Week 4: Learning Cycles and Guided Inquiry Part 2

Trackstar

1. Learning and Teaching- Atherton

Kolb's Learning Cycle

Suggests that there are 4 stages in learning and they follow on from each other.
1. Concrete Experiences – “knowledge by acquaintance”, direct practical experience (doing and experiencing)
2. Reflective Observation – what the experience means to the experiencer  
3. Abstract Conceptualisation – follows on from Concrete Experiences it is the comprehension of concrete experiences
4. Active Experiment – follows on from Reflective Observation this is where the theory is practiced 

Kolb Model

 How are learning styles (Honey & Mumford) different to the Kolb model?

Honey and Mumford have built learning styles around the Kolb Model where they identify individual preferences of learning. They Indicate that:

• Activists prefer doing and experiencing and they fit into the concrete experiences 

• Reflectors – Reflect and observe and they fit into the Reflective Observation 

• Theorists – want to understand reasons, concepts and relationships and they fit into the Abstract Conceptualisation 

• Pragmatist – likes to have a go and see if it works and they fit into the Active Experiment

What does Kolb mean by 'Ways of Knowing' and 'Ways of Understanding'? How  do these qualities interact? 
Ways of knowing works with concrete experiences and abstract conceptualisation these two work together – by direct experience and comprehension or knowing about 

      Ways of Understanding works with Reflective observation and active experiment- by using denotation by thinking connotation  

What are the implications for this model within the TAS specialisations?
In food technology, this can be a useful style as students can learn by experimenting and cooking. Hands on work can lead them to discover different cooking styles, techniques and the understanding of properties of food.

2. Experiential Learning- Neil

What is experience?

Experience refers to the nature of the events someone or something has undergone. Experience is what is happening to us all the time – as long as we exist. The word experience has two emphases, present and past, and refers to two different views. Experience, used in the present tense, refers to the subjective nature of one’s current existence. Humans have a myriad of expressions, behaviours, language, emotions, etc. that characterize and convey our moment-to-moment experiences. Experience, used in the past tense, refers to the accumulated product (or residue) of past experiences.

What is experiential learning?

Experiential learning has come to mean two different types of learning:

• Learning by yourself and
• Experiential education (experiential learning through programs structured by others)

Experiential learning by yourself

Learning from experience by yourself is education that occurs as a direct participation in the events of life. It includes learning that comes about through reflection on everyday experiences. Experiential learning by yourself is also known as informal education and includes learning that is organised by learners themselves.

Experiential education (experiential learning through programs and activities structured by others)

Principles of experiential learning are used to design experiential education programs. Emphasis is placed on the nature of participants’ subjective experiences. An experiential educator’s role is to organize and facilitate direct experiences of phenomenon under assumption that this will lead to genuine (meaningful and long-lasting) learning. This often also requires preparatory and reflective exercises.

What is experiential education?

In experiential education, the student becomes more actively involved in the learning process than in traditional, didactic education. For example, going to a zoo and learning through observation and interaction with the zoo environment is experiential and in contrast to reading and talking about animals in a classroom. The main difference here, from a pedagogical point of view, is that the educator who takes his/her students to the zoo rather than stay in the classroom probably values direct experience more highly than abstract knowledge.

Experiential Learning Cycles

Experiential Learning Cycles are models for understanding how the process of learning works. They are distinct from other models of learning, such as behavioural model or social learning models, in two notable ways:

• Experiential Learning Cycles treat the learner’s subjective experience as of critical importance in the learning process. ECLs draw on experiential education principles, which are largely based on the educational philosophy of John Dewey
• Experiential Learning cycles propose in iterative series of processes which underlies learning. Depending on the model, there is anywhere between one stage (experience alone) through to six stages of learning to be considered.

Experiential Learning Cycles are commonly used to help structure experience-based training and education programs.

Progressive, "Free" Education	Semi-structured Education	Traditional, "Structured" Education
Free, permissive, learner-driven, practically-oriented, progressive education	Semi-structured education, e.g., the subjectivity of learning experience is recognized, however the experiences are guided somewhat via structured planning and reviewing processes	Structured, knowledge-oriented, competency-driven, normative, traditional education

3. Emerging perspectives on learning, teaching and technology

There are some weaknesses in the Kolb cycle and due to this it is necessary to construct another model such as the one below. This includes Kolb's beliefs and at the same time confronts the weaknesses that have been found. 

Revised Experiential Learning Cycle

The idea behind this model was to include the observations of the learners' own subjective reality as a starting point for experience. The different elements of the above cycle are explained in order below: 

• Disruptive Experience: Experience that is a disruption of the habitual manner in which an individual experiences things. This is in contrast to a non-reflective experience borne out of habit.
• Emotion Inventory: Inventory of emotions that are created by the disruptive experience.
• Reflective Observation: Observations concerning the experience and reflection upon the event including causes, possible effects, etc.
• Conceptualization/Hypothesizing: Further processing of the experience; creating concepts to explain the experience and construction of explanatory hypotheses.
• Addressing: The concepts and hypotheses that have been constructed are formulated and the experience is addressed in some manner. There is an attempt to predict future experience. This may involve planning, active experimentation, or cautious testing.

 Experiential Learning concept map.

Experiential Teaching and Learning in Food Technology

Various strategies were used in the experiential  learning activities for a large group of students studying human nutrition and food science.
Experiential learning activities were done for:
1. Nutrition and Health- Dietary Intake Assessment

• Students asked to print 4 menus
• Students to select the menu that best resembles their own diet plan
• Lecture on nutritional labels was given
• Example of Nutritional label and cost was given
• Students to then complete their own assessment for their own menu plan by using their past lecture notes
• Complete a reflection questionnaire

2. Food Microbiology and processing- Food Safety Survey

• Occurred outside of the classroom
• Online food safety survey- based on their own experience and behaviours towards food safety
• Attend lecture on food safety and spoilage of food
• Students to complete a reflection questionnaire using their lecture notes

This strategy proved to be effective as students personalised their learning and enhances student learning by motivating the students to like and be more engaged to the course. 

The research study showed the students were happy with this type of learning

These strategies are somewhat similar to our project for TAS as our lessons are interactive, hands on and collaborating their experiences and knowledge. The only thing we could add to our lessons would be to incorporate a reflection survey or questionnaire to link their knowledge to their own experiences and this would fall into the above learning model.