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Anna Olzacka
Język angielski, Artykuły

Experiental learning in foreign language education

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Experiental learning

Experience plays a significant role in learning. As for this essay 'formal learning' will be reffered as to the one which takes place in institutions while 'informal learning' to the one in a number of settings. In experiental learning the 'formal' one is integrated with 'informal' one in settings such as industrial, business, governement or service organisations, public service internships, field placement, work and study assignments, clinical experience, overseas programmes, etc.

Techniques include:
- different interactive practices where participants have opportunities to learn from each others' experiences, being actively and personally engaged in the process
- personal journals and reflections
- portfolios, thought questions and reflective essays
- role plays, drama activities, games and simulations
- personal stories and case studies
- visualisation and imaginative activities
- models, analogies and theory construction
- empathy-taking activities, story-telling, sharing with others
- discussion and reflection in cooperative groups

All they contain one common element: learning from immediate experience and engaging the learners in the process as whole persons, both intellectually and emotionally. This approach results in observing the phenomenon and doing something meaningful with it through an active participation. Students are directly in touch with the aspects being studied rather than hear, read or think about it.

Although modern technology can be a good source of input for learners studying either individually or in a group, in which they can share experience, it may be a cause of unexpected problems of non-authenticity. Virtual reality of TV, cartoons, games, video or films represents rather second than first-hand experience while the objective here is to keep in touch with reality and not to avoid responsibility of real human contact and interaction in the real world. We don't want to watch life but live it. Personal growth of an individual can be fostered by learning from significant experiences which are subject to our objective analysis. That's what experiental learning is about: learning from actual experience through reflection.

The roots of experiental learning are:
- John Dewey's progressive pedagogy
- Kent Lewin's social psychology
- Jean Piaget's work on developmental cognitive psychology
- George Kelly's cognitive theory of personality
- Abraham Maslow and Carl Roger's humanistic psychology
- Howard Gardner's multiple intelligence theory
- Daniel Goleman's conception of emotional intelligence

Dewey emphasized the importance of learning by doing. He underlined the need for individuality, necessity of personal experience as a contributor to learning and progressive point of view of present situation to act accordingly. Learning is framed into specific environments. Dewey also holds the notion of "educative experience" which explain that previous learning in given situation becomes a useful device to comprehend and handle successfully situations that immediately follow the first one as its consequence and involve the interaction between the learners. Learners therefore must be provided with best conditions as to ensure the maximium meaning of each and every expereince to the learner. It is notable that straightforward action must be preceded by observation and assesment, nevertheless it's crucial in terms of goal achievement.

Lewin's work treated group dynamics and the methodology of action. He came to the conclusion that the best environment for learning facilitation is when there's a conncetion between immediate, concrete experience and analytic detachment and reflection. To him learning had to involve both theory and practice. The central point of learning for him was immediate personal experience. This model assumed that:
1. immediate concrete experienceleads to observation and reflection
2. the reflective observation facilitates the creation of abstract concepts which contribute to
3. testing the implications in new situations.

Nevertheless there's a need for keeping the balance between observation and action. Observation is a mere learning iput provider while action is essential for checking the hypotheses and gaining subsequent personal experiences.

Piaget's reasearch led him to discover the age-based patterns in children's reasoning process and the way intelligence is influenced by experience in the course of time. Intelligence results from the exchange between the child and the world he/she lives in. Therefore the ability to do abstract reasoning and manipulate the symbols results from children's taking actions while examining and dealing with their immediate environment, ate the same time experience being converted into model of the world.

Kelly, on his part, coined a notion of a personal construct through which one sees and interprets the world of experience. The concept refers to the categories of thought which one uses to analyse their own world of experience. Constructs are not the same as experiences. That's why they can be reshaped throughout the life by experiences in question. Everybody's view of reality is their unique to the way of interpretation by means of these constructs. Therefore reality is perceived subjectively depending on what experiences in the past one had. There are various perspectives from which we can interpret the meanings of particular events and such interpretation is subdued to change. Consequently, learning doesn't give ultimate answers as one can search for new questions and come up with anew opportunities, ideas and answers. According to Kelly, iknowldege is ruled by constructive alternativism: one can do the revision of his/her interperetations concerning the universe. People's constructs help them make out the world. We act to events according to how we perceive and interpret them. What drives people to act one way or another is their expectations about future events. The basis of expected outcomes makes them meka plans and choices. This approach adds to Rosenthal and Jacobson's 'self-fulfilling prophecies' theory. People's expectations about future events influence the choice of opportunities they make and in cnsequence may result in anticipated outcomes. So, orientation on success may result in actual success achievement while orientation on failure tends to bring failure.

The growth of personality as facilitated by personal experienceis the core of Roger's humanistic psychology. He claims that all human beings' self-concept is a social product formed with time through interaction with the environment. It's a pattern system in which individual perceptions become gradually complex and varied. A balanced self-concept can be achieved through a positive self-regard and an unconditional acceptance by the 'significant others'. They are crucial in maintaining that balance as conditional acceptance with a basis of desired actions or feelings does not contribute to its development. What is more, it is detrimental.

To develop a healthy personality, children need an atmosphere in which they are valued unconditionally. This fosters the process of becoming a fully functioning person. Progressing towards it, the child gains an awareness of his/her feelings, openness to new experience, tolerance, and basic rust in others as well as he/she develops empathy and ability to perceive other people's feelings. These features are an essential stage in learning. Personal growth is closely connected with the notion of dependence, independence and interdependence. A dependence - orientated learner needs other people to tell him/her what to do and think. He/she sees learning as somethingdone to him/her by others. An independent learner does not need an external source any more and takes responsibility for his/her learning seeking motivation inside. Independent learners see learning as something they do for themselves. Interdependent learners take into consideration self-actualisation. Then they are able of seeing their learning from a perspective, acknowledging that they learn from others while others learn from them, and thus reaching their maximum potential. They recognise they are a part of a community of learners in which everybody is a source and partner for others.

The two theories of intelligence in Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences and Goleman's concept of emotional intelligence also have in mind stimulation of learner's personal growth. Gardner assures that one kind of intelligence, such as standard IQ which measures only verbal and mahtematical abilities, does not exist. Instead he divides it into seven main parts, as follows:
- 'frames of mind' being bodily-kinesthetic
- musical
- linguistic
- logico-mathematical
- spacial
- interpersonal
- intrapersonal

He claims that interpersonal intelligence can be subdivided into abilities like:
- leadership: organising groups and coordinating team effort
- personal connection: recognising and responding approprietly to people's feelings and concerns nurturing human relationships
- negotiating solutions: having talents of a mediator, preventing and resolving conflicts
- social analysis: being able to detect and have insight in people's feelings, motives and concerns

Intrapersonal intelligence is an ability to know oneself and for and bear a realistic model of oneself. It involves having acces to one's feelings, differentiating between them and behaving accordingly.

Emotional intelligence, on its part, enables us to recognise recognise feelings and ezpress them approprietly. It spans the following:
- knowing one's emotions: developing self-awareness to recognise and name a feeling as it happens, having a surer sense about how one really feels about personal decisions
- managing emotions: learning to handle one's feelings e.g. frustration, tolerance, anger and stress management
- motivating oneself: emotional responsibility and self-control e.g delaying gratification and stifling impulsiveness
- recognising emotions in others: developing empathy and sensitivity to other's feelings, learning to be a good listener
- handling realationships: developing social competence by analysing and understanding human relationships, being assertive and skilled at communicating

Emotional intelligence makes us aware of emotions and guides us to understand them and accept them.

Summing up, experiental learning assumes that learning involves a whole person with his/her emotions, social background, physical condition, cognitivism, spirituality and personality. Whole person functioning entiles conncetion to ourselves, to other people and spiritual source of purpose and meaning in life. Capacity to learn as a whole-person can be increased. Learning capacity increases as learning increases. Previous learning can be used as a source of further learning. Emotional state of a learners also influences learning and its capacity increases when learners understand themselves better. The view that learning to learn is a capacity that can be enhanced by conscious pedagogical measures suggests a process-orientated approach to learning.

Basic model of experiental learning.

In experiental learning abstract concepts are given meaning by a personal experience. Mere experience, however, without reflection on it is insufficient condition for learning. Therefore, it's a cycle in which immediate experience, reflection, abstract conceptualisation and action are interconnected.

Model:


According to the model, learning is a process of keeping a balance between two dimensions: prehension and transformation. The first one relates to the way in which people get the experience. Kolt differentiates between two types of knowing. This dimension consists of: apprehension and comprehension. Apprehension is an immediate and instinctive, needing no analysis or questions. Comprehension, on its part, underlines the importance of conscious learning.

The dimension of transformation deals with transforming the experience on the basis of reflection on it and active experimentation (testing). There can be two types of orientation: active, in which a learner takes risk with a view of achieving success not being bothered by errors or failures, and excessive, in which major part plays the withdrawal from the risk in order to avoid failure and transformation of experience through reflective observation. This results in four orientations to learning:
1. concrete experience - learning by intuition, focusing on feelings rather than thinking; activities supporting this aspect of learning are: discussions in small groups, simulation techniques, use of videos and films, use of exaples, stories and autobiographies
2. abstract cocneptualisation - learning by thinking, using logic and conceptual systems; activities: theory construction, leacturing, building models and analogies
3. reflective observation - learning by perception, finding out how things happen viewing them from different perspectives, relying on internal judgement, feelings and thoughts; activities: personal journals, reflective essays, observations, thought questions and discussions
4. active experimentation - learning by action and practical application; activities: fieldwork, various projects, laboratory and home work, games, dramatisation and simulations, use of case studies

Al these orientations are a part of a four-stage cycle of experimental learning. But without observation, conscious analysis and reflection followed by testing new hypotheses in order to obtain new experiences, a simple evryday experience is insufficient for learning.

Directions and settings in experiental learning.

Experiental learning includes different practices chosen on the basis of goals that one wants to achieve through it. Therefore, there can be differentiated four setting in experiental learning:
1. Assessment and accrediting of prior learning faces us with a problem of providing a fair judgement and accreditation to previous learning from the point of view its usefulness in gaining further experience. We can actually measure the actual production of the language throughe.g. competence checklists, discussions, tests and examinations. Portfolio assessment can, as well, serve this purpose.
2. Pedagigical change in formal education - is strictly connceted with an institution in which the learning process takes place. The experiental learning techniques can be incorporated into and used during class work or course work. The focus here is to relate learning with learners' prior experience. It can be done through independent study, contract learning and project work, shared reflections, role-plays, simulations, field trips and problem-based learning. This way learners can be fully involved in their process of learning by focusing all their attention on it and control better their experiences.
3. Social change and community action help the learner raise his/her awareness about their belonging, foster action and change. By connecting their autobiographies, group history, social and political processes, learners may come to discover various facts about themselves, try to change fixed patterns of their behaviuor in attempt to get free from established social structures. Here the techniques involve personal reflection, various forms of group discussion, group projects enlighting the diversityof others' experiences and social background.
4. Personal growth and development have as an objective achieving better personal and group effectiveness, wider autonomy, choice of self-fulfillment. Techniques helpful in gaining these goeals are: dtories, narratives, autobiographies, diaries and visuals as the intake. Others, which may come in handy, include: drama, guided imaging and visualisation, meditation, movement and drawing. They lead to stimulation of empathy, risk-taking, feedback and conflict resolution.

Na podstawie "Experiental Learning In Foreign Language Teaching" by V. Kohonen, R. Jaatinen i inni, wyd. Pearson Education Limited, 2001.
 

Opracowanie: Anna Olzacka

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