Enhancing Experiential Learning in Higher Education - Essay Example

?Introduction The purpose of this assessment is to develop knowledge of some of the key concepts addressed in this unit and to demonstrate reflectivepractice, intercultural sensitivity, social awareness and writing skills. Practicality of the portfolio stems from attributes identified as most important by the Australian Business Leaders and these include Continuous Professional Development (the ability to reflect, learn and grow from experience) and Communication Skills. Therefore, this assignment calls upon myself as a student to reflect upon all that I have learnt during the course of this unit and identify areas of growth, weaknesses and strengths in my personality. In addition, I have pinpointed ways of fortifying my strengths and action points for my weaknesses. This reflection has been drawn from my experiences from working in a group with fellow classmates who have different character traits, seeing how I fit in and respond to various situations and consequently the end result of our working together. My ability to form judgments on these various areas has been drawn from reading scholarly work by Kolb on learning styles; along with Belbin’s Self-Perception Inventory. Ultimately, the learning process will have been improved as I will able to consider what I have learnt and relate it to my personality as I endeavor to get into the job market and this knowledge will help me better myself as a student with my career in mind; thus achieve professional development. Section I: Intrapersonal Effectiveness In establishing my effectiveness in an organizational setting, I have sought out reference for such knowledge from Kolb’s work on learning styles. Kolb explores the theory of experiential learning to determine how this knowledge improves learning in higher education. He establishes that this theory is based on six propositions that are shared by the scholars who have previously researched the issue. The first is that learning is best actualized as a process not in terms of outcomes, where students should be engaged so as to get feedback and examine effectiveness of their learning efforts. Education should then be looked at as having the same goal and process of reconstructing experiences continuously. Looking into my personal learning experiences through this unit, I have come to see that I am a visual learner where illustrations such as charts and diagrams help me understand a concept better and remember it later on. Effective learning is achieved through repeating the process whilst adding new ideas, knowledge that are then examined, tested and combined to previous material. All this should be done with the student’s beliefs and ideas on a topic being explored. This second proposition is essential as it allows for refinement of the entire learning process to ensure it is beneficial to each student (Kolb& Kolb 2005, p.194). Personally, this became clear in the course of this unit where I discovered that developing a relation to every new topic with a previous one allows for integration in my mind. This means that I can create a mental picture of the whole unit with each topic in perspective. The usefulness of this proposition is that allows a student to be adaptable and embracing to new topics that may be challenging, which is a crucial intrapersonal skill. Practiced over time, this relearning process will enable me to always be willing to discover and seek out new information and work-related skills that will in turn help me excel in my career. The third proposition involves getting equipped with conflict-resolving skills as learning involves interacting with opposing modes of adaptation to the world that result in differences, disagreements and conflicts. One should thus be prepared to engage in fruitful contentions in styles of reflection, thinking and feeling. Through this course, I have realized that even though business shares several universal principles every entrepreneur will have a different viewpoint on which principle surpasses the rest. For instance, I believe that when I decide to start my own business developing trust will be the most challenging and thus the initial action point. This involves building fruitful relationships with customers that goes beyond delivering a product or service, suppliers in the event of credit allowances or late delivery on their part, lenders that is financial institutions, that repayment of loans will be done as agreed upon and with employees or partners to ensure their efforts are appreciated and growth is made possible. This calls for not only learning how to be tolerant of others but being able to hold myself accountable for my actions as well; thereby enabling resolving of conflicts with an unbiased mentality. The fourth proposition holds that learning is a holistic process entailing more than just mental function, that is, includes feeling, perceiving, thinking and behaving. The entirety of a person’s adaptation to the world is what defines learning. This is relatable in this course as a human being is a composition of various functions integrated hence one cannot be separated from the other. In group assignment, I learnt that every member holds different assumptions and beliefs with some sharing similar ones meaning that when discussing various issues we arrived at the same conclusion but through different thinking processes. In addition, holding different assumptions and beliefs implies that certain conclusions will be arrived at democratically where the majority wins; therefore, it is essential to have diplomatic skills to ensure that when such a conclusion is arrived at there is no ‘bad blood’. Personally, I am an introvert which means that I am not confrontational so I will receive differing opinions in a passive-aggressive manner. This causes me to shut out and avoid people who do not share my viewpoint and people that are aggressively argumentative. From this reflection, I have had to learn to be less passive during arguments so as to assert myself, while ensuring I am not overbearing or demeaning and acknowledging that arguments get emotional but learn to control such emotions. Creating a balance in the reasoning processes of combining new experiences into existing concepts and accommodating existing concepts into new experiences is the fifth proposition. Working in a group allows one to have new experiences through interacting with the different personalities of the members and tackling the issues the assignment raises, yet group discussion is an existing concept with pre-established information on how to conduct them successfully. This means one should apply such information with an open mind as no group will ever be completely identical to another since it will comprise of different personalities, discussion issues and contexts. As an introvert, I find myself being quiet on the first days of group meetings as I try to get comfortable with new people. This may be misunderstood as disinterest in the group members or work assigned. I am hence learning how to relay my actual feelings and thoughts in a more expressive manner as opposed to having an internal dialogue first as I adjust to interacting with new people. This I believe can be achieved by creating a rapport based on social issues first which helps to ease the tension. For instance, sharing likes and dislikes of music or movies. The final propositions suggest that learning should follow a constructivist theory where social knowledge is generated and regenerated as per the individual knowledge of the learner. This refutes the normal practice of transmitting preexisting fixed ideas to the learner. From an intrapersonal outlook, this implies me being able to relay the knowledge I have to the lecturer through active participation in class which will develop into a habit at the workplace where I can actively engage my supervisor and colleagues so as to gain knowledge of the company and how to operate effectively. The Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) is illustrated as a cyclical process where the learner touches all the bases that is, experience, reflection, thoughts and action in a recursive manner that is receptive to what is being learned and the learning situation. The ELT model depicts two logically related modes of taking advantage of experience- Abstract Conceptualization (AC) and Concrete Experience (CE) and two logically related modes of converting experience- Active Experimentation (AE) and Reflective Observation (RO). Abrupt or concrete experiences are the foundation for observations along with reflections. These reflections are incorporated and refined into abstract concepts from which new inferences for action can be sought. These inferences can be actively tested and serve as blueprints in creating new experience (Kolb& Kolb 2005, p.195). Section 2: Interpersonal Effectiveness One’s ability to communicate, listen and understand others is what essentially defines interpersonal skills. The core part of ELT as a learning style is based on the Learning Style Inventory (LSI) that sets out four distinct learning styles- accommodating, converging, assimilating and diverging. The styles also include categorization by the ELT model where accommodating style feature CE and AE as dominant learning abilities, converging style features AC and AE dominant learning abilities, assimilating style features AC and RO as dominant learning abilities and diverging style features CE and RO as dominant learning abilities. I feel that I fall under diverging style as even though I have difficulty initiating conversation within a group, I prefer to work in one where I can listen with an open mind and receive personalized feedback. This is because I have come to learn that I like situations where ideas are generated as is the case with brainstorming sessions that call for a group setting. The skills that I possess that facilitate my forming this conclusion include conflict resolution, diplomacy, empathy and I value developing rapport. In addition, I enjoy learning about different cultures which leads me to want to interact with people from various ethical and cultural backgrounds. In the group assignment, this allowed me to listen and accommodate different opinions even those that I did not agree with. My weakness lies in proper response to opposing opinions which at least is not verbally aggressive; I resort to an unvoiced dissatisfaction. I believe this can change by learning how to engage in constructive criticism without attacking or condemning, generally finding a moderate way of relaying my stance (Kolb &Kolb 2005, p.195-196). According to Belbin’s Self-Perception Inventory, there are eight team roles that are immediately established within any team and these are chairman, shaper, plant, monitor-evaluator, resource investigator, company worker, team worker, and completer-finisher. The inventory features a number of questions to which depending on one’s responses, a certain classification is arrived at following her inventory. I believe that I fall under Company Worker as this role is described with the traits of being conservative, dutiful and predictable. With regards to positive qualities, this person is hard working, has self-discipline and an organizing ability. For tolerable weaknesses, this team member is indifferent to unproven ideas and is lacking in flexibility (Belbin 2005, p.182-183). I value appointing tasks to every individual within a group so as to ensure everyone participates and all aspects of an issue are analyzed, and this point to my organizing ability. I am unresponsive to differing opinions which also makes me a conservative. A personal goal would be to learn how to be responsive to differing opinions by adopting a positive mentality towards such, this because the differing opinions present an opportunity to challenge my own opinions. In addition, I feel that I should change conservativeness and be more assertive and bold during arguments so as to let my thoughts out and defend my stance. This requires developing a stronger sense of confidence and being more confrontational which can be practiced with family members. Area of Professional Development I have identified that the skills I would like to work on are assertiveness skills where I seek to learn how to express myself clearly without seeming authoritative and demeaning. I believe this will help me be more responsive in a group setting particularly where opinions that I disagree with are brought up, as I will be able to openly challenge them and defend my stance. Subsequently, I can develop constructive criticism skills and be more confrontational. This will boost my confidence as I will be open to debate and challenging of my views and opinions without cowering. I plan on achieving this by engaging in debate with my peers and family members on recent social issues such as same sex marriages at least twice a month. This will help me ease into a mildly confrontational attitude around a comfortable setting where I know I will be evaluated sincerely and I can accept criticism and take notes of both strong and weak points. I will tabulate this and see how I perform over a period of three months, to identify whether I am improving or dwindling in the strong and weak points. References Belbin, M. R., 2005. Management Teams: Why they succeed or fail. 2nd Edition. London: Routledge. Kolb, Y. A. & Kolb, A. D., 2005. Learning Styles and Learning Spaces: Enhancing Experiential Learning in Higher Education. Academy of Management Learning & Education. Vol. 4, No. 2. PP. 193-212. Read More