Activity Eight - Adult Learning Theory - Information on Experiential Education

What is Experiential Learning?

Learning from experience (experiential learning) is the "natural way of learning".  Experiential learning has come to mean two different types of learning:

Experiential learning by yourself

Experiential learning is "education that occurs as a direct participation in the events of life".  Here learning is "informal", organised by people themselves. It is learning that is achieved through reflection upon everyday experience and is the way that most of us do most of our learning.

Experiential Learning Through Programs Structured By Others

Principles of experiential learning are used to design experiential education programs.  Emphasis is placed on the subjective nature of participants' experiences.  The teacher's goal is to help organise and facilitate access to direct experiences of phenomenon so that genuine (meaningful and long-lasting) learning occurs.

From James Neil’s site: www.wilderdom.com

What is Experiential Education?

Experiential education is a philosophy and methodology in which educators purposefully engage with learners in direct experience and focused reflection in order to increase knowledge, develop skills, and clarify values.

The principles of experiential education practice are:

·  Experiential learning occurs when carefully chosen experiences are supported by reflection, critical analysis, and synthesis.

·  Experiences are structured to require the learner to take initiative, make decisions, and be accountable for the results.

·  Throughout the experiential learning process, the learner is actively engaged in posing questions, investigating, experimenting, being curious, solving problems, assuming responsibility, being creative, and constructing meaning.

·  Learners are engaged intellectually, emotionally, socially, soulfully, and/or physically. This involvement produces a perception that the learning task is authentic.

·  The results of the learning are personal and form the basis for future experience and learning.

·  Relationships are developed and nurtured: learner to self, learner to others, and learner to the world at large.

·  The educator and learner may experience success, failure, adventure, risk-taking, and uncertainty, since the outcomes of experience cannot be totally predicted.

·  Opportunities are nurtured for learners and educators to explore and examine their own values.

·  The educator's primary roles include setting suitable experiences, posing problems, setting boundaries, supporting learners, insuring physical and emotional safety, and facilitating the learning process.

·  The educator recognizes and encourages spontaneous opportunities for learning.

·  Educators strive to be aware of their biases, judgments, and pre-conceptions and how they influence the learner

·  The design of the learning experience includes the possibility to learn from natural consequences, mistakes, and successes.

From the Association for Experiential Education (AEE) website: www.aee.org

Activity Three

Investigating Flexible Learning

For this activity I talked to a lecturer, who is in a similar role to myself, working in the Outdoor Leadership field but for another Polytechnic.

The students: 2nd year Outdoor Recreation students, aged between 18-29, all New Zealand European/Pakeha (no Maori, foreigners), 80% from the North island.

Time

He identified that time can be a real challenge in terms of work/life balance for both the students and the staff. Staff can often feel overloaded, struggle to manage with the systems and find it hard to stay organised and keep students in touch with what is going on. One reason for this is that they spend a lot of the time in the field outdoors. This can vary a lot from week to week but they will often leave to go quite early (around 6am) and generally get back sometime between  5-11.30pm.

As students this field time can also be a challenge and they need to priortise to self-manage as well as staying focused on when things are due.

Entry Requirements

Students need to have successfully completed a first year program in Outdoor Recreation. Some students get direct entry straight into 2nd year but this is not easily done and is determined from a solid base of logged prior practical outdoor experience.

Delivery and Logistics

Around 50% of this course is out in the field, 50% class time.

Outdoors

-Travel is by van or bus

- Location: they go all over the South Island depending on where is most suitable for what they are learning

- Rain or shine

Classrooms

- in about 15 different rooms and outside

- they use a variety of different mediums and technology to put across information including overheads, powerpoints, discussion, interaction, videos, whiteboards

- Students will work in varying group sizes (solo, pairs, small groups, larger group discussions)

- Small class sizes - 14-28

- Normal sessions are 2 hours with a break sometime in the middle

Content and Instructional Approaches

Lecturers try to cater to visual/audible/kinasethic learners both in the classroom and in the field.

Combination of face-to-face, DOING, listening and sharing ideas, reviewing, lectures, utilising resources, and receiving/giving feedback.

The course can often be perceived as something you would do to have a good time, to have fun. For some students it can be challenging to get them to be committed to the theory or assignments that go along with the practical assessments.

A lot of the learning is done through hands on experience - See Experiential Learning Cycle

Experiential Learning Cycle 3-stage models (Kolb, 1984)

Resources

For each course the students get given a hardcopy book, which they can use as a resource to add notes to or take away in the field.

They are also given a calender with all assessment dates for the year - and lecturers will inform them if there are any changes to this.

The timetable and course outlines can not be accessed online - instead the students are given a hardcopy of the timetable. The lecturer felt this system could be improved be make it more flexible as sometimes the students would lose this.

Students also have access to a climbing wall facility and library where can access information.

Activity Two

What does flexible learning mean to me?

The term "flexible learning" could be interpreted in many different ways. I see there being two aspects to flexible learning - the educator and the student.
On discussion with a college in the outdoor sector we both came up with some points that we felt embraced flexible learning;

• catering to different learning stules
• being open to students ideas/concepts
• adaptability - with both content and timeframes
  Content - having a plan of what you were hoping to deliver but adjusting this in response to student interactions to maximise their learning
  Timeframes - if you feel the student energy levels are low you might adjust your timeframes, or if you are taking a class late friday afternoon you may make it more interactive to keep students engaged

Why is it necessary to use a more flexible approach in your work?

Being flexible allows you to both understand and be more effective in catering to all learners. This is not just their preferred learning style but also their cultural backgrounds, personalities, social factors and where they have come from to name a few. As students they may also be dealing with issues such as work/life balance, financial or flatting difficulties.
Having resources available to aid in learning in their own time, being available and approachable (rapport being an important factor here) and setting the students up well in understanding educational systems are all important aspects here.

What do you need to explore to help this happen?

I need to become more efficient in setting up resources electronically to aid student learning. I am currently teaching environmental science which is a field I am really interested in making into a really "great" course" with resources that the students can draw on. However having sufficient time to develop this is a challenge I am currently facing.
Taking the time to build rapport with students and gain a better understanding of who they are will help in both developing courses that match their needs while increasing my approachability.
Being reflective of my work and making changes to take into the future is also important. Receiving feedback from students is also a critical part that can aid in my self reflection of teaching.
Giving students direct verbal and written feedback throughout their learning and not just at the end can also be crucial in developing flexible learning - as they can adapt their style and practises as well.
As a new member of staff I also need to continue to become more familiar with polytech systems e.g. moodle, assignment policies etc so that I can also be clear with students around expectations and help them gain a good grasp of systems. Role modelling behaviour can also be important in students understanding expectations.

What goals to you have for using Flexible learning in your work?

1. Resources - By the end of the year I want to set up some more powerpoint lectures for Environmental Science with great content that is interactive, which could be used as a tool for students to refer back to. This would include further developing the current weather information,  and setting up flora, fauna, geology and environmental initiatives - that could be used for setting up the assessment tasks more effectively.
2. Reflection - I have started a page of tips to take into next years courses with aspects I would change or develop.
3. Use debriefing tools to ensure self/social development of students is occuring so that they understand and met expectations as well as meet their full potential. Taking the time to have one on one chats with students could help here.
4. Become more competent in using technology as an instructional approach.
5. Become more organised, priortise and look ahead to develop great courses.

Activity One: Introduction

Kia Ora, my name is Julie Grant. I have just started working at the Otago Polytechnic in February 2011 as a lecturer in the Diploma of Outdoor Leadership and Management. We offer a Level 3 and 4 program which is run through the Otago Institute of Sport and Adventure.
I am excited to be developing and sharing knowledge in this new role and see this flexible learning paper as something that will help me to create the best course I can for my students while learning new skills myself.
I grew up in Dunedin and after a year abroad complete a degree in Physical Education. Since then I have spent the last eight years working in the outdoor sector and having adventures all over the place, both in New Zealand and overseas. I feel really fortunate to work in a field which aligns with my passion for the outdoors, which is a amazing office to operate in.
However this is an office that is unpredictable and you never know what it will throw at you. You need to be able to be flexible in your teaching and always have a Plan B. Weather, flooded rivers, injuries, people factors, terrain, tsunami warnings and many other elements may cause you to adjust what and how you are teaching or facilitating.
Working in the outdoor education sector there is a lot of emphasis on learning through experience or doing and then reflecting on this experience. Facilitating experiences can often be very creative and interactive and discussions or plans are often adapted to cater for the students needs or energy levels.
My goals for this course is to gain some more skills and knowledge around alternative ways of being flexible and catering to the students within the Polytech learning environment. This includes understanding technology that is available to aid in student learning/practice as this is an area that I have had less experience.
In the outdoors it is easy to keep students engaged as activities are often high impact and fun, and people enjoy to talk about and take the learning from these experiences. I am interested to develop skills and resources to help me become more flexible in my new role where at times the students will be in a classroom environment.