Learning through Experience

1
Learning through Experience

• Experiential Learning in Perspective

2
A Historical Perspective

• The Renaissance Man - Education was for the elite
  and not expected to be vocationally oriented
• Science, Medicine and law were studied by the
  elite since they required more education -
  incorporated some applied learning
• Apprenticeships in the trades and the arts were
  mostly supported by the elite - often many years
  in duration
• Carried a class prejudice that devolved into
  negative views of vocational education

3
A Century of Change

• 1844 Patent Office recommendation to close
• Turn of the century information explosion - more
  books written in the last century than in all the
  previous centuries combined
• Rapid change - science and technical skills
• Materialism - decline in values and some personal
  skills

4
Employer Response

• Extensive training for new hires
• Opportunities for students before graduation
• High school programs
• Certificate programs
• Internships
• Cooperative Education
• Scholarships

5
Necessary Skills

• SCANs skills (Secretarys Report on Necessary
  Skills,1990)
• Similar documents in Canada, the U.K., and
  Australia
• Pew Institute White Paper on Higher Education
  (Edgerton,1997)
• Accreditation Bodies, Legislators, Parents

6
Employers Driving the Market

• Increased need for skills increases competition
• Definitions begin to change
• Internships that were one semester capstone
  experiences became any job filled by a student
• Less focus on educational processes

7
The Educators Role

• Implementation of diverse educational strategies
  to meet discipline-related demands
• Restructured courses
• Interdisciplinary courses
• Experiential Learning courses
• Need for skills outside the usual curricular
  domain
• Students are drawn to state-of-the-art
  professional environments

8
Experiential Learning

• John Dewey (1889-1952) suggested (1916) that
• learning occurs as a result of problem-solving in
  authentic environments faced by the learner
• education is the changing of behavior through
  experience.
• education requires thinking and reflection,
  guided by educators,
• interaction and environments for learning must
  provide continuing opportunities for practice.
  (1938)

9
Experiential Learning

• Tyler (1950) operationalized these concepts in an
  education process having four elements as
  follows
• formulating goals
• providing experiences to attain stated objectives
• organizing experiences to provide continuity and
  sequence to help students integrate learning
  experiences
• evaluating to what extent objectives have been
  achieved.

10
Evolved definition

• An educational strategy that
• Promotes active and intentional student learning
• Assists students to develop knowledge, skills,
  and attitudes toward learning course content and
  making a positive contribution to society
• Applies classroom content in real-world
  situations
• Provides major- or service-related experience
• Accommodates for different learning styles
• Includes reflection and supervision
• Partners with industry and non-profit agencies

11
Diverse Formats

• Internships - one semester of major-related
  experience in a real-world environment
• Co-op - series of paid, progressively responsible
  internships over multiple semesters
• Service-Learning - students learn course content
  and civic engagement through projects in
  government and non-profit agencies

12
A Menu of Options

• Cooperative Education
• Practica
• Clinical Practice
• Internships
• Design Projects
• Service-Learning
• Undergraduate Research
• Study Abroad
• Others?

13
All Require Collaboration
University Experiential Learning Faculty in
departments
Employer Work site supervisor
Student By major, academic level skills
14
NSEE Standards of PracticeEight principles for
quality

• Monitoring and continuous improvement
• Assessment and evaluation
• Acknowledgement

• Intention
• Preparedness and Planning
• Authenticity
• Reflection
• Orientation and training

15
References

• Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education. New
  York Free Press.
• Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. New
  York Collier Books
• Edgerton, R. (1997). White paper on higher
  education. Philadelphia Pew Charitable Trust.
• Kolb, D.A. (1984) Experiential Learning,
  Englewood Cliffs, NJ Prentice Hall.
• National Society for Experiential Education,
  www.nsee.org.
• Secretarys Commission on Advancing Necessary
  Skills. (1990). SCANS report. Washington, DC US
  Department of Labor.
• Tyler, R.W. (1950). Basic principles of
  curriculum and instruction. Chicago University
  of Chicago Press.