ADTED542:
Week 4: Experience and Adult Learning (continued)
Introduction
As important as experience is to learning, it should come as no surprise that it is a contested notion, which means that there is disagreement among scholars and experts and practitioners about the role and definition of experience. This kind of disagreement is essential to the process of developing better theory and improved practice, although it can be frustrating, as a learner, entering the dialogue and trying to understand the implications for adult education. Be patient with this process. This week you will witness the dialogue in action as we move from the more foundational perspectives on experience in Newman and Dewey to more particular approaches to experiential education.
Week 4 Objectives:
By the end of the week, you should:
- interpret the relevance of John Dewey’s Experience and Education to understanding how people learn.
- identify five contemporary perspectives on cognition and explain the place of David Kolb’s Experiential Learning within those perspectives .
Fenwick
You will read an article by Tara Fenwick which offers a detailed and critical synopsis of various approaches to experiential education. Her article is not easy reading, but it is worth the investment to spend some extra time understanding her argument.
What's Wrong with Kolb?
Experiential learning was made famous by David Kolb and, in the intervening years, a cottage industry has developed around his ideas. Although it is more theoretically sophisticated than andragogy, it has suffered a similar fate in that many scholars view it as very limited. It’s also similar to andragogy in that Kolb’s experiential learning has broad currency outside of academic adult education, making it an important theory to understand, both in its problems and its structure.
Week 4 Tasks
Readings:
- Chapter 6 from the Merriam & Bierma text
- Expanding conceptions of experiential learning: A review of the five contemporary perspectives on cognition, by Fenwick, T. J. (eReserves)
- David A. Kolb on experiential learning, by Smith, M. K.
Activities:
This week you will present on John Dewey.
For more information on this assignment, please see the Assignment Guidelines.
Timeline:
Be sure to complete the Timeline Task as outlined on the following page.
Timeline Content for Week 4:
Timeline Activity:
Spend some time on the course timeline. What theories, theorists, and events occur around the time of John Dewey’s Experience and Education? Locate some of the theories and theorists that Fenwick discusses in her article and post them to the Week 4: Timeline Activity Discussion Forum.
You may also "add" some relevent points from the paper to the timeline using the Google Document below: