Theory and Praxis in Experiential Education: Some Insights From Gestalt Therapy

Abstract

Background: Higher education policy increasingly conceptualizes industry-linked, service, and place-based forms of education in terms of experiential education. Although potentially promising, this turn toward experience risks instrumentalizing and marketizing experience, which is exacerbated by individualized theories of experiential learning. Purpose: Some scholars have therefore called for more sociological accounts of experiential learning, inviting deeper consideration of how individual experience is connected to social, cultural, or environmental factors. Methodology/Approach: This article responds to that call by explicating the praxis of Gestalt therapy, often associated with the individualistic human potential movement, but which nevertheless offers a framework for reconceptualizing theory and pedagogy of experiential education in more sociological terms. A brief history of Gestalt therapy foregrounding its sociological and experiential basis is followed by explanation of the three pillars of Gestalt therapy (commitment to dialogue, phenomenology, and field theory). Findings/Conclusions: This framework is shown to support a more sociologically oriented theory and praxis of experiential education that also integrates divergent understandings of experience. Implications: Given the turn toward experience in higher education and contemporary flourishing of cooperative social processes in general, defining experiential education more explicitly in terms of Gestalt praxis promises a timely enhancement of both, in the service of socially responsible objectives.

Leveraging the Added Value of Experiential Co-Curricular Programs to Humanize Medical Education

“…It is true that individuals construct their own knowledge, but they do so through interacting with their environments. Bourgault du Coudray (2020) emphasized how individual experience is connected to environmental, social, and cultural factors, suggesting that experiential education should be reconceptualized in more sociological terms. In addition, the person’s response can be reflective, but it can also be nonreflective or even nonlearning (Fenwick, 2001; Jarvis, 1987).…”

“…However, preparing future-ready doctors with such qualities needs to extend beyond the classroom in health care facilities, research laboratories, and community service initiatives, moving students progressively toward stronger understanding and ultimately greater independence in the learning process, all of which can be effectively gained through co-curricular programs (Jamal, 2012). This clearly intersects with experiential learning, which resonates with humanistic psychology and psychotherapy, and is historically founded in the human relations training tradition (Bourgault du Coudray, 2020; Seaman et al, 2017).…”

High-fidelity simulation versus case-based tutorial sessions for teaching pharmacology: convergent mixed methods research investigating undergraduate medical students’ performance and perception

“…The resulting simplistic view of experiential learning pulls it away from its origins, where it stemmed from human relations’ training (16). The literature emphasizes conceptualizing experiential education in more sociological terms, illustrating how the individual learner is inevitably connected to social, cultural, and/or environmental factors (17). Hence, from a practical perspective, it is worth deploying Kolb’s experiential learning theory in conjunction with a social constructionism theory where a small group of people learn through their social interactions.…”

“…The resulting simplistic view of experiential learning pulls it away from its origins, where it stemmed from human relations' training (16). The literature emphasizes conceptualizing experiential education in more sociological terms, illustrating how the individual learner is inevitably connected to social, cultural, and/or environmental factors (17).…”