The Nature of Experiential Learning

Often dysfunctional, always incomplete

Need to use present experience to test our beliefs, correcting the misinterpretations we’ve made

We often manipulate experience to fit our beliefs

We usually see and hear selectively

Stop and Think

Can you recall a personally significant learning experience?

In formal education or in the school of life? What was it? What were the circumstances surrounding the experience? Why was it significant to you?

What Makes Learning Significant?

(experience attended toand reflected on)

(experience not attended to)

Learning Non-Learning

Experience

Non-Significant Significant

(can involve expansion but is not subjectively valued)

• Subjectively valued AND

• Has personal impact involving expansion or transformation

Informal and Incidental Learning from ExperienceInformal Learning: Can be planned or unplanned,

but usually conscious awareness that learning is taking place

Incidental Learning: A by-product of some other activity; usually unintentional, unexamined, and embedded in closely held belief systems

Marsick and Watkins’ definitions, 1990, 1992

Informal Learning

Requires becoming aware of conscious learning in a non-routine situation as people reflect on experience

Incidental Learning

When incidental learning occurs, people often act with little or no reflection, and the learning is thus embedded in their action

To bring awareness of learning to surface requires making tacit assumptions explicit; Langer calls this concept “mindfulness”

What proportion of our learning do you think is informal and incidental as compared to formal learning?

What are the implications of this for the learners you teach?

What do we mean by “reflective practice?”

Stephen Brookfield’s concept of

critical reflection

David Boud’s ideas about reflective learning through writing

Donald Schön’s concepts• Knowing-in-

action • Reflection-on-

action • Reflection-in-

action

What strategies do you use to engage learners in reflective practice?

Journal writingEnd-of-course reflective essaysBlogs as reflective learning journalsDigital storytelling

Practices to Enhance Student BloggingExplain the “WHY” for engaging in reflective practice

Explain the “HOW” of reflective practice with a blog

Create some structure:

Model the process with your own blog!

How do Digital Stories

Contribute to Reflective Learning?

Steps in the Digital Storytelling ProcessFirst, write the story –

aim for 300 wordsShare the story orally in

a story circle with peersContinue to refine and

reduce the story to its key elements; peer feedback helps

Create a storyboardRemember, it’s an

iterative process

Search free digital media sites for photos licensed under the Creative Commons for remixing and Attribution/ Share Alike

Choose music to create tone and set the emotion of the story

Download Microsoft Photostory 3 and begin to arrange photos, music, transitions, and narration to create the desired effect

Photostory saves work as a movie file; can upload to YouTube

Steps in the Digital Storytelling Process

What is the Creative Commons?A San Francisco non-

profit organization founded in 2002 that has developed several copyright licenses that are free to the public, designed to expand the range of creative works for others to build upon

In Conclusion, Reflective Practice … Engages students in deeper-level learning

from experience

Can challenge taken-for-granted assumptions

Generates social learning when carried out in a supportive community of student bloggers

Can be creative and emotionally expressive when learners are engaged in digital storytelling

References for this presentationBoud, D. (2001, Summer). Using journal writing to enhance reflective practice. New Directions for

Adult and Continuing Education, 90, 9-17.

Boud, D., Keogh, R., & Walker, D. (1985). (Eds.). Reflection: Turning experience into learning. New York: Kogan Page.

Brookfield, S. D. (1987). Developing critical thinkers: Challenging adults to explore alternative ways of thinking and acting. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Brookfield, S. D. (1995). Becoming a critically reflective teacher. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Brookfield, S. D. (1997, Fall). Accessing critical thinking. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 74, 17-29.

Carter, T. J. (2010, in press). Blogging as reflective practice in the graduate classroom. In K. King & T. Cox (Eds.), Teaching with digital media: Best practices and innovations in higher education. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publications.

Hull, G. A., & Katz, M. (2006, August). Crafting an agentive self: Case studies of digital storytelling. Research in the Teaching of English, 41(1), 43-81.

McLellan, H. (2008, October). Digital storytelling: Expanding media possibilities for learning. Educational Technology, 18-21.

Robin, B. R. (2008). Digital storytelling: A powerful technology tool for the 21st century classroom. Theory into Practice, 47, 220-228. doi: 10.1080/00405840802153916

Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. New York: Basic Books.

Schön, D. A. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Wilson, A. L. (2009, Fall). Reflecting on reflecting on practice. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 123, 75-85.