reflexivity in technology-enhanced learning systems: towards smart uses of traces

During learning activities, reflexive processes allow learners to realise what they have done, understand why, decide on new actions and gain motivation. They help learners to regulate their actions by themselves, that is, to develop metacognitive regulation skills. Computer environments can support reflexive processes to support human learning, for example by analysing traces of learner activity and providing synthetic views by the way of indicators. Nevertheless, traces are underused in technology-enhanced learning (TEL) systems. In this article, we draw up the potential and limits of TEL systems based on traces for reflexive purposes. We then highlight the characteristics which TEL systems should have to use traces to foster reflexivity. We finally discuss how systems could enrich the self-confrontation process with traces.     

Taking things into account: learning as kinaesthetically-mediated collaboration

This paper presents research on participant learning processes in challenge course workshops using the framework known as Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT). CHAT views learning as a shared, social process rather than as an individual event. Participants' experiencing and learning was mediated by the physical and social conditions of the experience and by the contributions of other participants. The concept of mediation suggests that the meaning participants make of experience is not an individual event, but instead is enacted as a creative, collaborative process using cultural and institutional tools. The recognition that people's physical, social and reflective learning processes are mediated, challenges longstanding assumptions about the radical autonomy of learners, about 'direct experience,' and about the centrality of independent, cognitive reflection in experiential learning. Empirical data showing processes of mediation are presented, and the implications for research and theory are discussed.