Learning Is Created Through Experience
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“Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience.” David Kolb
David Kolb was an American psychiatrist who developed a learning theory that has experience in the very center of learning. But he does not stop at the experience, but takes it further and developed a four-stage model of learning.
The starting point is an experience
He says that experiences can occur in a professional, personal, or educational setting and that every experience can be used for learning. I believe we as International Educators, we are very good at creating experiences. Our campus is full of things that International students, scholars, and visitors can experience and explore. There are many “first times” on campus: first times to hearing a new word, understanding a new concept, finding new friends, trying new food. In short: Campus is a perfect environment to experience new approaches to do things and experience a completely new environment.
An experience is not the same as learning
But having experience is not the same as learning. That makes a lot of sense to me. My day is also full of experiences. Many not brand new and many not as exciting, but experiences nonetheless. But does that mean I am learning? David Kolb says there are three more steps that are needed to transform experience into meaningful learning.
The next stage is reflective observation. It’s the next step that deepens the experience you just had. This reflection then leads to what he says is abstract conceptualization. That is where the experience and the reflection together lead to a theoretical framework. Then the last stage is active experimentation. That is the stage where you had your experience, reflected on it, turned it into a kind of a game plan, and now you use this game plan to experiment with the initial experience. The cycle starts over.
We should not just provide experiences
I believe these four stages apply to my work, and therefore our work as International Educators. I think that we should not just provide experiences. We are not a magician who has his hat and then produces a white rabbit, then roses, then sparks, and then another rabbit. It is not purely about the number of experiences, but we need to make sure that these experiences go full circle. We need to provide a space for reflection, space where these reflections can then be turned into a real game plan, and space and where International learners can experiment with the experiences they have made.
I sometimes think that allowing them to experience is enough. I have done my job and what more can you want. But it isn’t that easy. When we think about the student experience, let us think about how this experience can be taken further. We should not leave the student alone after the experience. Learning does not just happen. We need to make it explicit so that it can be meaningful.