Experiential Learning for Teacher Professional Development at Historic Sites

Abstract

Historic sites provide a variety of professional development (PD) programs for classroom teachers. Little is known, however, about the pedagogical approaches used by historic site professionals in educating their teacher audiences. Using data from PD websites and questionnaires completed by historic site professionals, two studies examine the types of pedagogical approaches institutions state they use for teacher PD, the alignment of historic site PD with characteristics of experiential learning, and issues relevant to researching experiential learning approaches used in these programs. Results indicate that institutions' pedagogical approaches for PD programs largely align with experiential learning characteristics but that research is needed to determine the pedagogical benefits of experiential learning for historic site PD and related learner outcomes.

Kokemuksellinen oppiminen muotoilupedagogiikan menetelmänä

“…Kolbin ajattelun lähtökohdat ovat John Deweyn, Kurt Lewinin ja Jean Piagetin ajattelussa (Bergsteiner ym. 2010;Blair 2016;Kolb 1984). Deweyn vuonna 1938 ilmestynyttä Art as experience on käytetty kokemuksellisen oppimisen sovelluksiin erityisesti taidekasvatuksessa.…”

“…Olipa lähtökohtana sitten Kolb tai jokin muu kokemuksellisen oppimisen teoria, joitakin olennaisia elementtejä tai ehtoja kokemuksellisen oppimisen mukaiselle oppimisprosessille voidaan kuitenkin olettaa. Erilaisista painotuksista huolimatta kokemuksellisen oppimisen keskiössä on aina oppijan aktiivinen osallistuminen oppimisprosessiin (Blair 2016). Andersen, Boud & Cohen (2000) mukaan kokemuksellinen oppiminen tähtää persoonallisten merkitysten keskeisyyteen oppimisessa.…”

“…Opiskelijat analysoivat esineen äärellä mihin se asettuu hänen omassa elämässä ja mitä se omalla tarinallaan kertoo, miten ne ovat vaikuttaneet tai vaikuttavat hänen elämään: Opiskelijoiden valitsemia tuotteita analysoitiin tämän jälkeen yhteisesti ryhmässä kokemuksen näkökulmasta (vrt. Blair 2016;Kolb 1984). Opiskelija toi yhteiseen tarinapöytään kokemuksen, jonka halusi muille jakaa.…”

Experiential Learning, Conditional Knowledge and Professional Development at University of Nairobi, Kenya—Focusing on Preparedness for Teaching Practice

“…The experiential learning cycle makes it appropriate for trainee teachers to analyze the experience, both during and after teaching practice in order to make meaning from experience and identify what has been learned. Teaching practice as an experiential phase of teacher professional development (Blair, 2016), is successful in learner development when a reliable experiential pedagogical orientation is provided. In this regard, creating appropriate experiential learning opportunities provides trainee teachers with rich and authentic opportunities for developing knowledge as well as skills vital for professional growth.…”

Professional Development of Adult Learners through Open and Distance Learning

“…Pedagogy can be defined as the "essential dialogue" between the activities of teaching and learning and "how we think and talk about, plan and structure those activities. Pedagogy involves a way of knowing as well as a way of doing" [8]. Adult learners bring to their environment a wealth of experiences, and it is the responsibility of the professional development provider to "build upon these experiences for positive transfer of learning… [this being said, these]…experiences can also be a barrier, because many of them have had poor and ineffectual learning experiences" as well [19].…”