Two General Classification of Learning

1. DEDUCTIVE 2. INDUCTIVE

DEDUCTIVE METHOD

May have started with Plato & Arestotle

Traditional lecture or didactic approach

To draw conclusions from accepted or already known principles, concepts, generalizations, and theories, to infer from them, and to expand to further principles.

Steps in the Deductive

Method

1. Preparation2. Presentation3. Clarification4. Application5. Recapitulatio

n

INDUCTIVE METHOD

Embodies all the principles and conditions of learning in adult education

Summarized in Confucius’ emphatic articulation I hear and i forget I see and I remember I do and I understand

Steps in Inductive Method

1. Setting the climate2. Determining the learning objective3. Doing4. Looking, observing5. Thinking, analyzing, reflecting6. Generalizing, looking for insights7. Acting

The Experiential Learning Cycle

Back HomeApplication

INSTRUCTION

ORIENTATION

INTEGRATION

SYNTHESIS GENERALIZIN

G

EXPERIENCING

DATA GATHERIN

G ANALYSIS

PROCESSIN

G

The Experiential Learning Cycle

Experiential learning, a phrase used interchangeably with inductive method, underscores an oft repeated saying that life is a continuing process of learning. This is true, however, only when it has become automatic for a person to look back on any experience, reflect on its impact on and meaning for him, abstract insights from it, and allow these insights to lead him into action. Unfortunate the person of whom it is said “he is closed he never learns from his experience! Only when one allows life to be a continuous process of learning in this way can life be claimed as continuous growth, and surely, growth is the only sign of life.

The Experiential Learning Cycle

1. Orientation2. Instruction3. Experiencing4. Data Gathering Analysis5. Synthesis Generalizing6. Integration7. Closing Remarks

Step 1: Orientation

The facilitator sets the mood with encouraging words and eases the participants into the activity. The activity is contextualized within the learning objectives and /or linked to the conceptual framework of the total program.

At the first learning module of the program, an “icebreaker” may be used, but it should be carefully selected to suit the participants. This is the step often associated with “games” or fun. If the process stops after this stage, all learning is left to chance, the cycle is not completed, and the facilitator has not completed the task.

Step 2: Instructions

The facilitator prepares the instructions and sees to it that they are clearly heard, understood, and carried out by the participants.

Step 3: Experiencing

Almost any activity that involves either self-assessment or interpersonal interaction or any experience of any kind, pleasant or unpleasant, can be used as the “doing” or “experiencing”part of experiential learning. These activities can be carried out by individual, dyads, triads, small group, group on-group arrangement, or large groups. Of course, the learning objectives will dictate both the activity and the appropriate groupings.

Step 4: Data Gathering, Data Analysis

The first part of processing the experience is data gathering. People have had an experience, and now they are presumably ready to share what they saw and how they felt during the event. This involves finding out what happened within the individuals at both cognitive and affective levels, and making this available to the other participants by “publishing” it through verbal sharing in small groups and then to the big group, or by writing on flip charts in small groups and posting them on the wall to be viewed by the big group.

Step 4: Data Gathering, Data Analysis

The next step is data analysis, the systematic examination of commonly shared experiences. This is the group dynamics phase of the cycle in which participants essentially reconstruct the patterns and interactions of the activity ad publish their reports. They study how all these tensions and valences affected the members.

The facilitator needs to formulate carefully the process questions and to plan how the processing will be carried out if useful learning is to be attained.

Step 5: Synthesis and Generalizing

The results of the data analysis are synthesized or put together so that generalizations can be made about the relevance of the activity to the everyday life of the individual outside the training session.

Participants are led to focus their awareness on situations in their personal or work lives similar to those in the activity they experienced. This step makes structured experiences practical; if it is omitted, the learning is likely to be superficial.

At this stage the facilitator may bring in theoretical and research finding to augment the learning. This practice provides a cognitive framework for the learning that has been produced inductively and validates the experience by comparing it with the experience of other groups.

Step 6: IntegrationThe final stage of the experiential learning cycle is the

purpose for which the whole structured experience is designed. The facilitator helps participants apply generalization to actual situations in which they are involved outside the training sessions. Ignoring such discussion jeopardizes the usefulness of the learning. Attention must be given to designing ways for the participants to use the learning generated during the structured experience to plan more effective behaviour in their day to day life.

Individuals are more likely to implement their panned application if they share their plans with others. Volunteers may be asked to report what they intend to do with what they learned, and this can encourage other to experiment with their behaviour as well.

Step 7: Closing Remarks

Brief remarks, as opposed to long lectures, gives a sense of ending to the structured learning experience. If another activity is scheduled to follow, the necessary linking mechanics are done at the step.