Wednesday, February 15, 2012

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING: USING THE LEARNING CYCLE



  • Concrete experience: In your role as trainer you need to provide suitable experiences for the participants from which they can learn. Practice elements within system skills training provide this type of opportunity.
  • Observation and reflection: If participants are to learn from the experience, it is important that they are given the opportunity to review the experience. We are o en too busy ensuring we complete all the material to give the time for participants to reflect on what has been learnt from the experience. You can use the following as prompts to facilitate this learning, particularly when you have completed a practice element with the participants: What have you just done? Could you have handled what you just did differently? Have you been in a similar situation previously?
  • Note to trainers: Consider using a camcorder for these exercises and allow the participants to critique the learning activity. If a camcorder is unavailable consider se ing up triads/small groups to reflect and discuss the activity
  • Abstract conceptualization: Participants then need to be provided with the opportunity to draw some conclusions from reviewing their experiences, if learning is to occur. Questions they can ask themselves include: What have I learnt from this? What could I have done differently?
  • Note to trainers: Consider conducting this as a flipchart exercise in small groups, where the group is tasked with the activity of highlighting the top three Key Learning Points that they have taken from the activity.
  • Active experimentation: In order to do things better the next time, the participants need to have a plan of how to put into action what they have learnt. You should encourage them to state what they would do next time.
Plan to ‘chase’ the learner round the cycle, asking questions that encourage Reflection, Conceptualization, and ways of testing the ideas formed during the experience.

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