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Journal of Education for Business
ISSN: 0883-2323 (Print) 1940-3356 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjeb20
Moore, David Thornton. Engaged Learning in the
Academy: Challenges and Possibilities
Bridget N. O’Connor
To cite this article: Bridget N. O’Connor (2015) Moore, David Thornton. Engaged Learning in
the Academy: Challenges and Possibilities, Journal of Education for Business, 90:2, 111-112, DOI: 10.1080/08832323.2014.973829
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08832323.2014.973829
Published online: 21 Nov 2014.
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Book Review
Moore, David Thornton. Engaged Learning in the Acad-emy: Challenges and Possibilities. New York, NY: Pal-grave Macmillan. (2013). 228 pp. ISBN: 978-1-137-02518-0. $95.0978-1-137-02518-0.
In Engaged Learning in the Academy: Challenges and Possibilities, David Thornton Moore, an anthropologist by training and one of the most well-known scholars of experi-ential education, makes a strong argument for the integra-tion of experiential learning into the academy. His main argument is not simply outcomes (e.g., better career prepa-ration, problem-solving skills) but a more engaged learner. He shows that while colleges and universities, including our own New York University, provide a myriad of services to support internships, service learning, and civic engagement, the offices that support these services are distinct from the academic centers of the university, and as such remain on the margins of pedagogy. If you are a faculty member whose academic curriculum includes internships, service learning, civic engagement undertakings, or a practicum of any sort, this book is for youandyour academic deans.
Moore follows this introduction with a theoretical frame that sets up the rest of this eight-chapter book, helping the reader to understand what needs to be learned, as well as how to ensure that learning happens. So the middle chapters evolve around curriculum and pedagogy. In his conclusion, Moore takes us back to the overall mission of the institution and how experiential learning engages the whole student.
In Chapter 2, “A Theoretical Framework,” Moore sug-gests that those of us who supervise interns or include ser-vice learning in our programs typically rely on our own experiences and intuition to ensure that learning occurs. Useful, he says, until we make the assumption that once a student is placed in an internship, the site will provide the learning experiences, and the intern will engage in them. As we know, this is not always the case. In this comprehen-sive review, he discusses the contributions that construc-tionist theorists including Dewey, Kolb, Mead, Bruner, Piaget, Kohlberg, Vygotsky, Lave, Wenger, and Illeris have had on our thinking about how to interpret experience. These frames help us explain or predict what happens when a student is in an internship or a group of students partici-pates in a community service project. How do learners
solve workplace problems, interpret the working culture, and become “competitive, legitimate participants” (p. 36)? Both the sponsoring academic institution and the worksite need to consider these questions.
In Chapter 3, “Analyzing the Curriculum of Experi-ence,” he emphasizes the what that needs to be learned. Here, he begins offering insights from three specific interns and one community-based participatory action research project that he and his team observed. These observations illustrate curriculum (and, later, pedagogy). For example, Heather, the intern whose job at the State Museum was to give tours to elementary students, first needed to learn facts. She then needed to learn concepts so she could bring the museum alive, and to do this, she often had to do indepen-dent research:
Oh, yes, this bed warmer was one of the tools people used to stay warm during the long winter; they were the responsi-bility of the women and girls in the household—just as making the candle was. These items show how women and girls in the colonial family had different chores from men and boys. (p. 48)
Heather also needed to learn skills such as public speak-ing and social and organizational knowledge. She learned that there was no formal hierarchy among docents, just a general knowledge that some were more experienced and knowledgeable than others. In the discussion of personal development, Heather moved on to the role and identity of the museum tour guide. Work values and ethics were devel-oped simultaneously. Such examples show theory in prac-tice. In the second part of this chapter, Moore expands a discussion of situated learning theory, suggesting it falls short in explaining where knowledge comes from and how the learner moves from the margins of practice to the cen-ter. Curriculum, he says, “magnifies a dizzying array of knowledge-forms, used in varied ways by varied actors with varied purposes, styles, and personalities” (p. 67). While this remark does not give us specific suggestions on how to tailor an experience, it does provide a useful insight to that challenge!
In Chapter 4, “Comparing Curricula—Academic and Experiential,” Moore concludes that “forms of knowledge and ways of knowing found in school and in the rest of the JOURNAL OF EDUCATION FOR BUSINESS, 90: 111–112, 2015
CopyrightÓTaylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 0883-2323 print / 1940-3356 online DOI: 10.1080/08832323.2014.973829
world are substantially different” because new knowledge and concepts become situated, and have immediate applica-tion. Returning to the museum intern Heather, she learned dates not as an element in a history book, but as a means for working out meaning of the artifacts she was showing and creating a narrative around them. This is something quite unlike writing a history paper. Academic skills involve abstract reasoning; workplace skills are site spe-cific, and the result is questioning how they can be trans-ferred to new settings. And as to social and organizational learning, Moore reports that he was “stunned” to see that the interns he was supervising often couldn’t see structures and dynamics beyond their own situation unless pushed. Learning values and ethics, too, can be experienced (Heather saw the commitment of the other docents), but can be an issue if something such as sexual harassment occurs or if the intern sees workers behaving badly. An aca-demic environment, as we know, can be a safer place to dis-cuss these latter issues.
Concluding Chapter 4, Moore acknowledges that the sequence and coverage of content vary markedly in the two environments. Rather than learning content in logical, sequential approaches, workplace learning becomes more organic and the learner often must rely on his or her own resources to close gaps. That said, he also argues that “under the right conditions, the two forms of knowledge can be compatible, complementary, and mutually expansive” (p. 98). To ensure this, the academic site and the sponsoring organization should make sure that learning occurs—realizing that having the experience itself simply is not enough.
The pedagogy of translating experience into knowledge is covered in the following three chapters. While readers may like a strict, here’s what to do, the “it depends” notion continues to raise its complex head. Site-specific contexts such as where knowledge comes from, the type of instruc-tion (if any) an intern receives about how to complete tasks, the autonomy (if any) to question that approach, and the nature of the feedback. This, combined with not only the quality of the tasks, but the number of different tasks makes each environment unique. To help ensure that learning takes place, the institution considers the student-organiza-tion fit of the placement and the learning goals of the con-tract. Journal writing is yet another teaching technique, and
suggestions for writing the journal are included in this sec-tion. A very usable technique (one I’ve been known to use) is the double-entry journal, where in one column the intern writes down an experience at the workplace, and in the next column relates that to what is being learned in the academic environment.
Moore concludes his discussion of ways to better inte-grate academic and workplace learning together by going back to the question he first posed in Chapter 1: “In what senses, to what extent, and under what conditions does out-of-school experience fit in higher education?” (p. 200). Conservatives say no place. Liberals see it as a means to expand knowledge and apply what is learned. Radicals call for civic engagement as part of any academic enterprise. Throughout this chapter, he discusses these philosophical approaches to the various missions of universities.
Yes, while “it depends,” the main point that experiential learning can, and should, under the right circumstances sup-port the mission of any university is key here primarily because learning through experiences can help ensure not only an engaged learner, but a lifelong learner. Universities can do more to integrate experiential practices with its aca-demic curriculum, and this is what Moore purports. In fact, his final words are that:
As the academy struggles to serve a new function in a post-modern, knowledge-driven, communications-based, diverse, and democratic society, engaged learning—not just civic engagement but internships and cooperative education—can play a major role in that transformation. (p. 204)
The text itself sometimes feels dense. The philosophical foundations and the learning theory on which Moore’s arguments lie are themselves complex and interwoven. This theoretically solid book can be a challenge to read. That said, this text is a gold mine for all of us involved in any form of experiential learning. You’ll find theoretical nuggets in each chapter that can inform your practice. If you are a faculty member, read it carefully. Then, share it with your administration!
Bridget N. O’Connor
New York University New York, New York, USA
112 BOOK REVIEW
