3.5 Theoretical Framework for the Study
3.5.2 Experiential Learning Theorists
3.5.2.1 Dewey (1938)
Dewey (2011) points out that the method of long-established education was involved with transferring knowledge. Such was inadequate in its approach to supporting the experience of students. Education is the method of conveying knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes, which
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can be valuable to a person, while learning is the method of gaining knowledge, skills, and values. I accept Dewey as the philosophical father of experiential education who encouraged progressive education. He was also judgemental of the total “free, student-driven” approach to education, finding that students did not enjoy their learning experience. This was because of their lack of involvement in how to structure their learning approach. (Dewey, 2011). In many educational reforms, Dewey was ahead of his time. I will highlight some chosen questions on my study on internship and employability.
Dewey (2011) detects that children were better at their learning when they work together within their settings and were involved in their school programme. This idea is in line with the needs of employers who trained interns with specific employability skills in a proper workplace environment during their internship as expressed by graduates and employers. Dewey fixed his concept of “instrumentalism” in education on “learning by doing” or “hands-on learning.” This signifies that graduates have to learn the theory in classrooms thereafter, applying their classroom learning in an authentic work environment. Dewey formed a theory of knowledge known as “instrumentalism” in which he assumed ideas appeared to exist as tools/instruments to solve problems that occurred in the setting. Dewey believed that an individual learns better through experience. He suggested that such could fabricate knowledge, and thus, it was desirable to confront and to experiment with it. Dewey emphasised that education must be inquiry-based.
Dewey (2011) excludes much of the dominant philosophical ideas of the time, which was
“behaviourism” as too naïve and insufficient to clarify the multifaceted learning processes. He argued that children should take part in the process of their learning instead of being an inactive receiver of information as was presented by many educationalists of the time (Dewey, 2011).
Dewey’s social constructivism views of learning in which he emphasises the active role of the learner was well before the constructivist theory of Piaget and Vygotsky (Brooks & Brooks, 1999). Dewey (2011) argues that children are energetic, biological persons, causing both independence and accountability. He conceded that thoughts are associated with social environments and that philosophy has a concern for society. The philosophical education of Dewey aided the open-minded education drive and engendered the progress of experiential education programmes. His approach to learning in a social context became reflected in radical ideas at the end of the 20th century. Smith (1997) finds Dewey to be the most powerful theorist on education in that century and summarises Dewey’s beliefs and concepts:
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“Dewey: interaction + reflection and experience + interest in community and demography = a suggestive educative form–Informal education," (Smith, 1997).
Another ground-breaking idea for the period was Dewey’s argument that schools should grant children a choice that empowered them to associate a present matter with earlier experiences and knowledge. This idea could make education most effective. Dewey confronted “experiential learning” when he suggested that learners take part in their surroundings. Knowledge arises from an active adaptation of the human organism to its environment. Dewey (2011) believed that every adaptive behaviour of a human provides him with some information and that is known as knowledge. The multiple effects of this approach led to many other methods, problem-based learning, and inquiry-based learning.
I grounded Dewey's theory of experience in continuity, where the past and future are essential to the present. Dewey advocated that earlier experiences influence the current position and the experience of the present instant will impact the experience of the future. Dewey further placed interaction as a base for his theory. Dewey’s work on education is alive, and present-day experience ascends from the interface between experience and the current situation. Dewey proposes a process of focused livelihood, in which students could take part in an authentic world, hands-on workshops where they could show their knowledge through imagination and teamwork. Students should have the liberty to think about their dreams and thoughts. Dewey advocated that education be implemented in authentic experience.
Dewey (2011) refers to a more well-adjusted method of education in which educationalists, students, and the programme were pre-arranged with the same rank in the learning formula. He believed educators should assume the role of a facilitator and guide, allowing students the choices to learn for themselves and to progress as dynamic and self-regulating learners. In my study, the employers, academics, and graduates represented the three key persons. The professional supervisors instructed, guided and assessed the interns who worked either alone on a project or as a member of a team. The academics organised, coordinated and helped graduates.
There is a consensus among researchers who find that Dewey’s experiential theory promotes youth and adult education (Kolb, 1984; Beard & Wilson, 2013; Jonker & Liu, 2013). Several essential ideas come into view as a key to Dewey’s school of thought on experiential theory.
ELT includes the social environment, knowledge, content organisation, the role of the educator, learners’ readiness, experience, learning results and feedback (Roberts, 2003). The teacher
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organises the knowledge into logical parts in which he or she combines the students’ experience with the learning that fosters on student readiness. Dewey (1938) views the effects of this experience on learning which leads to the students’ knowledge and readiness in which the teacher gives feedback to the learner, thus allowing learning to restart.
In the experiential learning theory, Dewey suggests that human experience is social and calls for close interaction and of carrying information. He further argues that “the principle that development of experience comes along through interaction means that education is a social process" (Dewey, 1938: 58). The more significant interaction between mature (experienced supervisor) and socialising simplifies immature people (young intern) (Dewey, 1938). For example, during internships, the social relations among supervisors, interns, and other employers help the intern to learn. Dewey advocated that earlier experiences impact on the current situation and the experience of the present-day moment will influence the experience of the future (Dewey, 2011). Dewey’s theory of experience was grounded in continuity in which the past and future matter to the present. More so, Dewey’s experiential learning theory stresses the quality of being valuable and worthy of knowledge. The philosopher believed that experiential learning allows for settling the chances of the present and what students develop and learn from their experiences.
Dewey’s experiential learning philosophy of education highlights the role of the educator in organizing educational experiences. To fulfil this role, teachers must grasp the nature of the knowledge of different learners to discover the environment that will make their experiences meaningful to them. In my study, supervisors have to know the abilities and previous skills mastered by their learners. Planning for experiential learning is essential, although more difficult than for conventional education. Here, one role of the teacher is to decide on a suitable number of student-led activities in which students take part in real-life experiences. Dewey (1938) believes that learning has to match with the instinctive mental and physical development of the individual.
Experiential learning is hand-on learning; it makes up why, how, and when the subject applies such to his or her life. Dewey's (1938)’s brilliant ideas include, for example, democracy and education, experience, reflection, learning, but he was not promoting experiential learning as opposed to other kinds of learning, e.g., classroom learning. His ideas were much broader than that and education was in genuine experience. However, he expresses, “we do not learn from
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experience…. we learn from reflecting on experience” (Dewey, 1933). Experiential learning and reflection are interconnected, and experience has to be reflected upon. Creating, a problematic experience during a project will produce the strongest possibility of its reflection. Dewey (1933) is a pioneer who wrote on reflective practice as a careful, systematic search of experience, collective action, and reflection. He finds that the key to the growth of thoughtful theory is that when integrating theory and practice, the recurring in cycles of experience and the imagined practical application of examples are studied from experience. Previous studies have reported that reflection is an essential human activity, as people recollect their practice anew, reflect on it, think on a subject or question over a period, and assess it (Dewey, 1910; Boud, Keogh &
Walker, 1985; The Association for Experiential Education, 2016). Researchers suggest learning with experience.
The event under study encourages scholars to interact and to carry out reflection, which allows them to understand and internalise the experience (Dewey, 2011). Reflection is understanding a relationship when a student moves from experience to experience marked by depth of thinking and associations to other experiences and thoughts. Education helps the learner to think through the usual reflection. Education results from experiences that are made meaningful by drawing on existing knowledge and reflection (Dewey, 1997/2011). Dewey (2011) encourages the active learner to ponder on how their feelings decide their ideas where the learners can influence their future common action decision and development once, they reflect on their previous experience.