Experiential and Constructivist Learning Experiential approach to learning can be an extremely effective form of learning, especially for adults. Confucius said “Tell me, and I will forget. Show me and I may remember” and that saying still applies to today as many adults learn better by experience than they do by the traditional chalk and talk (Conlan, Grabowski & Smith, 2012). The following essay will discuss how to utilize experiential learning in a heavy equipment construction company. It will illustrate how to facilitate student employee learning by doing. Ideas, Skills and Student Outcomes Learning to operate heavy equipment, or in this case a font end loader, is no straightforward task. It is a skilled trade and takes many months if not years to learn (depending on the student’s natural abilities). The most efficient technique to learn how to operate heavy equipment is by performing the task of operating the equipment, or as it is called in the industry, on-the-job training. The idea is to allow the student feel how the machine works, feels, and operates. The skills that are required can and do take numerous months to discover. The student’s desire is to progress everyday until in the end they are efficient enough to start making the company money. The Student The apprentice is an employee that the organization has hired to operate equipment. However, people who come to the organization to operate equipment often do not have the experience and in many cases have never operated heavy equipment before. The student in this case is an adult 18 years or older who possess a clean driving record and have a true desire to learn. Understanding how to operate equipment at the rate in which the company needs from its emp... ... middle of paper ... ...cases. The experiential learning cycle and its five stages are an effective means for helping students learn. Adults often learn best and rely on their own experiences when taking in new information. This learning approach allows adults to have that personal experience to fall back on. In most cases, they would not have that experience; in this situation, by providing the experience they will better understand and can formulate a plan for success. Works Cited Answers Corporation. (2013). How to define experimental learning. Retrieved from http://adulteducation.answers.com/learning/how-to-define-experiential-learning Conlan, J., Grabowski, S., & Smith, Katie. (2012). Adult learning. Retrieved from http://epltt.coe.uga.edu/index.php?title=Adult_Learning Evans, D. N. (2006). Models, strategies, and methods for effective teaching. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Learning is an interaction between the individual and the situation. The role of context is heavily emphasised.
One of the major goals of training is to have workers transfer what they learn from instruction to their jobs. As instructional designers, we need to ensure that workers will apply on the job what they learned during instruction. I feel complacency must be taken into consideration when designing instruction in order to help achieve competent performance.
When entering college freshman students face difficulties by not knowing how to adjust to the new expectations college brings. A freshman student tends to approach college with the same mentality used throughout their high school years. But as the first semester start, they encounter a variety of challenges, including having to change their study habits and knowing how to wisely manage their time. The book “The Elements of Learning” by B. Banner, Jr., and C. Cannon, introduces the elements a student must possess in order be successful in college. The research made by my team, “Collin’s Angels”, will determine important factors for freshman success, and the changes that a student makes in order to succeed through the first year of college.
I found Kolb's (1984) model of experiential learning a useful way to summarize the process if individual learning. The cycle begins when we each experience the world through our senses. Kolb calls this step ‘concreate experience', to indicate that he does not mean the various experiences we have through books or plays, but real-world experiences. Examples of concrete experience could be as varied as sitting through a boring meeting or suffering the distress of losing a job. Kolb suggest that to learn from our experiences we must engage in a second step of consistency reflecting on what has occurred. This step he calls ‘reflective observation'. We are able to reflect on much less than what occurred in the actual experience. Reflection is selective and influenced by our expectations. The third step in the learning cycle is making sense of what we have experience. In other words, ‘abstract conceptualization'. The final step in Kolb's model is ‘active experimentation'. At this step, we test out the meaning that we have constructed by taking action in the world – which then leads to new experiences. Kolb has shown that over time we tend to get more proficient at some steps of the process that at others, thus we develop a learning style preference. Kolb has noted all the steps are necessary, the smallest alteration to any of these steps can make the learning process less
Stage 2 of Kolb’s 1984 four-stage Experiential Learning Model, involves reflective observation of an experience. The cycle treats reflection as an imperative part of learning. Upon reflection of the patient counselling scenario, I have realised that actually experiencing an event, rather than simply observing, has proven effective in my learning. This is supported by Bonwell and Eison (1991) who discuss how active learning is important in aiding student education.
Dr. Smilkstein’s learning process is brilliant. The Natural Human Learning Process describes the six steps that the human brain goes through when learning something new. The process describes the way we learn different skills and the way our emotions can determine the way we learn. This process has helped me and other humans to understand the way the human brain works along with the way we learn.
Amongst reading the materials about the learning theories, I came to the conclusion that the three most important learning experiences in my life were: experiential learning, which is the “process of learning through experience, and is more specifically defined as learning through reflection on doing" (Patrick, 2011, p. 1003), workplace learning which “helps employees to increase their skills and become stronger performers in their company”, and Informal learning which is the unofficial, unscheduled and/or impromptu way, most of us learn to do our jobs. Informal learning “is like riding a bicycle: the rider chooses the destination and the route. The cyclist can take a detour at a moment 's notice to admire the scenery or help a fellow rider” (Cross, 2014). Many people in a company contribute to the availability of workplace learning, “including professional trainers, organizational development specialists, human resource personnel and managers” (Bianca, 2015). Everything that I learned and experienced with each of these learning theories have influenced my life differently.
1. Describe what “experiential learning” is, and compare it to behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism, and constructionism.
Kolb’s Theory of Experiential Learning describes learning as a process, a 4 stage cycle in which learning is grounded in experiences. Learners move through phases of concrete experience, rereflective observation, abstract conceptualization, an active experimentation as they learn new tasks(Nilson, 2010).
Kolb explains that “different people naturally prefer a certain single different learning style. Various factors influence a person's preferred style: notably in his experiential learning theory model (ELT) Kolb defined three stages of a person's development and suggests that our propensity to reconcile and successfully integrate the four different learning styles improves as we mature through our development stages. The development stages that Kolb identified are:
Experiential Learning is a powerful form of learning. As stated by Lewis and Williams “In its simplest form, experiential learning means learning from experience or learning by doing. Experiential education first immerses learners in an experience and then encourages reflection about the experience to develop new skills, new attitudes, or new ways of thinking.” (1994, p.5). Learning through experience is something that each one of us do in our daily lives, often on a subconscious level. Rather than reading, viewing or thinking of how to do something with experiential learning we can learn by doing. Traditional teaching or training may not always be the best way for all students in both the educational setting or corporate setting to learn. Often when you use reading a book, or listening to a lecture the
Apprenticeship Programme is an occupational skill training that combines on-the- job experiences with classroom instruction. It represents a tradition of providing young people with vital life skills. Part of this is the chance to learn a craft, to build expertise and to excel in a particular vocation (Lammy, 2007).
Constructivist learning theory is creating meaning from experience. Learning is an active process within a context. Knowledge is constructed as opposed to being acquired. Our personal experiences subjectively shape our knowledge with each learning experience from the time we are born until we die. Constructivism is organic in nature because our learning is developed from prior knowledge within our mind while also constantly broadening with each new life experience. Learning is an autonomously controlled cognitive system, which interacts with its own conditions; this differentiates and modifies the independence of its own structure (Juvova et al., 2015). We as educators must turn away from the mindset that we are simply pouring knowledge
Experiential learning, also known as involved or evidential learning. (Evidential is an adjective that means serving as evidence). Experimental learning is the prosses by which one learns by actually doing. For example, when one learned a new dance, one would first watch the dance, then learn by actually practicing the moves. Experiential learning, also known as involved or evidential learning. John Dewey and Jean Pigged were the first to study experimental learning, and later made popular by David A. Kolb and Roger Fry. Experiential learning consists of four major concepts, for example one concept that is mentioned is called concrete experience in which is the involvement of a new experience. Another concept of the four
The most successful teaching begins with clarity about important learning outcomes and about the evidence that will show that learning has occurred (Marzano, 2010, p. 74)