Exploring an experiential learning project through Kolb's Learning Theory using a qualitative research method

Experiential learning pedagogy is taking a lead in the development of graduate attributes and educational aims as these are of prime importance for society. This paper shows a community service experiential project conducted in China. The project enabled students to serve the affected community in a post-earthquake area by applying their knowledge and skills. This paper documented the students’ learning process from their project goals, pre-trip preparations, work progress, obstacles encountered to the final results and reflections. Using the data gathered from a focus group interview approach, the four components of Kolb's learning cycle, the concrete experience, reflection observation, abstract conceptualisation and active experimentation, have been shown to transform and internalise student's learning experience, achieving a variety of learning outcomes. The author will also explore how this community service type of experiential learning in the engineering discipline allowed students to experience deep learning and develop their graduate attributes.     

Student participation in learning environment improvement: analysis of a co-design project in a Finnish upper secondary school

The present educational design research involved analysing Finnish upper secondary school students’ participation in the improvement of their psychosocial and technology-enhanced physical learning environment (LE). It examined which LE characteristics students considered important when redesigning their LE, and whether they felt that their ideas for improvement had been taken into account in the LE change process and if there was an improvement in these characteristics. A Learning Environment Design (LED) framework balancing the various LE dimensions, namely, communality and individuality, comfort and health, novelty and conventionality, was utilised in the analysis for four sets of data collected for four cycles: (a) co-design activities (students, n = 11) and (b) student feedback (n = 175); (c) professional design evaluation (students, n = 2); and (d) student satisfaction survey (n = 83). Students considered all LE dimensions important. In addition, they felt that their wishes were generally taken into account in the redesign and also they perceived an improvement in most of the LE characteristics. Student involvement helped to avoid overly radical changes, fostered a participatory culture, and contributed to understanding what students view as important to their learning and wellbeing. The study demonstrated the usefulness of the LED-framework for LE design and suggests content-related design principles to serve as a starting point in LE improvement projects involving learners.     

Diversity study circles in teacher education practice: An experiential learning project

This paper addresses the dilemma of trying to prepare primarily white preservice teachers for educational arenas in which they will interface with students of colour and many who are socially disadvantaged. This paper describes how diversity study circles can be integrated as integral to education that is multicultural in the development of preservice teachers’ critical self-reflection as a bridge to developing a critical lens for classroom practice and a democratic society.     

Student involvement in assessment: a project designed to assess class participation fairly and reliably

This article describes a project designed to ensure that class participation in a large introductory commercial law course is assessed fairly and reliably. The subjectivity often associated with this type of assessment is minimized by involving students in the specification of clear criteria and the assessment process as they were asked to assess themselves and their peers. Formative feedback is given mid‐way through the semester so that students have the opportunity to take remedial measures where necessary and teachers can reinforce positive behaviour. The data are analyzed to determine the relationships between the assessments given by the students, their peers and tutors. There is evidence of some gender bias in Week 13 that is not consistent with the final marks. Finally, the combining of the individual assessment of the criteria is shown to be a good estimate of the final class participation mark given by the tutors and the students.     

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.     

Student laboratory presentations as a learning tool in anatomy education

Previous studies have shown that anatomy students who complete oral laboratory presentations believe they understand the material better and retain it longer than they otherwise would if they only took examinations on the material; however, we have found no studies that empirically test such outcomes. The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of oral presentations through comparisons with other methods of assessment, most notably, examination performance. Specifically, we tested whether students (n = 256) performed better on examination questions on topics covered by their oral presentations than on other topics. Each student completed two graded, 12‐minute laboratory presentations on two different assigned topics during the course and took three examinations, each of which covered a third of the course material. Examination questions were characterized by type (memorization, pathway, analytical, spatial). A two‐way repeated measures analysis of variance revealed that students performed better on topics covered by their presentations than on topics not covered by their presentations (P < 0.005), regardless of presentation grade (P > 0.05) and question type (P > 0.05). These results demonstrate empirically that oral presentations are an effective learning tool. Anat Sci Educ 2: 260–264, 2009. © 2009 American Association of Anatomists.     

Design-based research with mARC ID model: designing experiential learning environments

Learning Environments Research - The relationship between experience (through practice) and knowledge (by theory) is becoming increasingly important in contemporary educational research and...     

Uncomfortable pedagogy: experiential learning as an anthropological encounter in the Asia-Pacific

This paper features a discussion of how educators can channel anthropological practices towards the enhancement of experiential learning (EL) teaching methods, particularly on the topic of religion across the Asia-Pacific. I argue that our capacity to achieve curricular objectives through EL calls for an attentiveness to the affinity between the empirical challenges confronted by ethnographers, who work to create rapport between researcher and subject, and classroom teachers who seek to cultivate a conducive learning environment beyond the classroom walls. I show the pedagogical implications of the ways anthropologists have operationalized their discipline’s “critical turn” by highlighting two experiential domains: (1) through activities of “uncomfortable” stereotype self-inventory and (2) through a dialogic pedagogy that pursues meaningful learning outcomes through the “struggle” to recognize inter-cultural and religious agency among students.     

Student voice as a methodological issue in academic literacies research

Academic literacies research has been identified as an emerging but significant field in higher education. This article extends the discussions around methodology in academic literacies research by drawing on the current text and context debates in sociolinguistics and linguistic ethnography. It uses illustrations from a recent academic literacies research project to reflect on methodology and to emphasise the importance of a prolonged engagement with participants’ writing practices and experiences as well as the collection and analysis of a range of types of data to allow the researcher to become more familiar with the context. Methods such as allowing students to interpret their own writing, classroom observation and students’ written literacy histories gave the researcher real insights into the way students made connections to their own familiar contexts in order to learn. The research also highlighted the manner in which communication between students and teaching staff can break down because teachers misinterpret student utterances when they do not understand or know the contexts that the students are drawing on. At the same time, however, the researcher sounds some caution about the use of dialogue in ethnographic methodologies because communication is a two-way process and allocation of linguistic resources has been unequal. Therefore, where students’ resources do not match the context, they may struggle to communicate with the interviewer and to interpret their written texts. In these cases, interviewees who are first language speakers from privileged schooling backgrounds may be able to contextualise and interpret their writing more fully than interviewees who are speakers of English as a second or foreign language and who come from poorer rural schools.     

Triggers of emotional highs in experiential learning

This study is concerned with emotional highs in experiential learning and, more specifically, determining triggers that lead to emotional highs. The research aims not only to understand the invisible side of emotions, but also genuinely consider how learners make sense of their experiences. To study the triggers of emotional highs, a deliberate decision was made to approach the phenomenon as an experience. Hermeneutic phenomenology is used as an overarching methodology. The study focused on experiences of 15 adult learners who participated in 1 of 3 experiential learning courses. The 3 courses were residential, lasted 4–8 days and took place with an equal number of days indoors and outdoors. Learners were asked to make sense of their lived experience through surveys, reflection and semi-structured interviews. Eight themes of emotional high triggers emerged, including Sense of being pushed, Out-of-me experience and Escaping one’s environment.     

Promoting experiential learning in pre-service teacher education

This report introduces the experiential learning initiative at a major university in Hong Kong that prepares pre-service teachers with experience of engaging with social and cultural issues in teaching. It calls on teacher educators in different contexts to work together on similar initiatives that help pre-service teachers grow professionally through designing, developing, managing and promoting their experiential learning projects to enhance human development and improve human conditions.     

Case study on community-based learning: toy design project for children in Egyptian squatter community

Introduction to Engineering is the first engineering course American University in Cairo students take upon admission to the engineering program. It is required of students in all disciplines of engineering. It is a one-credit-hour course that covers topics including history of engineering, engineering fields of specializations, the engineering profession, engineering communications, engineering ethics, and societal obligations. Community-based learning (CBL) was introduced into the course via the required course project. The project was to design toys for children at a school in a disadvantaged squatter community in Old Cairo, Egypt, where infrastructure is poor and education and social mobility can be very limited. The project was carried out in partnership with a non-governmental organization based in Old Cairo. This paper shows how the introductory engineering course was redesigned to integrate CBL while meeting the stated ABET course outcomes. Included are detailed instructions on the tools and structure of the project to provide an example for others wishing to adapt some of these tools to other courses. The paper presents the outcome assessments and survey results to evaluate the project’s success at meeting the stated outcomes and includes a discussion on the benefits to the students and the community partner.     

Applying self-organised learning to develop critical thinkers for learning organisations: a conversational action research project

The information explosion characteristic of a knowledge-based economy is fuelled by rapid technological changes. As technology continues to permeate our lives, there will be fresh demands upon the conduct of learning and teaching to ensure that learners are equipped with new economy skills and dispositions for creating significant and relevant meaning out of the large chunks of transmitted data. In the spirit of building learning organisations, this paper proposes that a two-pronged strategy of promoting self-organised learning (SoL) amongst educators and students be adopted. As an enabling framework based on social constructivism, the model of SoL, originally developed by Harri-Augstein & Thomas, is described and applied to an educational setting. For educators engaged in action research, SoL is suited as an approach for managing and reflecting upon change. The use of two such thinking tools, the Personal Learning Contract and the Purpose-Strategy-Outcome-Review (PSOR) reflective learning scaffolds are considered. For students who are now expected to learn independently in situations requiring problem-solving skills, much akin to real life contexts, this article also considers the application of Learning Plans as a conversational tool for personal project management. The authors conclude that SoL promotes skilful critical thinking through a systems thinking process of continuous reflective learning. It is proposed that these are essential qualities for citizens working in a technological age. Case study samples of the thinking tools used in this action research project are included as appendices and evaluated in this article.     

Student activity and learning outcomes in a virtual learning environment

The aim of the study was to explore the relationship between degree of participation and learning outcomes in an e-learning course on medical informatics. Overall activity in using course materials and degree of participation in the discussion forums of an online course were studied among 39 medical students. Students were able to utilise the course material in discussion groups focusing on the lectures, quizzes and students’ own notes. Each student’s data recording of activities and individual participation in discussion in the online course was analysed in order to assess which activities predicted learning outcome. Higher course grades were associated with studying the course material frequently and also with regular participation in reading postings and replying to them. There were no connections between learning outcome and the students’ original contributions to the discussion forums. There were no statistically significant differences between male and female students in how they utilised the various components of the learning material.     

The contribution of reflective learning to experiential learning in business education

Abstract

Experiential learning theory states that reflection is just as important to learning as action. However, business educators often overlook reflection in their experiential learning activities, especially when it’s understood as a dialogue process. Drawing on reflective learning theory, we explored the case of an undergraduate business programme that has been combining experiential learning with three different reflective learning mechanisms for the past ten years. Results show that: (1) reflective dialogue is central for ensuring that impressions from experience translate into better-defined learning outcomes, (2) this dialogue process greatly benefits from a closely guided process, and (3) different reflection mechanisms contribute differently to the learning process. Considering how fast experiential learning has popularised in business schools, this study alerts educators to the importance of combining their experiential learning activities with a guided process of reflection. Otherwise, educators risk students extracting meagre, wrong or misleading impressions from their experience.     

Student learning experience as indicator of teaching quality

The purpose of the study was to develop an improved teaching evaluation questionnaire based on students’ learning experiences and selected teacher characteristics identified as indicators of teaching quality. Teaching evaluation questionnaires are commonly designed either based on agreed indicators of teaching excellence, students’ suggestions of characteristics of excellence, or dimensions identified from interviews conducted with excellent teachers. In this study, however, students’ evaluation of their own learning experiences in learner centered classes and a hypothesized framework derived from the literature were used to develop the items for the questionnaire. Students attended to courses designed in a learner centered paradigm and evaluated their learning experiences. Based on the hypothesized framework and students’ reflections of their experiences, items were designed and validated at various levels. Exploratory factor analysis resulted in a 24-item Student Evaluation of Learning and Teaching Questionnaire (SELTQ) that comprises four factors: assessment and feedback; course organization and presentation; student self evaluation; and students’ level of engagement. As opposed to the questionnaire widely used in higher education institutions in Ethiopia that focuses on the evaluation of selected teacher characteristics, the new measure enables students to evaluate teaching in terms of their own learning progress.     

Under-tapped potential: practitioner research as a vehicle for widening participation

Abstract

Practitioners working to widen participation to universities in England are an increasingly important and professionally diverse group but surprisingly absent from the academic literature and lacking in access to bespoke professional development pathways in HE. In England current approaches within policy and research also tend to position them as gatherers of evidence with a mission to inform change rather than developing their capacity to be(come) agents of change in their own right. Drawing on the perspectives of three widening participation practitioners who had recently completed a research-based MA, this paper explores the opportunity that this provided to illuminate the complexities encountered in routine practice, contributing to positive change. Rather than being methodologically inferior, practitioner research emerged as highly complementary and in the case of WP its transformative potential is currently hugely under-tapped.     

Student learning behaviours as a means for a cognitive evaluation of a physics program

The formative evaluation model presented here examines the character of classroom interaction by juxtaposing required and performed student learning behaviours. We use the concept of learning behaviours as a tool for the examination of interactions among the commonplaces of learning (students, teachers, and curriculum materials). We define learning behaviours as actions performed by the students as a result of learning stimuli that are presumed to advance the student towards the acquirement of new knowledge. Learning behaviours may have negative as well as positive outcomes. For example, the identification of variables in an experiment, a required learning behaviour, might very possibly lead to the identification of non-relevant as well as relevant variables. This could lead to the development of misconceptions concerning conclusions drawn from the experiment. Hopefully, such student misconceptions arising from the materials would be identified during the process of formative evaluation. The evaluation model described here is an integral part of a curriculum project aimed at the development of learning materials in physics for technical vocational high schools. In particular, the materials are intended to teach basic principles of physics to students of poor motivation and limited ability. They are oriented towards the needs of technical vocational students and present physics and technology as complementary disciplines (Finegold & Reiner, 1984).