Unit 5.2 - Submit Narrative

The Kolb Model: The relationship between learning and experience David Kolb presents a model of experiential learning containing four components: concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation.
Concrete Experience The first stage of Kolb’s Model starts with the individual’s concrete experience: an event that triggers the learning cycle. While this is usually a specific experience, it can also include reading, consulting with others or personal research. When writing about concrete experiences that led to learning, it is helpful to ask yourself the following questions:
• What did I do? Where? When? For how long? Why?
• What was my role (as opposed to the others involved) ?
• How deeply was I involved?
• What techniques, methods, procedures did I employ? Why did I choose the ones I used?
• What were my goals and objectives? How did they influence my choices?
• What resources did I use?
• Can I get documentation to verify my experience? Summarize what occurred rather than giving a narrative account of what happened.  In the second stage of writing about experiential learning, you step back from the experience to observe and reflect upon it. This might involve noticing similarities or differences, patterns or results of certain actions. Ask yourself:
• What were the reasons behind my behavior? What was I thinking at the time?
• What trends and patterns are evident?
• What were the significant and unique components of the experience?
• What worked for me and what didn’t?
• How has my behavior changed as the result of what I learned from the experience?
• What conclusions can I reach as the result of my reflection?
Abstract Conceptualization Based on your observations and reflections about your experience, begin to generalize and form abstract concepts about it. Ask:
• What are the underlying principles for each of my 3 key concepts?
• What existing rules, laws, theories, and/or concepts from other sources support my understanding of my 3 key concepts? • Can I articulate depth and breadth of understanding around each of my 3 key concepts? • What examples from my concrete experience demonstrate this understanding?
Active Experimentation In the fourth stage of the model, you will apply your newly discovered principles, testing the implications of the concepts in new situations. Ask yourself:
• How does my knowledge apply to other situations?
• How will I implement (have I implemented) my new knowledge?
• Have I tested my ideas or those of others? If not, what might I predict will happen? Why?
• Can I give specific examples of how I am using or would use the learning around each of my 3 key concepts in a new setting? The testing or experimentation in the fourth stage leads to another concrete experience. You then make new observations and reflections and, based on them, formulate or refine the principle and apply it to see if it holds true. Therefore, Kolb’s Model might be better pictured as a spiral: the cycle repeats itself, becoming more refined and sophisticated with each “turn.”
Coleman’s differences between classroom and experiential learning Traditional Classroom Learning by doing Steps:
Steps: 1. receiving information
2. understanding the general principles
3. identifying potential applications of the general principles
4. taking action in specific experiences
Approach :
Deductive arriving at a practical application from the general principle
Experiential Learning Information Assimilation Learning
1. taking action in specific experiences
2. analyzing the consequences of actions
3. understanding the general principle
4. applying the general principle in new situations
Approach : Inductive developing a general concept from specific experiences
There are significant differences in how people learn in the traditional, information assimilation mode and how they learn via experiences. One of the differences concerns the individual’s grasp of the knowledge base of the field. The traditionally educated have a greater breadth of the knowledge base and are familiar with many concepts/theories of the area; however, their depth of application of these concepts in “real life” is relatively shallow. The experientially educated, on the other hand, have a deep understanding of how a particular concept is applied, but rarely do they have a grasp on the other concepts of the field