10

The Seventh Way of Learning
LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE
Holistic Learning

EVERYONE LEARNS FROM EXPERIENCE, we say, but alas, we all know people who never seem to. Sometimes we look back and say, “That was a painful experience, but actually it was a good learning experience.” We often mention “learning” and “experience” in the same breath.

A great amount of learning takes place outside of classrooms or formal training environments simply through experience. Many colleges and universities today urge students to have a cooperative education experience, a wilderness challenge experience, or a study abroad experience, and for such experiences the term experiential learning is used. In organizational settings this type of learning is sometimes known as action learning. We prefer the term experience-based learning and use it to refer to sponsored or guided experiences identified or established for the express purpose of bringing about learning. In most cases this involves procedures for selecting and assigning the experience, planning for it, supervising it, and making provisions for participants to reflect on the experience.

Experience-based learning has its foundation in holistic learning theory. Holistic refers to a way of learning that involves the whole person—sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell, as well as mind, emotions, body, and soul—simultaneously (Flake, 1993).¹ This way of learning is holistic because it reflects the capacity of the brain to take in and synthesize many aspects of experience at once.

Holistic learning theory has its origins in modern brain research. Of all the ways of learning, it is based on the most recently developed theory. Neuropsychologists who study brain anatomy and function suggest that human beings are “efficient, multitrack simultaneous processors,” which is a sophisticated way of saying holistic learners. Holistic education is now a national movement in the United States, but it has its roots in the thought of John Dewey and Alfred North Whitehead, both of whom believed strongly in using experience to promote learning (Gang, 1993²; Hendley and Dewey, 1986³). Theories that elaborate on reflection as a technique to support learning from experience grow out of clinical research in counseling psychology.

THE CIRCLE OF EXPERIENCE
Reflection-in-Action

How is raw experience used for learning? The answer to this question is found in the work of David Kolb (1984, 22–23),⁴ who has developed a useful model for thinking about experience-based learning. This way of learning begins in concrete experience. First we have some experience, and as we have it we begin to reflect on what it means. As the reflection deepens, we begin to engage in abstract conceptualization about what has taken place. As we develop our ideas about the experience we feel the need to test these ideas to see if they are valid. This testing is done through a process of active experimentation, which of necessity returns us to concrete experience. Kolb’s work suggests that learning from experience involves a cycle, some phases, a going out and coming back, and, above all, a process of reflection.

Is this way of learning merely the application of formal knowledge learned in classrooms to practical settings, or is there a new, perhaps qualitatively different kind of learning that grows out of experience? A case for answering yes has been made by Donald Schön (1983),⁵ who has written on the need to restructure professional education. He suggests that learning in professional settings involves reflection in action, a way of knowing that grows out of experience. It is a kind of knowing that comes through our actions as reflective practitioners and is different from formal knowledge.

There is a commonsense resonance to the idea that we learn certain things from experience. It is doubtful that one can learn tightrope walking from a lecture on the subject. Some things we learn by doing. As with other ways of learning, understanding the theory will help you to know what you can do to maximize your learning from experience.

THE THREE-PART BRAIN
Wired for Holistic Learning

Neuropsychologists have gone one step beyond cognitive psychologists; they hope to learn about learning by studying the brain directly. In recent years there has been an outpouring of results of research on the brain—how it has evolved, what it consists of, and how it functions. Classic summaries of that research are found in Paul D. MacLean’s A Triune Concept of the Brain and Behavior (1973)⁶ and in the late Carl Sagan’s The Dragons of Eden (1977)⁷. The picture that scientists paint is of a triune brain with the three parts functioning as a whole but not always in harmony. As the human brain evolved, three additional layers surmounted the spinal cord, each with its new functions but each also needing to accommodate the previous layer. It is as if we have three different mentalities, two of which have no speech (Sagan, 1977, 53, 57).⁸ The three parts of the brain (not to be confused with right and left hemispheres) can be distinguished anatomically, functionally, and neurochemically. Keep in mind that all three layers are still present.

The human brain is not the largest brain overall in the animal kingdom—it is roughly three pounds and a quart (1,500 grams and a liter)—but it is the most developed and highly complex of the animal brains. Human brains are, on average, six times larger relative to body weight than the brains of other animals. (Dolphins are notable big-brain exceptions.) If a giraffe can be thought of as a “neck freak” and an elephant as a “nose freak,” human beings are “brain freaks” (Sagan, 1977, 35).⁹ The process of brain enlargement, known as encephalization, occurred to accommodate language—and ultimately the capacity for intelligent behavior—not only for communication but to develop the words and images to map the territory of human experience (Jerison, 1977, 42ff).¹⁰

Although the three parts of the brain do not always get along together, an important finding of this recent research is that the brain is extremely “well wired” (Fishbach, 1994).¹¹ Our 100 billion brain cells (about as many as there are stars in the Milky Way) are quite specialized, but they work together in banks. One of the reasons the cerebral cortex is so concentrated and convoluted—it would occupy 1.5 square meters if it were stretched out—is to facilitate connections among brain cells.

The brain is not just an isolated organ; it is connected to the world of experience through the senses and is able to function as both a sender and receiver (Sylwester, 1995).¹² Although the sense organs work independently, they also function simultaneously. Much of the brain’s sensory and motor activity is automatic, managed by the cerebellum and basal ganglia, so that other parts of the brain are freed for simultaneous seeing, hearing, thinking, and communication activities. Apparently we are wired for holistic learning.

Leslie Hart (1983),¹³ in his fascinating book, Human Brain and Human Learning, spells out the implications of recent brain research for learning. Humans learn, Hart contends, not in the logical, rational, linear mode of most classrooms. The human brain operates in a multilinear way all at once, using all of the sensibilities, employing its many layers, going down many paths simultaneously. In an instant we can identify an object by gathering information on size, shape, color, texture, weight, sound, movement, and so forth—the investigation proceeds along many paths at once. The brain’s greatest ability is to make sense of the world by generating, storing, and calling forth programs to deal with experience.

To illustrate the point, Hart describes how children learn to play baseball not by lectures on the geometry of the playing field or even by systematic development of throwing, catching, hitting, and running skills, but rather by experiencing the game and picking it up over time. Human beings, both children and adults, seem to pick up learning in a somewhat random, happenstance manner from all kinds of exposures to experience.

Frank Smith (1990),¹⁴ a noted psychologist and author of a well-known text on reading, suggests in his book, To Think, that learning should be thought of as a natural, commonplace process rather than a matter of deliberate intention. “The brain picks up huge amounts of information incidentally,” Smith notes, “the way our shoes pick up mud when we walk through the woods” (12).¹⁵ Smith also asks: “If learning is normally so easy, why should it sometimes be so difficult?” Hart (1983, 109)¹⁶ argues that learning becomes difficult when there is too much structure, and particularly when there is pressure. When the organism is under threat, the older brain takes over and our panic makes us freeze and leaves us literally speechless. Hart calls this automatic response of the brain “downshifting.” Under pressure in classrooms, something can “snap.” Have you ever had that experience? The ideas of Hart and Smith support holistic learning through experience in natural environments.

INTERPRETING EXPERIENCE
Constructing Meaning

Holistic learning also receives support from a new group of philosophers and psychologists known as constructivists. Constructivists begin with the idea that knowledge is not a copy of reality; rather, knowledge is the outcome of efforts to construct the meaning of phenomena in our experience. We do this in many ways—through the fine arts and music, through mathematical and scientific symbol systems and the telling of stories—always with the goal of making meaning of experience (Smith, 1990, 126).¹⁷

Jacqueline and Martin Brooks present a vivid illustration of constructing meaning in their book, The Search for Understanding: The Case for Constructivist Classrooms (1993).¹⁸ A young girl, whose only experience with water is with her bathtub and swimming pool, has constructed a particular concept of water. Water is calm and moves when she moves. But when she goes to the ocean and experiences the waves throwing her about and crashing on the shore, she has to construct a new meaning for water. Like this child, all of us must make new meanings as we have new experiences. As we encounter new experiences three things can happen (Fosnot, 1996, 13–14).¹⁹

1. Assimilation—absorbing new experiences into previously established frameworks of meaning

2. Accommodation—changing our interpretation to assign new meaning

3. Differentiation and integration—adjusting two or more sets of interpretations simultaneously

The constructivists call this process of adjustment and reinterpretation equilibration. Learning from experience is often like being thrown in the ocean.

FROM EXPERIENCE TO LEARNING
The Reflection Process

Learning from experience does not occur automatically just from being immersed in something different; it requires reflection in action. As you approach an experience that has high potential for learning—either an experience you have been assigned to or one of your own choosing—there are several questions you can ask that will help to maximize your learning:

• Is this the right experience for you? Does the experience provide actual opportunities for learning and is this the learning you are seeking? Does the opportunity present the right level of challenge and are you ready for it? Is this a good match?

• What preparation is needed? What are the likely opportunities for learning and how can you be ready for them? What should you look for or anticipate? What background will you need to take into the experience?

• What are your goals? What do you want to accomplish through the experience? What activities do you hope to complete and what do you expect to learn through these activities?

• How will you document your experience? Will you use a laptop to keep a log or diary? Will you obtain or copy key reports or correspondence? Will you take pictures, make videos, or record audiotapes? Will you file regular brief reports? Will you write a final summary or give an oral report at the end of the experience?

• What senses will you call into action? If the brain is a well-wired, multichannel processor, how can you use it best? How will you maintain your alertness to the main events and the small details that illuminate these events? What will you allow yourself to see, hear, and feel?

• What will you do about the unfamiliar? When you experience something new, or find something that doesn’t fit with your previous mode of interpretation, what will you do about that? How will you construct meanings and assimilate or adjust to the unexpected?

• With whom will you talk about this experience? Will someone serve as mentor, counselor, or animator of this experience for you? What role will your supervisor play? Will you talk to a neutral third party?

Perhaps the most important thing you can do, in addition to the activities suggested in the questions posed above, is to establish an ongoing, serious, one-on-one dialogue with someone who can help facilitate your reflection. You will be bombarded with a variety of perceptions and impressions generated by your senses and received by your brain. Remember, however, that the essence of learning from experience is in making meaning of experience, and sometimes that requires big adjustments. You can do some of this reflection by yourself, particularly as you try to put your experience into words through diaries and reports. The reflection process will go much deeper and will ultimately result in more learning, however, if you have someone to talk to who can facilitate your reflection.

What can you expect from these conversations? You can expect more if the person you are able to talk to has some skill as a facilitator. On the other hand, if no trained facilitator is designated or available, you can choose a person with good listening skills and discuss with them how they can help you meet your needs for reflection. At a minimum you should arrange for at least one conversation at the end of the experience, but your reflection will be enhanced greatly through several conversations while you are immersed in the experience. In this case the dialogue is not only about what is happening but what you can do about what is happening.

Facilitating reflection is like counseling. A standard textbook used in teaching counselors is Gerard Egan’s The Skilled Helper: A Systematic Approach to Effective Helping (1990).²⁰ Your mentor in this situation may or may not know this book (or any other book on counseling), but together you can use the principles outlined in this book to frame your reflection process. Use these guidelines:

• Tell your story. Egan calls this the present scenario. As best you can, tell what is happening. Describe your experience in full detail. What are you seeing and hearing? What is your interpretation? Ask your mentor if this seems like an accurate description, and welcome a challenge if you are misinterpreting or leaving something out. Telling the story by putting your experience into words is in itself a valuable aid to learning, but as you tell the story some problem or concern is likely to arise. Ask yourself if everything is going okay and explore whether there is something you might be doing differently. The facilitator can help you define key issues and problems and help you to develop an initial assessment of the situation. What is missing, what needs to be explored further, what needs to be done?

• Project a future. Egan calls this the preferred scenario. Discuss with your mentor how you would like the situation to be. What would this situation look like if the problems were resolved and the missed opportunities were addressed? What are the other possible scenarios for this situation? What could be happening in your experience that is not happening now? What accomplishments and changes would you like to see, not only for yourself but for the work and the people in that setting? This is your opportunity to dream a little and get beyond airing frustrations and complaints. Together, you and your mentor should be able to construct an agenda of things you can do before you meet again. Then you need to commit to doing some of the items on the agenda.

• Implement your ideas. Egan calls this linking preferred scenarios to action strategies. The focus is now on action. What are you actually doing in this situation to improve it, change it, or (more humbly) make your small contribution? What are your strategies for taking action? At this stage your conversation with your mentor can explore possibilities or, if you have already initiated some action, evaluate the consequences of your actions. Your dialogue will be filled with questions that begin: What if …? Have I considered …? Would it help if …? Your goal here is to formulate plans, act on them, and then assess the outcomes of your action. Sometimes this is a painful business, but the person helping you with the reflection process can provide support and understanding if you are willing to be honest about the adjustments you are trying to make.

LESSONS LEARNED

Ten Things You Can Do to Maximize Your Learning

1. Identify experiences that provide potential for learning.

2. Make sure the experience is the right match for your learning needs.

3. Know how your brain is designed for holistic learning.

4. Awaken your senses and make systematic observations.

5. Search for and construct meaning.

6. Make preparations for the experience and set goals about what you hope to learn.

7. Be prepared to adjust to the new, different, and unexpected.

8. Write about and otherwise document the experience.

9. Seek a mentor to facilitate reflection.

10. Tell your story, project a future, take action, and ask what you learned.