Portable Learner

…all genuine education comes through experience (Dewey 1938, p.13).

But Dewey is careful to not that “not all experience educates.” In fact, some experiences “mis-educate,” in that they actually “distort growth…, narrow the field of further experiences…, and land people in a groove or rut” (Dewey 1938, p. 13).

Questions: What leads to learning from life’s experiences? Is the context in which the experience happens important? Are there ways we can design learning episodes to capture this experiential component best?

See also: David Kolb, Reflective practice, Situated cognition

Reading

• Bateson, M. C. (1994). Peripheral Visions: Learning Along the Way. Uses the metaphor of the double helix to explain that “lessons too complex to grasp in a single occurrence spiral past again and again, small examples gradually revealing greater and greater implications” (p. 30).

• Boud, D. Keogh, R. & Walker, D. (eds.) (1985). Reflection. Turning experience into learning. Captures elements proposed by Dewey, Kolb, and Jarvis.

• Boud. D. and Miller, N. (eds.) (1997). Working with Experience: animating learning. Blurb. Animating refers to the relationships we build with learners. Brookfield on breaking dependence on experts; Smyth on socially critical educators; Heron on helping whole people learn; Tisdell on life experience and feminist theory; Harris on animating learning in teams; and Mace on writing and power. Via Infed.

• Campbell, J. (1995). Understanding John Dewey. Blurb. Excellent overview and discussion of Dewey’s thought. Chapter 3 provides a clear statement of his position re experience.

• Dewey, J.

  • (1929). Experience and Nature. Full text. The mind as a manifestation of social interactions, the mind-body problem, aesthetics, and values in general.
  • (1934). Art as Experience. Based on lectures given in 1932, this book contains useful chapters on having an experience; the act of expression, as well as material around the nature of form etc.
  • (1938). Experience and Education. Concise statement of Dewey’s educational philosophy. Includes chapters on the need of a theory of experience; on criteria of experience; and experience as the means and goal education.

• Jarvis, P.

  • (1987). Adult Learning in the Social Context. From an experience, there are nine different routes a person might choose to take, not all of which result in learning. Includes both experiential learning and reflective practice. This probably deserves its own note.
  • (1995). Adult and Continuing Education: Theory and Practice. Blurb. Summary of Jarvis’s learning process first described in 1987.

• Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential Learning. Kolb’s learning cycle. “Thus, in the process of learning, one moves in varying degrees from actor to observer, and from specific involvement to general analytic detachment” (p. 31).

• Usher, R., Bryant, I., and Johnston, R. (1997). Adult Education and the Postmodern Challenge: Learning Beyond the Limits. Blurb. ”…learning does not simplistically derive from experience; rather, experience and learning are mutually positioned in an interactive dynamic” (p. 107).

Acknowledgement: Picture: Untitled by H. Mal. Flickr. Reproduced under a Creative Commons Licence (Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic).

25 Oct 2005