A question of Experiential Learning

"Experience in itself does not guarantee learning. In order to learn from experience,we must reflect on our experiences; try to relate them to theory; and then plan how we might do better next time."

 

So says Mister Petty in his book, Teaching Today illustating this with Kolb's cycle.  This really resonated with me, it is undeniably important, and I think we've all experienced the act of doing this.  I have been responsible in the past for the devising of lesson plans and enacting them, reflecting and modifying delevery and content, disscussing with other practitioners, gleaning new ideas and approaches, implementing them and starting the cycle again.  However, I had never before seen this cycle as theory, only as good practice.

 

I think that seeing this as a concrete structure and actively understanding and implementing it as theory, rather than implicit practice is important, but not only for educators, also for students.  So many of these theories are aimed at educators, not only for the improvement of their own practice, but also to embed in lesson structure to maximise the education value of what they are trying to teach.  What is explict for educators is implicit for students.  I'm not sure that this is best practice.  Should we not educate students in the understanding of their own learning? Learning to learn, and Teaching to be taught? 

 

So often in class the dominant question of the students is WHY? This is actively encouraged in relation to learning material, but discouraged in relation to the teaching practice.  "why are we doing this?" or more often "What is the point?" I think it would be advantageous for students, certainly by University level, possibly earlier, to understand the mechanics of their learning and the lessons they are engaged with. 

 

As I have learnt these theories I have reflected on my university course and seen in some instances where they have been applied, giving me those golden moments of understanding...."Oh, that was what I was supposed to be getting out of it!".... Unfortunately, this has often come too late, we see then the gulf we identified in the academic literacies model, between the student's and teacher's expectations.  The current vogue of using Learning Objectives, applied in primary and secondary education (though not very often in undergraduate study I have found - this module, of course, being an exception), is one step closer to bridging this devide, however it still does not tell the student how they will achieve the objectives stated.  There is an undercurrent of deminished expectation of learners, that they will not understand or appreciate this knowledge, but must be coerced or tricked with the skills of a teacher-magician into asimilating knowledge.

 

As a tutor I have found that students are often unaware of the way in which they learn.  As the education system weans them off into self-directed learning, around A-levels, I think that understanding themselves as learners is highly informative and relates directly to their achievement, through good note taking, efficient revision and effective personal study.

 

I would argue that certain theories such as: Learning Style - Kinesthetic/Auditory/Visual and Experiential Learning, should be actively taught to students, turning their implicitly understood learning practices into explicit ones that they can access and use to their own advantage.