Experiential Education/Learning Cycle
The Portfolio has evolved as a method of documenting the kind of learning we emphasize most at Friends World: Experiential Learning. Theories about learning through experience were developed in the first few decades of this century by John Dewey; his ideas were important in the creation of the Friends World model of learning. One aspect of this model which you may or may not have come across is a Learning Cycle, which has a number of variations. Here is one version:
This model can be applied to your project or internship, or almost any other aspect of the learning in your life. In addition, it is one of the ways in which Friends World evolves and grows, through meetings and communications between active members of its community. There are other versions of this cycle, but all of them boil down to the same basic concepts. All four parts of the Learning Cycle are documented in your Portfolio. The Planning aspect is represented in (surprise, surprise) the Learning Plan. The bulk of your Portfolio will probably be taken up by results and descriptions of what you do over the course of the semester. The final, and in many ways most important, segment of the Portfolio, is the reflective essay, also called the Self-Evaluation, which relates your plans, results, and observations to each other, the world around you (and in you), and the next learning cycle, built on the experience of the current one.
Experiential Education, as one of the underlying tenets of Friends World, is, like Friends World's purpose and practice, open to interpretation and disagreement. There are, of course, those who emphasize one aspect of experiential learning over another, and the result can be a boring seminar (not enough doing or reflection), an amazing project poorly documented (too much doing/not enough observation), or a situation where everything just falls apart (occasionally caused by not enough planning).
The Friends World kind of Experiential Education seems to strive for a balance of the various parts of the cycle. This is important to keep in mind as people react to imbalances: because a student has had to swallow too much planning and observing all her life, she may try to do without those stages; or the opposite, where a student searching for discipline gets so caught up in planning that she never actually does anything.
Workshop Discussion Sparks
- Which experiences are learning experiences?
- Which Friends World experiences are learning experiences?
Inspired and Creative
- The ultimate in reflection and observation is an autobiography. Do one (any length) and then think about what it means for the future and present.
- If possible, look back on past Portfolios or other studies. How have you come to new understandings of things you learned before? In the other direction, try writing questions to be answered after a future learning cycle, in the next Portfolio you do.
Rigorous Training
- Practice documenting a learning cycle by doing either observation exercises or research, whichever comes easier to you. In either case, first you need an idea of what to do (see the sections on OBSERVATION (F.6) and RESEARCH (F)). Then do it, describe it, and figure out what it means. That last one ("what it means") is the trick.
- Questions to spark reflection/conceptualization:
- What pattern stands out? Why?
- What is surprising here? Why?
- Why did I choose this observation/research topic?
- What does this remind me of/connect with?
- What does this observation/knowledge mean to me?
AAAAAGGGHHHH!
- If the trouble is over a difference of opinion about what qualifies as experiential or valid learning, then see the section on "Purpose of Friends World" and the paragraphs on balance above.
- If the trouble is with some specific part of the documentation of your experiences, figure out which part, and then check the references below. Many an experience is potentially a learning experience, but it can be tricky to figure out just how to make it into one. This is a challenge all Friends World students share.
- Don't be afraid to just read a bunch of old Portfolios to see how others tried to do it.
See Also
- Experience and Education by John Dewey
- The first-year program's Friends World Education texts
- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig
- ORGANIZATION OF A PORTFOLIO (A.1)
- PURPOSE OF FRIENDS WORLD (B.2)
- PROCESS AND PRODUCT (C.6)
- Sections for Planning:
- Sections and Categories for Doing:
- Sections and Categories for Observing:
- Sections for Reflecting/Conceptualizing:
Contribute to the Portfolio Resource Guide!!!
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