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The importance of reflection on teaching and learning
The importance of reflection on teaching and learning
The importance of reflection on teaching and learning
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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 …show more content…
Intentions should be clear from the onset.
2. Preparedness and Planning should ensure that you enter the experience with a foundation to support a successful experience.
3. The experience should have a real-world content or be useful and meaningful
4. Reflection to transform the simple experience to a learning experience
As with any method of learning, Experiential Learning has advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages of Experiential Learning may include but are not limited to:
1. Provides motivation to learn by active contribution.
2. Activities leave a long-lasting impression.
3. Experience allows for better recall.
4. Transfer of knowledge.
5. Use of multiple senses.
6. Students can learn life skills that will be used over and over.
Disadvantages of Experiential Learning may include but are not limited to:
1. Required patience and guidance by the teacher/leader
2. Often you may have more than one right answer
3. May cause loss of focus if student does not stay on task
4. Learning outcomes are not
Today education has an endless amount of definitions which are correct in certain aspects of society, but most leave out the one part of education that is truly vital. That is the concept of real life experiences. The debate on what it means to be educated has been going on for centuries, yet the answer isn’t esoteric at all! The scintillating Henry David Thoreau amazed scholars of his philosophy that one simply doesn’t just go to school to be educated, but one has to experience the world in order to be prepared for it. He lived in a small house on Walden Pond and lived off of the land. He quoted “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to
This assessment was extremely eye opening and reflective. I had scores high and low in places where they were either expected or unpredictable. First off, I am going to talk about my highest scores that I acquired. Adopting Lifelong Learning was a 67 and Discovering Self-Motivation was a 78. I was not surprised about Adopting Lifelong Learning at all. I grew up quite quickly while jumping from home to home. I had to teach myself a substantial amount of information on my own while I grew up and this knowledge has stuck with me. I think one way to improve this topic would to be to try to learn among with other than trying to do it by myself. I feel like I learn better on my own, but I could benefit from learning more from other people or things,
The key to an enlightened and successful society lies not simply in education, but an education based on experiences. Rather than merely accepting the information given in a book or by a teacher, an individual should learn through experiences that will affect their daily life. “A class that teaches how to deal with real world scenarios, such as how to conduct oneself in interviews and how to write resumes, will prepare someone for the world more than memorization will,” says Bela Ucio.
David Kolb published his learning styles theory, in 1984, after many years of development. His theory stated that people learn in two different steps, inputting information and processing information. How people do this is also different. Think of inputting information on a vertical line, one person may prefer concrete examples at the top and abstract concepts at the bottom. Processing information is on a horizontal line with active experimentation on the left and reflective observation on the right.
Learning is defined as a permanent change in attitude or behaviour that occurs as a result of repeated experience (Sims & Sims, 1995). Understanding one’s learning style has many advantages as it can help one to identify the learning method or activities that can help to optimise the learning experience. It has been suggested that the importance of one’s learning style has been identified through studies and research on how one can maximise the potential for success and further learning development (Honey & Mumford, 2006). Learning styles are unique to each individual and are developed in childhood (Chase, 2001). We all have different personalities; therefore we all have preferred learning styles that suit us best. The way one learns depends on preference. Some learn by observing, listening and imitating others and draw conclusions from their experience. There are several factors that affect our learning style; for example, background, culture, religion and environment can have a major influence on one’s learning.
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.
The Society for Experiential Education defines service learning as, “any carefully monitored service experience in which a student has intentional learning goals and reflects actively on what he or she is learning throughout the experience” (Staton 1). Service learning is a great opportunity to get extra learning experiences while also experiencing the community around the universities campus. “Service learning allows students to apply what they are learning from their instructors, peers, and readings to genuine tasks that occur outside the four walls of the classroom while simultaneously helping others” (Staton 1). Universities are using service learning to expand beyond the classroom and provide students with experiences that will benefit them in the future. Service learning provides students with some fundamental aspects of life that can simply not be taught in the classroom. Service learning is a very beneficial tool in expanding on class room topics in the real world.
These authentic learning activities are more engaging for the students and allow for a wide range of learning styles. It is imperative that all teachers attempt to integrate these experiences into their classroom as often as possible. These activities usually take more time and energy to plan and implement, but the benefit to the students make the extra work worthwhile.
McCarthy, M. 2010. Experiential Learning Theory-From Theory to Practice. Orland. Available from http://www.gimi.us/CLUTE_INSTITUTE/ORLANDO_2010/Article%20111.pdf [Accessed 2nd December 2010]
In this essay I will be describing various types of learning styles and stating the advantages and disadvantages of these learning styles. I will also inform you of the most commonly used method of finding out your own learning style, and I will inform you of the man who made this method. Finally, I will write about my own preferred learning styles and the strengths and weaknesses of the different learning styles.
The importance of experience in education has always been the subject of philosophical debates. These debates between empiricists and rationalists have been going on for quite some time. Rationalists are of the view that knowledge acquired through senses is unreliable and learning can only be done through reasoning. On the other hand, empiricists believe knowledge is acquired through empirical impressions and concepts that cannot be learnt without being experienced (Evans, 1992, p. 35). This debate was however resolved by Kant who argues that both experience and rationality are necessary in learning. John Dewey was an American philosopher of the twentieth century and he also contributed to the debate on the learning process. In his book Experience and Education, Dewey (1938), he stated, “the belief that all genuine education comes about through experience does not mean that all experiences are genuinely or equally educative” (p. 25). This famous quote has been evaluated and referred to regularly in the debate on learning through experience.
Since we talked many ways and type of adult learning. In the sixth chapter,I recognized that experiences are so important to adult learning. Deway (1963)pointed out “not all experience are educative, some experiences may be the factor of leading a wrong way and I do really agree with this statement. Then, the next section described Kolb’s model of learning by experiences. Meanwhile, other adult educators developed three models from different perspectives. Jarvis(2006) considered the deep into a processing ; Tennan and Pogson(1995) tried experiential learning in an instructional angle ; Fenwick(2003) more prefer put philosophical lens of viewing the experiential learning. This is the most engaged part to learning. While the next section about “reflective practice ad situated cognition” was distanced of learning in this chapter. That is not means I repudiate these are two other ways to explore the relationship between experience and learning, it need to be
There have been many critics that strongly advocate against the use of distance learning in elementary schools. With the increased availability and choice of new technology, comes many new concerns about the quality of instruction and the threat it may pose to the already established methods of teaching. Many believe that this new teaching method may replace the existing classroom all together, and won’t give students the adequate face-to-face contact they need. Most critics fear that “ineffective face-to-face teaching methods could be made even worse when they become technology based” (Truell, 2001, p46). The computer and internet have become dominant distance learning technologies, and hold the potential to take away from the human aspect of learning, so students do not learn the proper social skills they need to develop early on. Children need to learn to interact with one another, and function properly in a social setting, they learn this primarily within the classroom, and if these classroom settings are altered by distance learning, then they will no learn how to function in the normal social school setting. Many critics also say that all schools do not have the appropriate technological support and infrastructure to make distance learning programs effective for students. Since all schools do not have the tools and financial means needed to establish and support effective distance learning programs, they would not be able to keep up with the advancing technology in education, and therefore their students would not receive the same advantages as other students in the schools around them (Ravaglia & Sommer, 2000). Greenwood (1998) states that schools using distance learning are just contracting out their educational responsibilities and that such courses result in the elimination of teaching jobs. He feels that by using distance learning to teach students, they are minimizing the teacher’s job of actually teaching the students and designing lesson plans, and therefore slowly eliminating the need for teachers in the classroom at all. It is thought that there is more emphasis being placed on teaching than learning, and as a consequence schools are using distance education as merely a means to extend the classroom walls . While the critics of distance learning feel that this is just a way for schools to educate students, and relieve themselves of their responsibilities, there has been even more substantial evidence that these programs improve the elementary curriculum, rather than replace it altogether.
People have a lot of options in educating themselves online in today’s time and technology. Online education has improved a lot in the past twenty years. Even though it has had its setbacks, it continues to show promising results. Online education has many benefits with little to no disadvantages. It provides flexibility in scheduling and offers various options in educational online programs. In the past decade, education has evolved into a more technological-driven world.
When you step back and look at the big picture of life, you will notice that the concept of learning plays an essential role in it. What you learn and how you learn is your key to life success and it can open a multitude of doors for you along the way. Learning, however, is routine and much like other activities that are routine such as brushing your teeth or eating meals, you begin to think less and less about what you are doing or how you have been doing it. I never actually put too much thought into how I learned or the origins of my learning experience, but after reflecting on the ideas I have been able to clearly identify the manners in which I have learned and how I can transform my learning experience