The Experience of Learning: A Reflective Study
by joseph pate
The nature of animals is to adapt to their surroundings. This is done by taking in stimuli and processing these experiences in order to make decisions that will help propagate their existence. Humans, argued to be the highest form of animals, have the ability to receive information and utilize this information in a variety of different ways. It is important to understand what receiving this information means due to the impact it will have on humans’ position in the world. Therefore, an understanding of learning needs to be addressed. The Association for Experiential Education defines experiential education as a process through which a learner constructs knowledge, skills, and value from direct experiences. Combining this definition with the natural process of humans receiving information is a point of departure in beginning to understand what learning is and how experiences impact this learning. There are four major stages that learning transitions through; receiving stimuli, processing stimuli, action or application, and reflection. It is through these stages that individuals take from experiences different information and utilizes what they have learned in order to help in their interactions with the world.
The individual collecting stimuli from his/her surroundings characterizes the receiving stage of the learning cycle. It is this receiving of stimuli from the surroundings that defines experience. Therefore, experiences can be videos, lectures, actions, words, nature, questions, etc. Penner (1997) asserts, in his Gestalt approach to experience, that humans begin with receiving sensations from their surroundings, but must use the mental process called awareness in order to bring understanding to these sensations. In a recent article by Kraft (1999), the different learning theories were compared to one another. Each had a stage where the recipient gathered data from his/her surroundings. In Bandura’s social learning theory, the individual receives stimuli from other individuals and begins to model their behaviors after those that gave out the stimuli. In cognitive learning theories it is suggested that information from the senses is very important and if not registered quickly, it will be lost. Dewey’s ideas on progressive education asserts that it is very important to have experiences that encompass all the senses, intelligences, and a range of learning environments. Piaget posits that the early stages of sensorimotor control (0-2 years) and extracting concepts from experiences (2-4 years) lead one to future learning. Coleman’s information assimilation versus experiential learning, analyzes the importance on experiencing events in a trial and error fashion, and developing concepts around the consequences of each decision. Furthermore, Hammerman (1999) suggests that teaching through inquiry pushes the individual to think about what they have observed when they are addressing a new experience. Thus, all of these theories utilize the reception of experiences, in one form or another, to impact the learning process of the individual.
Once the individual has received stimuli from their experiences, there must be a point when this information is processed and evaluated. The evaluation of the information is the major characteristic of the processing stage of learning. It is very important here to interject that there are different developmental levels for learners (Fine, 1999). An individual’s age, family background, socio-economic level, and stage
of development are just a few factors that may have a direct impact on how this information is processed. As mentioned above, Penner (1997) uses the word “awareness” to describe this stage within the Gestalt theory of experience as a point where one begins “to organize all the raw material from our senses,” and begins “to assign meaning to [their] sensations” (p.63). This stage is often referred to as hypothesis or theory making (Kraft, 1999, Wurdinger& Priest, 1999, and Fine, 1999). Individuals will utilize the information they receive and make inferences about this information in order to decide what actions need to be taken. This may come in the form of using past experiences and taking what was learned from them to be applied to this new situation. On the other hand, the individuals’ experiences such as lectures, readings, or other’s actions may influence their current decisions. According to Wurdinger & Priest’s (1999) understanding of Coleman and Dewey, the information that was received by the individual is assimilated and they begin to form general principles or generalizations that lead to the next part of the learning cycle. Overall in this stage, individuals utilize their minds to process the information that they received from their original experiences and develop an idea of what to do with this information.
The action or application stage is extremely important in the learning cycle because it forces the theories or hypotheses to be put into action. According to Wurdinger & Priest (1999) “learning is less likely to occur when theory is presented without opportunities to test it” (p.188). In the same article, they note, “theory without experience is incomplete because ideas need to be put to practice to verify their significance” (p. 190). Penner (1997) explores the three different stages of Gestalt learning theory that are reflective of the action or application stage. These are excitement; or mobilization of energy, action, and contact. In these stages an individual takes what they have processed about their experiences and decides whether they will move towards or away from the experience, what they will do with the experience, and what occurs in the interaction between the individual and the environment. It is at this point in the learning cycle that one’s theories get tested. This is a point of departure for an individual to move forward with their learning, or to regress and reevaluate their theories if they do not meet with desirable outcomes.
The stage of reflection is what results from all the previous stages
and allows the experiences, theories, and actions to assimilate together within
the individual in what can be understood as learning.
However, this stage is not separated out as a specific section in certain
theories such as the information assimilation, experiential learning model,
and the proactive experiential learning model (Wurdinger & Priest, 1999). A reason for this might be the observation
from Penner (1997) that in the
It is the combination of all these stages that make up the learning cycle. Different theorists posit different order to these stages, but all theories have at least one characteristic of each stage in their learning cycle (Wurdinger & Priest, 1999). These stages are fluid and symbiotic. This characteristic results in a process that is not as much focused on order, but on the relationship of each part of the process to overall learning. In addition, these stages promote an active stance in learning by the participant. This active participation results in “ownership with our own learning processes” (Penner, 1997, p.61). Therefore, the experiencing of stimuli, processing the meaning of these stimuli, and acting upon it, results in the reflection of what has been learned from these experiences and towards one’s overall growth.
Association for Experiential Education. (date unknown) AEE definition of Experiential Education. Membership Brochure, Boulder, CO: AEE.
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Hammerman, Donald, R. (Eds.). (1999). Adventure Programming.
Penner, C. (1997). A Gestalt Approach to
Experience. In Bergman, Processing Adventure Experience.
Wurdinger, Scott D. & Priest, Simon
(Eds.). (1999). Adventure Programming.