In my perception, learning from experiences makes learning more efficient and more impressive. The experiential learning approach allows students to explore these experiences one at a time and understand the meaning of the theoretical definitions. The experiential approach is not just a paper exercise that requires a simple application of the definition to get the answer right; the experience of the experiential approach has more uncertainties that may add to the length of this learning. Students will learn from one failure and when they try again they will pay attention to what they just failed at. In my opinion this method of learning, although it consumes a lot of time and requires a certain amount of patience, is completely error-free after really mastering the point completely. The experiential learning approach is a combination of theoretical and practical learning of knowledge. It allows learners to be truly immersed in the learning environment and complete the learning process through observation and physical experience. When students are engaged in experiential learning methods, they can gain a better understanding of their knowledge. They gain proficiency in their skills through practice. They can also learn from each other by working with different people, and develop social skills. They also feel confident in reapplying what they have learned after the real experience.
This approach is consistent with the topic I chose. Because the subject chosen by our group is related to economy, students can go into the market or simulate a market with their classmates to learn about the subject we are teaching after learning the theoretical knowledge. For example, in a learning to enter a supermarket. He then becomes a consumer in economics, what he wants to buy becomes a demand in economics, the supermarket becomes a seller, and what the supermarket offers becomes a supply in economics.
June 23, 2023
Hi Jenny,
Thanks for sharing your fantastic post! I agree with your opinion that the experiential learning approach is a combination of theoretical and practical learning processes. Most current learning methods only involve the theoretical approach, in which the students can only read, watch, and memorize the knowledge from a primary textbook or video resources. It is a usual way of studying but might not be the most efficient and effective way to achieve the most optimal learning outcomes because sometimes only plain words cannot bring a deep understanding of the concept into students’ brains. In other words, it is hard to determine whether the students actually understand and master the complex concepts they learned from the course or just perform “rote memorization” to cope with exams but do not know how to apply the knowledge in the real work context. Our topic – economics especially emphasizes real experiences because the knowledge from our topic always surrounds everyone’s daily life. Economics focuses on allocating limited resources and maximizing their societal values to solve problems. Resources allocation happens every day at every place, and the resources include not only capital but also labor, land, information, technologies, etc. Everybody must encounter at least one experiences in the past that involved participation in economics concepts, even if we did not actually realize it. For example, the concept of the opportunity cost “represents the potential benefits that an individual, investor, or business misses out on when choosing one alternative over another” (Fernando, 2023). When a person encounters a situation of fixing the cavity, they have two options: spend 200 dollars to fix the cavity immediately or wait for two months appointment to resolve the cavity without any charge. This is the judgment between the time and capital resources allocation. During the hesitation period, the individual must think about what they might lose if they chose the first option, and conversely; meanwhile, they would think about what potential benefits they might gain if they give up the first option and conversely. This is the hidden application of opportunity cost when people measure the potential benefits and the risks they may take while choosing between two options. This is just a typical example that happens in daily life, which may be difficult for the party themselves to pay attention to. However, suppose students experience this kind of situation in real-life and obtain the knowledge that connects this event with it. In that case, they can relate themselves to the knowledge and understand it clearly with their own interpretations. I feel connected with your choice of learning approach with mine because one of our activities is the guest lecture and its Q&A session, which combines both the experiential and inquiry-based learning approaches. Through meeting with real economic experts, such as the CEO of a public company, the students gain the experience of talking with field experts to obtain the views of knowledge from real-life examples. Meanwhile, the Q&A sessions provide the opportunity for students to learn and ask with curiosity, which helps them solve the confusion and consolidate learning with real-life examples as well.
Thanks,
Angel Liu
References:
Fernando, J. (2023, March 20). Opportunity cost formula, calculation, and what it can tell you. Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/opportunitycost.asp
June 23, 2023
Hi Jenny! I enjoy reading your post and sharing your thoughts about chosen learning design for our topic, Economics. Although I chose a different learning approach, I agree with your statement about the experimental learning approach that learners experience and conduct experiments when learning, and learn from either success or failure gained in the experience. And I always like your simple example, supermarket, to illustrate how to combine the learning of Economics with the utilization of an experimental learning approach.