Kurt Lewin's Experiential Learning Theory

It is something I’ve been doing on and off for years in a voluntary capacity. I am interested in different learning styles and theories as I feel any information that could help me as a teacher is of use to me. Although I have been in education a long time it has taken me many years to acknowledge my own learning styles. Though out my education I have tried every style and tool of education until finally learning to stick to what suits me rather than a tool that suits somebody else. This is what I’ve discovered about my learning style throughout the years; I have found that when I am in a stressful exam situation the information I can most readily recall is what I heard in class rather than anything I studied myself outside of the classroom.

First, as an educator, we need to emphasized to the learners the importance of learning something in application to their current and future practice. Second, the learners move from being independent and self-directed, enhancing their ability to solve problems on their own and be independent. Third, incorporate learner’s experiences into the learning process. As people mature their amount of experiences expand and serve as a rich resource for learning. Fourth, oriented learning develop when facing real-life problems.

It focuses on the teacher’s ideas; classroom practices to make teaching more refine and acquire a rich experience by amending the drawbacks. The paper further explores the underlying principles of a reflective teacher and endeavouring best

Information processing models from the 1970s included executive control system that regulates basic cognitive processes. Also, Vygotsky, (1896-1934) and Piaget (1896-1980) also added self-regulation and self-reflection in their cognitive development theory. Self-regulation and self-reflection are in fact metacognition. After the work of Flavell, many researches have been conducted and a lot of new findings came up. One of the recent definitions of metacognition is that it is the students’ awareness of themselves as learners (Weimer, 2012).

A learner capability of problem-solving and understanding situation will be upgraded above their actual development because constructivist believes the cognitive structures that still in the process of maturing will mature after compromising with the guidance or with the participation with others. Social constructivism also believe motivation are from both intrinsic and extrinsic. Learner is motivated by their internal drive to learn and also as a reward for having the knowledge. Advantages of social constructivism theory towards learning are the learning process itself is transferable, where the learners build knowledge and able to bring the knowledge to other teaching sessions. Learner will have the ownership their learning in view of is

But when facing higher level of education, we are approached with countless challenges for learning from different aspects, it is then we adapt from our experiences and instincts of what level is required of us. “If a student fails to understand some aspects of a lesson in class, he or she must possess the self-awareness and strategic knowledge to take corrective action” (Zimmerman, 2000, p65). As Zimmerman exclaimed that we ought to be “self-aware”, to be self-aware is to comprehend and perceive our particular strengths and weaknesses to face these issues and adjust to be successful in tertiary education. As Zimmerman says, “this perspective focused instead on what students need to know about them self in order to manage their limitations during efforts to learn…” (Zimmerman, 2000). There are limitations for myself which are essential to be self-aware and obligatory to be deliberated in order to complete higher education.

“Good education should have both a societal purpose and purpose for the individual student” (Dewey Chapter 12). Once we have a theory of experience, then as educators, we can organize our subject matter progressively in a way that it takes account of students ' past experiences, and then provides them with experiences which will help to open up, rather than shut down, a person 's access to future growth experiences, thereby expanding the person 's likely contribution to society. Thinking and experience go hand-in-hand and they are interdependent. They work together as two parts of a process. Experience is not an object known, but rather an action performed.

• The design of the learning experience includes the possibility to learn from natural consequences, mistakes and successes. The Experiential Learning Process: A number of steps are involved in experiential learning that offer student a hands-on, collaborative and reflective learning experience which helps them to “fully learn new skills and knowledge” (Haynes, 2007). Although learning content is important, but experiential learning emphasis on the learning taken place through the process which is at the heart of experiential learning. During each step of the experience, students will engage with the content, the instructor, each other as well as self–reflect and apply what they have learned in another situation. The following describes the steps that comprise experiential learning as noted by (Haynes, 2007, para.

The constructivist perspective challenges the traditional way of thinking about how knowledge is acquired as well as challenging objectivism, a concept central to the behaviorist view of learning since objectivism paved the way for the rise of a behaviorist perspective of teaching and learning. “In contrast, the constructivist perspective views knowledge as a form of mental representation, construction of the human mind” (Löbler, 2006, p. 28). Constructivism advocates that learning process is about memorizing information’s and repeating what teachers say. In a

Conflict, differences, and disagreement are what drive the learning process. These tensions are resolved in iterations of movement back and forth between opposing modes of reflection and action and feeling and thinking (Kolb and Kolb, 2013). Forth proposition is “Learning is a holistic process of adaptation to the world”. According to Kolb and Kolb (2013), learning is not just the result of cognition but involves the integrated functioning of the total person—thinking, feeling, perceiving and behaving. It encompasses other specialized models of adaptation from the scientific method to problem solving, decision making and creativity.