Learning Objectives
- [1]Compare and contrast the principles of major theories of learning and cognition and explain how they relate to adult learners
- [3]Provide a rationale for instructional strategies based on specific cognitive and/or learning principles
- [6]Explore, experience and analyze various instructional strategies and their relationship to individual differences and experiential learning
Key Takeaways
- How experience plays a role in learning
- Experiential learning theories and their applications
Whether it is through our own experiences or through learning from others’, experience plays a major role in teaching and learning in adulthood. Julius Caesar once said, “Experience is the teacher of all things”. He was onto something so long ago.
What do our experiences provide us? Our experiences can provide us with knowledge, empathy, compassion, faith, discovery, motivation, and so on. Our experiences can also cause pain, anger, disruption, and other negative emotions. The good and the bad give us the opportunity to become inquisitive and embrace the lessons we learn. Furthermore, this extraordinary happening within us can even occur through reflection on another person’s experience.
In the TED Talk by Mary Helen Immordino-Yang (below), you will learn about a young woman from Sudan who had an experience which no person should have to experience. This painful experience fueled her desire to learn and give back so that no other person would have to experience what she experienced. Watch the video and think about the feelings that come to mind when hearing the story. Were you inspired? Did it make you want to fulfill some untouched dream of your own? Did you start believing you could accomplish anything because this young woman was able to accomplish what she did?
Sociocultural environment is powerful. We are moved by stories because our social and biological systems are interconnected through the neurosystems in our brains.
Do our emotions drive us to learn? The young girl from Sudan was driven to learn because of her traumatic experience of seeing her mother and baby sister die. Her emotions fueled her desire to learn so much so that she had to find a creative way to gain her education in an environment in which it was not easily accessible.
What happens to your brain when you think about stories such as Mary Helen’s? One finding, according to Ms. Immordino-Yang, is found in the brain activity of an inspired person. Portions of a person’s brain light up where a person experiences most feeling/emotion. The brain stem, the “very essence of your survival” (Immordino-Yang, 2011) also lights up during inspiration, showing that “your biology and sociology are completely intertwined” (Immordino-Yang, 2011).
John Dewey and Experiential Learning
John Dewey (1859-1952) Bio:
- Born October 20, 1859 – Died 1952
- Credentials – Ph.D.
- Alma Mater – John Hopkins University
- Last Occupation – Head of Philosophy and faculty at University of Michigan
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