USING EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING THEORY TO PROMOTE STUDENT LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT IN PROGRAMS OF EDUCATION ABROAD
In this chapter, the authors focus on how students learn and the role of the educator in that process and begin by providing an overview of Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) and its key concepts: the cycle and spiral of learning from experience, learning styles, learning flexibility, learning spaces, and the ELT of development. The author then offers guidance to study abroad educators on the use of these concepts to maximize student learning and development. The ELT model portrays two dialectically related modes of grasping experience- Concrete Experience and abstract conceptualization -and two dialectically related modes of transforming experience-reflective observation and active experimentation. The ELT developmental model follows Jung’s theory that adult development moves from a specialized way of adapting toward a holistic integrated stage that he calls individuation. The ELT approach is to build curricula around the cycle of learning in such a way that all learning modes are used and all styles of learning are engaged.
