The Experiential Educational Approach in Australia versus Thinking-On-Your-Feet Model in Singapore - Essay Example

Many educators refer to the Australian learning approaches as “experiential.” What this means is that there is great importance placed on experience in learning rather than an excessive emphasis on pedagogy in such a way that education is considered as a lifelong process that is something good in and for itself and not just some tool or mechanism for people to acquire skills in order to perform specific job responsibilities. (Field and Leicester 2000, p. 172) This has been made possible by the degree of control exerted on schools by the Australian education authorities in terms of learning approaches to be adopted. Schools in Australia are considered to be quite autonomous. Such policy and attitude towards education differ significantly from traditional learning approaches adopted elsewhere such as in Singapore. A specific strategy being adopted within the experiential model is the “thinking-on-your-feet” approach.

For others, this is the one that puts questioning and arguments to good use instead of making the learner exclusively the receiver of knowledge. According to David Kolb (1984, p. 20), this is the better way to learn because it addresses the behavioral requirements of learners as education forms a core process in an individual’s development. And so, instead of memorizing theories as explained and taught by a lecturer, there is role-playing, questioning, and arguments, among other interactive strategies engaging the learners who are encouraged to actively participate in the classroom learning to the extent that they learn and discover something even from themselves and their experiences from such activities.

In contrast, Singapore adopts a highly traditional approach to learning. The model is more popularly known as the Whole-class method, which is characterized by a didactic lecture, wherein the lecturer is the focus of the entire class activity, only requiring students to absorb knowledge, skills, and theories in instructions that are peppered with presentations and recitations. 

The case of Singapore illustrates this. The country has very limited human resources that is why the state had to take steps in regulating education in such a way that makes students learn in an almost autocratic manner. In this regard, there are already some political and social forces at play, impacting education and the way students learn their lessons. Indeed and by all means, Australia and its students can benefit immensely from experiential learning but this may not be true in the case of Singapore.

The country may risk a labor supply shortage if it loosens up its control of the curriculum and allows its schools to autonomously determine the manner of its implementation.