On Becoming an Experiential Educator: The Educator Role Profile

Background. Becoming an experiential educator involves more than just being afacilitator or matching learning style with teaching style. Experiential educationis a complex relational process that involves balancing attention to the learner and tothe subject matter while also balancing reflection on the deep meaning of ideas with theskill of applying them.Aim. To describe a dynamic matching model of education based on Experiential LearningTheory and to create a self-assessment instrument for helping educators understandtheir approach to education.Method. A dynamic matching model for "teaching around the learning cycle" describesfour roles that educators can adopt to do so-facilitator, subject expert, standardsetter/evaluator, and coach. A self-assessment instrument called the EducatorRole Profile was created to help educators understand their use of these roles.Results. Research using the Educator Role Profile indicates that to some extent educatorsdo tend to teach the way they learn, finding that those with concrete learning stylesare more learner-centered, preferring the facilitator role; while those with abstractlearning styles are more subject-centered preferring the expert and evaluator roles.Conclusion. A model for the practice of dynamic matching of educator roles, learnerstyle, and subject matter can aid in the planning and implementation of educationalexperiences. With practice, both learners and educators can develop the flexibility touse all educator roles and learning styles to create a more powerful and effective processof teaching and learning-in Mary Parker Follett's words to, ". . . free the energies of the human spirit . . . the highest potentiality of all human association.". © 2014 SAGE Publications.

Duke Scholars

Author Angela Passarelli Fuqua School of Business