Experiential vs Action Learning
I’ve spent the last nearly 6 years in the field of educational technology, however this time has focussed primarily on the application, support and delivery sides of the equation rather than the realm of educational theory. In this sense I have room to grow; and I’m looking at my research project into the educational applications of Second Life as an opportunity to do just that.
So far I have read a whole lot of material and case studies, and during this period several common themes have begun to arise with respect to the educational models and theories being employed. The terms experiential learning and action learning have both been used quite frequently and I’m now starting to look into what these two models entail.
Now Wikipedia gets a whole lot of bad press in academic circles for a variety of reasons (a professor from Brighton has even forbidden students from using both Wikipedia and Google in her course). However I personally find that it’s an excellent resource for preliminary inquiry and often offers valuable references for further research.
That said, Wikipedia has described these two educational theories as follows:
“Experiential Learning is the process of making meaning from direct experience….Experiential learning requires no teacher and relates solely to the meaning making process of the individual from direct experience. It is an inherent process that occurs naturally.”"Action learning is an educational process whereby the participant studies their own actions and experience in order to improve performance. This is done in conjunction with others, in small groups called action learning sets. It is proposed as particularly suitable for adults, as it enables each person to reflect on and review the action they have taken and the learning points arising. This should then guide future action and improve performance.”
Based on these relatively superficial definitions, both theories are quite appropriate for use in Second Life. What I’ll be interested in locating are case studies that depict how either or both of these theories are being implemented in practice.
