Experiential Learning

Believing that the primary purpose of professional education is to prepare practitioners, the authors consider variables that affect professional practice. Emphasis is on the key role and techniques of experiential education for effective transfer of learning to practice in medicine, law, social work, and management. Other variables that impact cost and quality of services include cost and length of professional education; specialization, selection, and promotion of faculty; role of research; use of paraprofessionals; and assessment of professioal education.

This handbook acts as an essential guide to understanding and using reflective and experiential learning - whether it be for personal or professional development, or as a tool for learning. It takes a fresh look at experiential and reflective learning, locating them within an overall theoretical framework for learning and exploring the relationships between different approaches. As well as the theory, the book provides practical ideas for applying the models of learning, with tools, activities and photocopiable resources which can be incorporated directly into classroom practice. This book is essential reading to guide any teacher, lecturer or trainer wanting to improve teaching and learning.

Combining a systems perspective with an experiential learning approach, this volume is designed to help trainers and human resources managers more effectively manage training programs. It is a step-by-step guide to conducting key phases of any training program: pre-assessment, needs analysis, design, implementation, and evaluation. The author focuses throughout on the principles of good training program design as well as on training for the development of certain pivotal skills, competency levels, and individual differences.

These 20 essays illustrate teaching strategies that can be incorporated into community-based practicums and internships. The book explores the innovative uses of experiential education in community work. Useful techniques for community problem-solving and ways in which groups can learn to work together more effectively are provided. There are new applications of democratic practice. Mutual self-respect and collective self-reliance are encouraged. Practitioners will find they can have power in an increasingly interdependent society and world.

This book provides a timely review of learning style research. It examines those approaches that purport to promote effective learning. It affirms the need for instructors and trainers to recognize the importance of individual learning differences and to use methods that help create a learning climate which increases the potential learning for all students or trainees regardless of their preferred way of learning.

Laubscher explores how students use their out-of-class time to enhance their learning about cultural differences while enrolled in a formal academic program abroad. Taxonomic analysis of the interview data using the means/end semantic relationship postulated by James Spradley supports the hypothesis that, when left to their own devices, students abroad naturally employ ethnographic methods to learn about the host culture. This suggests that students abroad will gain more from the out-of-class domain if that domain includes programmed opportunities for participant observation and personal interaction and if the students have the skills and guidance to capitalize upon those opportunities fully. The students' detailed discussions of their activities and experiences provide insights upon which educators can base their development of a programmatic approach to making the noncurricular dimension of education abroad a more integral part of the overall learning process. By combining ethnographic method with the principles of experiential learning, students abroad can reconceptualize the world around them and gain a greater appreciation of the existence of cultural differences in a multicultural world.