learn by doing essay

Education, teaching and discipline are lifelong social phenomena and conditions for democracy, according to acclaimed American philosopher John Dewey.

Education is life itself

One of Dewey’s ideas about teaching and learning is that practical problem solving and theoretical teaching should go hand in hand. This idea has had a huge impact, especially among teachers in the USA. In Denmark, his way of thinking inspired the school system to such a degree that Denmark has been called Dewey’s second home country.

Furthermore, Dewey was sought after in countries like China and Soviet where he was used as a pedagogical consultant.

However, Dewey’s pedagogical philosophy is not just about learning by doing. According to Dewey teaching and learning, education and discipline are closely connected to community – the social life. Education is a lifelong process on which our democracy is built. As he put it: “ Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.”

Children are not listeners

Dewey was pragmatic and in no way did he agree with the romantic Rousseau that “the untainted nature of the child should be protected from the depraving influence of culture.” Not only did this position make him contradict the traditional concept of learning – it was also going against progressive anti-authoritarian pedagogy.

Traditional schools with practical learning by passive reception he described as “medieval”. Partly because it submitted pure intellectual, detached knowledge that belonged to the past – and partly because it was based on the inaccurate assumption that children are listening creatures. “But they are not,” Dewey emphasised. “Children are first and foremost interested in moving, communicating, exploring the world, constructing and expressing themselves artistically.”

The teacher is the master

Furthermore, he criticized the school for counteracting the children’s ability to corporate, because it was considered “cheating” and “copying”, if the children helped each other. On the other hand, he wasn’t a follower of the anti-authoritarian pedagogy, which in his opinion tended to see any form of pedagogical leadership and guidance as an intervention in the individual’s freedom.

On the contrary he declared that authority is a pedagogical condition for the individual’s development. Of course, he didn’t mean the outer authority of the traditional school, but the one of the “modern human knowledge and skill.”

Learning life skills

In 1896 Dewey founded an experimental school at the University of Chicago. It was shaped by “what the best and wisest parents want for their children.” In Dewey’s opinion that had to be what the community would want for all their children.

Dewey’s own children attended the school and in 1902 – when the number of pupils was at its highest – it had 140 students and 23 teachers, who were occupied with the core of the school’s teaching: Chores.

Good judgement

In a Dewey school the stereotypical gender roles are discarded. Girls participate in crafting equally to the boys, who have as many cooking classes as girls.

However, the children are divided by age, where the youngest do what they know from their home. The six-year-olds build a farm of blocks and plant crops they process.

The seven-year-olds study prehistorical life. The eight-year-olds are occupied by exploring, the nine-year-olds geography, and the older ones by scientific experiments within anatomy, physics, political economics and photography.

Dewey thought that this type of practical learning combines more learning recourses than any other method. Partly because you do something, partly because you do it together and thereby acquire social interest and moral knowledge.

The goal is to make the children want more teaching. That is the only way democracy can function as a lifeform, Dewey thought. And the ultimate goal is to create human beings with good judgement, who can participate in the community to discover the common good.

Still controversial!

What is Pedagogy for Change?

The Pedagogy for Change programme offers 12 months of training and experiencing the power of pedagogy – while you put your skills and solidarity into action.

Studies and hands-on training takes place in Denmark, where you will work with children and youth at specialised social education facilities or schools with a non-traditional approach to teaching and learning.

In short: • 10 months’ studies and hands-on training in Denmark, working with children and youth at specialised social education facilities or schools. At the same time yo will study the world of pedagogy with your team – a group of like-minded people. You will meet up for study days every month.

• 2 months of exploring the reality of communities in Scandinavia / Europe, depending on what is possible – pandemic conditions permitting. You will travel by bike, bus or perhaps on foot or sailing.

• Possibility to earn a B-certificate in Pedagogy.

How to tackle intolerance

Being an active bystander means becoming aware that inappropriate or even threatening behaviour is going on and choosing to challenge it. Collective action is the way forward.

Mónica shares her experience

Mónica just finished the Pedagogy for Change programme and we asked her to share some of her considerations and main takeaways from her experience of practising and studying social pedagogy in Denmark.

“Zone of Proximal Development” exemplified

In this blogpost, we exemplify how the theory of the “Zone of Proximal Development” can be implemented in real life when working in the field of social pedagogy.

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John Dewey on Education: Impact & Theory

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On This Page:

Key Takeaways

• John Dewey (1859—1952) was a psychologist, philosopher, and educator who made contributions to numerous topics in philosophy and psychology. His work continues to inform modern philosophy and educational practice today.
• Dewey was an influential pragmatist, a movement that rejected most philosophy at the time in favor of the belief that things that work in a practical situation are true, while those that do not are false. This view would go on to influence his educational philosophy.
• Dewey was also a functionalist. Inspired by the ideas of Charles Darwin, he believed that humans develop behaviors as an adaptation to their environment.
• Dewey’s influential education is marked by an emphasis on the belief that people learn and grow as a result of their experiences and interactions with the world. He aimed to shape educational environments so that they would promote active inquiry but did not do away with traditional instruction altogether.
• Outside of education and philosophy, Dewey also devised a theory of emotions in response to Darwin’s ideas. In this theory, he argued that the behaviors that arise from emotions were, at some point, beneficial to the survival of organisms.

John Dewey was an American psychologist, philosopher, educator, social critic, and political activist. He made contributions to numerous fields and topics in philosophy and psychology.

Besides being a primary originator of both functionalism and behaviorism psychology , Dewey was a major inspiration for several movements that shaped 20th-century thought, including empiricism, humanism, naturalism, contextualism, and process philosophy (Simpson, 2006).

Dewey was born in Burlington, Vermont, in 1859 and began his career at the University of Michigan before becoming the chairman of the department of philosophy, psychology, and pedagogy at the University of Chicago.

In 1899, Dewey was elected president of the American Psychological Association and became president of the American Philosophical Association five years later.

Dewey traveled as a philosopher, social and political theorist, and educational consultant and remained outspoken on education, domestic and international politics, and numerous social movements.

Dewey’s views and writings on educational theory and practice were widely read and accepted. He held that philosophy, pedagogy, and psychology were closely interrelated.

Dewey also believed in an “instrumentalist” theory of knowledge, in which ideas are seen to exist mainly as instruments for creating solutions to problems encountered in the environment (Simpson, 2006).

Contributions to Philosophy and Psychology

Dewey is one of the central figures and founders of pragmatism in America despite not identifying himself as a pragmatist.

Pragmatism teaches that things that are useful — meaning that they work in a practical situation — are true, and what does not work is false (Hildebrand, 2018).

This rejected the threads of epistemology and metaphysics that ran through modern philosophy in favor of a naturalistic approach that viewed knowledge as an active adaptation of humans to their environment (Hildebrand, 2018).

Dewey held that value was not a function of purely social construction but a quality inherent to events. Dewey also believed that experimentation was a reliable enough way to determine the truth of a concept.

Functionalism

Dewey is considered a founder of the Chicago School of Functional Psychology, inspired by Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, as well as the ideas of William James and Dewey’s own instrumental philosophy.

As chair of philosophy, psychology, and education at the University of Chicago from 1894-1904, Dewey was highly influential in establishing the functional orientation amongst psychology faculty like Angell and Addison Moore.

Scholars widely consider Dewey’s 1896 paper, The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology , to be the first major work in the functionalist school.

In this work, Dewey attacked the methods of psychologists such as Wilhelm Wundt and Edward Titchener, who used stimulus-response analysis as the basis of psychological theories.

Psychologists such as Wund and Titchener believed that all human behaviors could be broken down into a series of fundamental laws and that all human behavior originates as a learned adaptation to the presence of certain stimuli in one’s environment (Backe, 2001).

Dewey considered Wundt and Titchener’s approach to be flawed because it ignored both the continuity of human behavior and the role that adaptation plays in creating it.

In contrast, Dewey’s functionalism sought to consider organisms in total as they functioned in their environment. Rather than being passive receivers of stimuli, Dewey perceived organisms as active perceivers (Backe, 2001).

Chicago School

The Chicago school refers to the functionalist approach to psychology that emerged at the University of Chicago in the late 19th century. Key tenets of functional psychology included:

• Studying the adaptive functions of consciousness and how mental processes help organisms adjust to their environment
• Explaining psychological phenomena in terms of their biological utility
• Focusing on the practical operations of the mind rather than contents of consciousness

Educational Philosophy

John Dewey was a notable educational reformer and established the path for decades of subsequent research in the field of educational psychology.

Influenced by his philosophical and psychological theories, Dewey’s concept of instrumentalism in education stressed learning by doing, which was opposed to authoritarian teaching methods and rote learning.

These ideas have remained central to educational philosophy in the United States. At the University of Chicago, Dewey founded an experimental school to develop and study new educational methods.

He experimented with educational curricula and methods and advocated for parental participation in the educational process (Dewey, 1974).

Dewey’s educational philosophy highlights “pragmatism,” and he saw the purpose of education as the cultivation of thoughtful, critically reflective, and socially engaged individuals rather than passive recipients of established knowledge.

Dewey rejected the rote-learning approach driven by a predetermined curriculum, the standard teaching method at the time (Dewey, 1974).

Dewey also rejected so-called child-centered approaches to education that followed children’s interests and impulses uncritically. Dewey did not propose an entirely hands-off approach to learning.

Dewey believed that traditional subjects were important but should be integrated with the strengths and interests of the learner.

In response, Dewey developed a concept of inquiry, which was prompted by a sense of need and was followed by intellectual work such as defining problems, testing hypotheses, and finding satisfactory solutions.

Dewey believed that learning was an organic cycle of doubt, inquiry, reflection, and the reestablishment of one’s sense of understanding.

In contrast, the reflexive arc model of learning popular in his time thought of learning as a mechanical process that could be measured by standardized tests without reference to the role of emotion or experience in learning.

Rejecting the assumption that all of the big questions and ideas in education are already answered, Dewey believed that all concepts and meanings could be open to reinvention and improvement and that all disciplines could be expanded with new knowledge, concepts, and understandings (Dewey, 1974).

Philosophy of Education

Dewey believed that people learn and grow as a result of their experiences and interactions with the world. These compel people to continually develop new concepts, ideas, practices, and understandings.

These, in turn, are refined through and continue to mediate the learner’s life experiences and social interactions. Dewey believed that (Hargraves, 2021):

Empirical Validity and Criticism

Despite its wide application in modern theories of education, many scholars have noted the lack of empirical evidence in favor of Dewey’s theories of education directly.

Nonetheless, Dewey’s theory of how students learn aligns with empirical studies that examine the positive impact of interactions with peers and adults on learning (Göncü & Rogoff, 1998).

Researchers have also found a link between heightened engagement and learning outcomes.

This has resulted in the development of educational strategies such as making meaningful connections to students” home lives and encouraging student ownership of their learning (Turner, 2014).

Theory of Emotions

Dewey vs. darwin.

Another influential piece of philosophy that Dewey created was his theory of emotion (Cunningham, 1995).

Dewey reconstructed Darwin’s theory of emotions, which he believed was flawed for assuming that the expression of emotion is separate from and subsequent to the emotion itself.

Darwin also argued that behavior that expresses emotion serves the individual in some way when the individual is in a particular state of mind. These can also cause behaviors that are not useful.

Dewey, however, claimed that the function of emotional behaviors is not to express emotion but to be acts that value someone’s survival. Dewey believed that emotion is separate from other behaviors because it involves an attitude toward an object. The intention of the emotion informs the behaviors that result (Cunningham, 1995).

Dewey also rejected Darwin’s principle that some expressions of emotions can be explained as cases where one emotion can be expressed by actions that are the exact opposite of another.

Dewey again believed that even these opposite behaviors have purposes in themselves (Cunningham, 1995).

Dewey vs. James

Dewey argued against James’s serial theory of emotions, seeing emotion and stimuli as one simultaneous coordinated act.

William James proposed a serial theory of emotion , in which an emotional experience progresses through several sequential stages:

• An object or idea functions as a stimulus
• This stimulus leads to a behavioral response
• The response is then followed by an emotional excitation or affect

An example would be seeing a bear (stimulus), running away (response), and then feeling afraid (emotion).

Dewey, however, argued that emotion and stimulus form a unified, simultaneous act that cannot be separated in this way.

He uses the example of a frightened reaction to a bear to illustrate his point:

• The “bear” itself is constituted by the coordinated sensory excitations of the eyes, touch, etc.
• The feeling of “terror” is constituted by disturbances across glandular, muscular systems.
• Rather than stimulus → response → emotion, these are partial activities within the one act of perceiving the frightening bear and running away in fear.
• The bear object and the fear emotion are two aspects of the total coordinated activity, happening at once.

So, where James treated stimulus, response, and emotion as sequential stages in an emotional episode, Dewey saw them as “minor acts” coming together in a unified conscious experience.

He maintained James was artificially separating elements that occur as part of one ongoing activity of coordination.

The key difference is that Dewey did not believe it was possible to isolate stimulus, response, and affect as self-sufficient events. They exist meaningfully only within the total act – hence why he emphasizes their simultaneity.

Backe, A. (2001). John Dewey and early Chicago functionalism. History of Psychology, 4 (4), 323.

Cunningham, S. (1995). Dewey on emotions: recent experimental evidence. Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society, 31(4), 865-874.

Dewey, J. (1974). John Dewey on education: Selected writings .

Göncü, A., & Rogoff, B. (1998). Children’s categorization with varying adult support. American Educational Research Journal, 35 (2), 333-349.

Hargraves, V. (2021). Dewey’s educational philosophy .

Hildebrand, D. (2018). John Dewey.

Simpson, D. J. (2006). John Dewey (Vol. 10). Peter Lang.

Turner, J. C. (2014). Theory-based interventions with middle-school teachers to support student motivation and engagement. In Motivational interventions . Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

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Learning by Doing, Essay Example

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Methodology

When conducting experiential design, learners usually conduct experimental work in the laboratory. It is common for instructors to design the experiments for the students to perform, occasionally allowing students little to do but follow directives. It is essential that learners become more involved in these experiments to have a better understanding.

The guiding principle of establishing educational chances for learners need to reflect on the “learning by doing” philosophy and pay attention to content that entails proven facts. Usually, “learning by doing” focuses on engaging and offering hands-on experience to students. The objective of this technique is for students to construct a mental model, which permits for high-order performance (Hackathorn et al., 2011). Basically, building lesson plans must pay attention to “making, practicing producing and observing” exercises instead of instructors’ directed learning. Educators can establish such an approach through several guidelines, which include:

• Permitting students to collaborate: Collaborative learning is a technique where students create a meaningful project together (Mekonnen, 2020). For instance, the instructor may require a small group of students to develop a list of skills necessary for a successful leader. The approach has several benefits for learners. To start with, collaborative environments permit learners to share their experiences, which in turn, become teachable moments to others. Besides, the collaborative practices often permit learners to learn how to benefit from the strengths of fellow students. Secondly, learners start to master the skill of collaboration. Communication, listening, teamwork and compromise are all improved by the experience.
• Self-Directed Group Exploration: In the current internet and multi-media tools world, acquiring fast and bulk information is accessible. With help from educators, the challenge for learners is with the information overload to differentiate between facts and fiction. Encouraging self-directed research and investigation urge learners to focus on the evidence rather than authority for educators (Gibbs, 1988). Many learners live in an authoritarian world with no or little chance to make personal decisions since almost everyone tells them what and when to do things. Knowing the way to navigate through information will improve students’ learning and competencies. For instance, the educator may call upon students in a small group to explore the pet that is best suited in a particular climate. In this case, students will utilize different research tools independently.
• Sharing outcomes of activity-based experience: A vital element to an effective “learning by doing” approach is offering the chance for learners to share their results of the self-evaluation and experience their performance as a team. After permitting learners to recap their experience or sharing the knowledge they gathered from the activity, it is essential to ask them ‘if they could have repeated the activity, what would they have done differently?” or “what improvements would they have made?” These reflective questions permit learners to self-identify areas of improvement and improve their visionary thinking. Teachers may also utilize this sharing period to assist learners with what they have learned to life experiences. For instance, instructors may ask ‘what were some of the ways you interacted with the group that may be utilized when serving on student council?” Finally, the sharing period is essential since it communicates the experience of the small group to the larger learning group.

Gibbs, G. (1988). Learning by doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods.  Further Education Unit .

Hackathorn, J., Solomon, E. D., Blankmeyer, K. L., Tennial, R. E., & Garczynski, A. M. (2011). Learning by Doing: An Empirical Study of Active Teaching Techniques. Journal of Effective Teaching ,  11 (2), 40-54.

Mekonnen, F. D. (2020). Evaluating the Effectiveness of’Learning by Doing’Teaching Strategy in a Research Methodology Course, Hargeisa, Somaliland.  African Educational Research Journal ,  8 (1), 13-19.

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Chapter 3: Methods of teaching: campus-focused

3.6 Experiential learning: learning by doing (2)

In fact, there are a number of different approaches or terms within this broad heading, such as experiential learning, co-operative learning, adventure learning and apprenticeship.  I will use the term ‘experiential learning’ as a broad umbrella term to cover this wide variety of approaches to learning by doing.

 3.6.1. What is experiential learning?

There are many different theorists in this area, such as John Dewey (1938) and more recently David Kolb (1984).

Simon Fraser University defines experiential learning as:

“ the strategic, active engagement of students in opportunities to learn through doing, and reflection on those activities, which empowers them to apply their theoretical knowledge to practical endeavours in a multitude of settings inside and outside of the classroom.” 

There is a wide range of design models that aim to embed learning within real world contexts, including:

• laboratory, workshop or studio work;
• apprenticeship;
• problem-based learning;
• case-based learning;
• project-based learning;
• inquiry-based learning;
• cooperative (work- or community-based) learning.

The focus here is on some of the main ways in which experiential learning can be designed and delivered, with particular respect to the use of technology, and in ways that help develop the knowledge and skills needed in a digital age. (For a more detailed analysis of experiential learning, see Moon, 2004).

3.6.2 Core design principles

Experiential learning focuses on learners reflecting on their experience of doing something, so as to gain conceptual insight as well as practical expertise. Kolb’s experiential learning model suggest four stages in this process:

• active experimentation;
• concrete experience;
• reflective observation;
• abstract conceptualization.

Experiential learning is a major form of teaching at the University of Waterloo. Its web site lists the conditions needed to ensure that experiential learning is effective, as identified by the  Association for Experiential Education.

Ryerson University in Toronto is another institution with extensive use of experiential learning, and also has an extensive web site on the topic, also directed at instructors. The next section examines different ways in which these principles have been applied.

 3.6.3 Experiential design models

There are many different design models for experiential learning, but they also have many features in common.

 3.6.3.1 Laboratory, workshop or studio work

Today, we take almost for granted that laboratory classes are an essential part of teaching science and engineering. Workshops and studios are considered critical for many forms of trades training or the development of creative arts. Labs, workshops and studios serve a number of important functions or goals, which include:

• to give students hands-on experience in choosing and using common scientific, engineering or trades equipment appropriately;
• to develop motor skills in using scientific, engineering or industrial tools or creative media;
• to give students an understanding of the advantages and limitations of laboratory experiments;
• to enable students to see science, engineering or trade work ‘in action’;
• to enable students to test hypotheses or to see how well concepts, theories, procedures actually work when tested under laboratory conditions;
• to teach students how to design and/or conduct experiments;
• to enable students to design and create objects or equipment in different physical media.

An important pedagogical value of laboratory classes is that they enable students to move from the concrete (observing phenomena) to the abstract (understanding the principles or theories that are derived from the observation of phenomena). Another is that the laboratory introduces students to a critical cultural aspect of science and engineering, that all ideas need to be tested in a rigorous and particular manner for them to be considered ‘true’.

One major criticism of traditional educational labs or workshops is that they are limited in the kinds of equipment and experiences that scientists, engineers and trades people need today. As scientific, engineering and trades equipment becomes more sophisticated and expensive, it becomes increasingly difficult to provide students in schools especially but increasingly now in colleges and universities direct access to such equipment. Furthermore traditional teaching labs or workshops are capital and labour intensive and hence do not scale easily, a critical disadvantage in rapidly expanding educational opportunities.

Because laboratory work is such an accepted part of science teaching, it is worth remembering that teaching science through laboratory work is in historical terms a fairly recent development. In the 1860s neither Oxford nor Cambridge University were willing to teach empirical science. Thomas Huxley therefore developed a program at the Royal School of Mines (a constituent college of what is now Imperial College, of the University of London) to teach school-teachers how to teach science, including how to design laboratories for teaching experimental science to school children, a method that is still the most commonly used today, both in schools and universities.

At the same time, scientific and engineering progress since the nineteenth century has resulted in other forms of scientific testing and validation that take place outside at least the kind of ‘wet labs’ so common in schools and universities. Examples are nuclear accelerators, nanotechnology, quantum mechanics and space exploration. Often the only way to observe or record phenomena in such contexts is remotely or digitally. It is also important to be clear about the objectives of lab, workshop and studio work. There may now be other, more practical, more economic, or more powerful ways of achieving these objectives through the use of new technology, such as remote labs, simulations, and experiential learning. These will be examined in more detail later in this book.

3.6.3.2 Problem-based learning

The earliest form of systematised problem-based learning (PBL) was developed in 1969 by Howard Barrows and colleagues in the School of Medicine at McMaster University in Canada, from where it has spread to many other universities, colleges and schools. This approach is increasingly used in subject domains where the knowledge base is rapidly expanding and where it is impossible for students to master all the knowledge in the domain within a limited period of study.  Working in groups, students identify what they already know, what they need to know, and how and where to access new information that may lead to resolution of the problem. The role of the instructor (usually called a tutor in classic PBL) is critical in facilitating and guiding the learning process. 

Usually PBL follows a strongly systematised approach to solving problems, although the detailed steps and sequence tend to vary to some extent, depending on the subject domain. The following is a typical example:

Traditionally, the first five steps would be done in a small face-to-face class tutorial of 20-25 students, with the sixth step requiring either individual or small group (four or five students) private study, with a the seventh step being accomplished in a full group meeting with the tutor. However, this approach also lends itself to blended learning in particular, where the research solution is done mainly online, although some instructors have managed the whole process online, using a combination of synchronous web conferencing and asynchronous online discussion.

Developing a complete problem-based learning curriculum is challenging, as problems must be carefully chosen, increasing in complexity and difficulty over the course of study, and problems must be chosen so as to cover all the required components of the curriculum. Students often find the problem-based learning approach challenging, particularly in the early stages, where their foundational knowledge base may not be sufficient to solve some of the problems. (The term ‘cognitive overload’ has been used to describe this situation.) Others argue that lectures provide a quicker and more condensed way to cover the same topics. Assessment also has to be carefully designed, especially if a final exam carries heavy weight in grading, to ensure that problem-solving skills as well as content coverage are measured.

However, research (see for instance, Strobel and van Barneveld, 2009 ) has found that problem-based learning is better for  long-term retention of material and developing ‘replicable’ skills, as well as for improving students’ attitudes towards learning. T here are now many variations on the ‘pure’ PBL approach, with problems being set after initial content has been covered in more traditional ways, such as lectures or prior reading, for instance.

3.6.3.3 Case-based learning

With case-based teaching, students develop skills in analytical thinking and reflective judgment by reading and discussing complex, real-life scenarios.

University of Michigan Centre for Research on Teaching and Learning

Case-based learning is sometimes considered a variation of PBL, while others see it as a design model in its own right. As with PBL, case-based learning uses a guided inquiry method, but usually requires the students to have a degree of prior knowledge that can assist in analysing the case. There is usually more flexibility in the approach to case-based learning compared to PBL. Case-based learning is particularly popular in business education, law schools and clinical practice in medicine, but can be used in many other subject domains.

Herreid (2004) provides eleven basic rules for case-based learning.

• Tells a story.
• Focuses on an interest-arousing issue.
• Set in the past five years
• Creates empathy with the central characters.
• Includes direct quotations from the characters.
• Relevant to the reader.
• Must have pedagogic utility.
• Conflict provoking.
• Decision forcing.
• Has generality.

Using examples from clinical practice in medicine, Irby (1994) recommends five steps in case-based learning:

• anchor teaching in a (carefully chosen) case;
• actively involve learners in discussing, analysing and making recommendations regarding the case;
• model professional thinking and action as an instructor when discussing the case with learners;
• provide direction and feedback to learners in their discussions;
• create a collaborative learning environment where all views are respected.

Case-based learning can be particularly valuable for dealing with complex, interdisciplinary topics or issues which have no obvious ‘right or wrong’ solutions, or where learners need to evaluate and decide on competing, alternative explanations. Case-based learning can also work well in both blended and fully online environments. Marcus, Taylor and Ellis (2004) used the following design model for a case-based blended learning project in veterinary science:

Other configurations are of course also possible, depending on the requirements of the subject.

3.6.3.4 Project-based learning

Project-based learning is similar to case-based learning, but tends to be longer and broader in scope, and with even more student autonomy/responsibility in the sense of choosing sub-topics, organising their work, and deciding on what methods to use to conduct the project. Projects are usually based around real world problems, which give students a sense of responsibility and ownership in their learning activities.

Once again, there are several best practices or guidelines for successful project work. For instance, Larmer and Mergendoller (2010) argue that every good project should meet two criteria:

• students must perceive the work as personally meaningful, as a task that matters and that they want to do well;
• a meaningful project fulfills an educational purpose. 

The main danger with project-based learning is that the project can take on a life of its own, with not only students but the instructor losing focus on the key, essential learning objectives, or important content areas may not get covered. Thus project-based learning needs careful design and monitoring by the instructor.

3.6.3.5 Inquiry-based learning

Inquiry-based learning (IBL) is similar to project-based learning, but the role of the teacher/instructor is somewhat different. In project-based learning, the instructor decides the ‘driving question’ and plays a more active role in guiding the students through the process. In inquiry-based learning, the learner explores a theme and chooses a topic for research, develops a plan of research and comes to conclusions, although an instructor is usually available to provide help and guidance when needed.

Banchi and Bell (2008) suggest that there are different levels of inquiry, and students need to begin at the first level and work through the other levels to get to ‘true’ or ‘open’ inquiry as follows:

It can be seen that the fourth level of inquiry describes the graduate thesis process, although proponents of inquiry-based learning have advocated its value at all levels of education.

3.6.4 Experiential learning in online learning environments

Advocates of experiential learning are often highly critical of online learning, because, they argue, it is impossible to embed learning in real world examples. However, this is an oversimplification, and there are contexts in which online learning can be used very effectively to support or develop experiential learning, in all its variations:

• blended or flipped learning: although group sessions to start off the process, and to bring a problem or project to a conclusion, are usually done in a classroom or lab setting, students can increasingly conduct the research and information gathering by accessing resources online, by using online multimedia resources to create reports or presentations, and by collaborating online through group project work or through critique and evaluation of each other’s work;
• fully online: increasingly, instructors are finding that experiential learning can be applied fully online, through a combination of synchronous tools such as web conferencing, asynchronous tools such as discussion forums and/or social media for group work, e-portfolios and multimedia for reporting, and remote labs for experimental work.

Indeed, there are circumstances where it is impractical, too dangerous, or too expensive to use real world experiential learning. Online learning can be used to simulate real conditions and to reduce the time to master a skill. Flight simulators have long been used to train commercial pilots, enabling trainee pilots to spend less time mastering fundamentals on real aircraft. Commercial flight simulators are still extremely expensive to build and operate, but in recent years the costs of creating realistic simulations has dropped dramatically.

Instructors at Loyalist College have created a ‘virtual’ fully functioning border crossing and a virtual car in Second Life to train Canadian Border Services Agents. Each student takes on the role of an agent, with his/her avatar interviewing the avatars of the travellers wishing to enter Canada. All communication is done by voice communications in Second Life, with the people playing the travellers in a separate room from the students.  Each student interviews three or four travellers and the entire class observes the interactions and discusses the situations and the responses. A  secondary site for auto searches features a virtual car that can be completely dismantled so students learn all possible places where contraband may be concealed. This learning is then reinforced with a visit to the auto shop at Loyalist College and the search of an actual car.  The students in the customs and immigration track are assessed on their interviewing techniques as part of their final grades. Students participating in the first year of the Second Life border simulation achieved a grade standing that was 28 per cent higher than the previous class who did not utilize a virtual world. The next class, using Second Life, scored a further 9 per cent higher. More details can be found  here.

Staff in the Emergency Management Division at the Justice Institute of British Columbia have developed a simulation tool called Praxis  that  helps to bring critical incidents to life by introducing real-world simulations into training and exercise programs. Because participants can access Praxis via the web, it provides the flexibility to deliver immersive, interactive and scenario-based training exercises anytime, anywhere. A typical emergency might be a major fire in a warehouse containing dangerous chemicals. ‘Trainee’ first responders, who will include fire, police and paramedical personnel, as well as city engineers and local government officials, are ‘alerted’ on their mobile phones or tablets, and have to respond in real time to a fast developing scenario, ‘managed’ by a skilled facilitator, following procedures previously taught and also available on their mobile equipment. The whole process is recorded and followed later by a face-to-face debriefing session.

Once again, design models are not in most cases dependent on any particular medium. The pedagogy transfers easily across different delivery methods. Learning by doing is an important method for developing many of the skills needed in a digital age.

3.6.5 Strengths and weaknesses of experiential learning models

How one evaluates experiential learning designs depends partly on one’s epistemological position. Constructivists strongly support experiential learning models, whereas those with a strong objectivist position are usually highly skeptical of the effectiveness of this approach. Nevertheless, problem-based learning in particular has proved to be very popular in many institutions teaching science or medicine, and project-based learning is used across many subject domains and levels of education. There is evidence that experiential learning, when properly designed, is highly engaging for students and leads to better long-term memory. Proponents also claim that it leads to deeper understanding, and develops skills for a digital age such as problem-solving, critical thinking, improved communications skills, and knowledge management. In particular, it enables learners to manage better highly complex situations that cross disciplinary boundaries, and subject domains where the boundaries of knowledge are difficult to manage.

Critics though such as Kirschner, Sweller and Clark (2006) argue that instruction in experiential learning is often ‘unguided’, and pointed to several ‘meta-analyses’ of the effectiveness of problem-based learning that indicated no difference in problem-solving abilities, lower basic science exam scores, longer study hours for PBL students, and that PBL is more costly. They conclude:

In so far as there is any evidence from controlled studies, it almost uniformly supports direct, strong instructional guidance rather than constructivist-based minimal guidance during the instruction of novice to intermediate learners. Even with students with considerable prior knowledge, strong guidance when learning is most often found to be equally effective as unguided approaches.

Certainly, experiential learning approaches require considerable re-structuring of teaching and a great deal of detailed planning if the curriculum is to be fully covered. It usually means extensive re-training of faculty, and careful orientation and preparation of students. I would also agree with Kirschner et al. that just giving students tasks to do in real world situations without guidance and support is likely to be ineffective.

However, many forms of experiential learning can and do have strong guidance from instructors, and one has to be very careful when comparing matched groups that the tests of knowledge include measurement of the skills that are claimed to be developed by experiential learning, and are not just based on the same assessments as for traditional methods, which often have a heavy bias towards memorisation and comprehension.

On balance then, I would support the use of experiential learning for developing the knowledge and skills needed in a digital age, but as always, it needs to be done well, following best practices associated with the design models.

Activity 3.6 Assessing experiential design models

1. If you have experiences with experiential learning, what worked well and what didn’t?

2. Are the differences between problem-based learning, case-based learning, project-based learning and inquiry-based learning significant, or are they really just minor variations on the same design model?

3. Do you have a preference for any one of the models? If so, why?

4. Do you agree that experiential learning can be done just as well online as in classrooms or in the field? If not, what is the ‘uniqueness’ of doing it face-to-face that cannot be replicated online? Can you give an example?

5. Kirschner, Sweller and Clark’s paper is a powerful condemnation of PBL. Read it in full, then decide whether or not you share their conclusion, and if not, why not.

Banchi, H., and Bell, R. (2008). The Many Levels of Inquiry  Science and Children , Vol. 46, No. 2

Dewey, J. (1938). Experience & Education . New York, NY: Kappa Delta Pi

Gijselaers, W., (1995) ‘Perspectives on problem-based learning’ in Gijselaers, W, Tempelaar, D, Keizer, P, Blommaert, J, Bernard, E & Kapser, H (eds) Educational Innovation in Economics and Business Administration: The Case of Problem-Based Learning. Dordrecht, Kluwer.

Herreid, C. F. (2007). Start with a story: The case study method of teaching college science . Arlington VA: NSTA Press.

Irby, D. (1994) Three exemplary models of case-based teaching Academic Medicine , Vol. 69, No. 12

Kirshner, P., Sweller, J. amd Clark, R. (2006) Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work: An Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-Based, Experiential, and Inquiry-Based Teaching  Educational Psychologist , Vo. 41, No.2

Kolb. D. (1984) Experiential Learning: Experience as the source of learning and development Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prentice Hall

Larmer, J. and Mergendoller, J. (2010) Seven essentials for project-based learning Educational Leadership , Vol. 68, No. 1

Marcus, G. Taylor, R. and Ellis, R. (2004) Implications for the design of online case-based learning activities based on the student blended learning experience : Perth, Australia: Proceedings of the ACSCILITE conference, 2004

Moon, J.A. (2004) A Handbook of Reflective and Experiential Learning: Theory and Practice New York: Routledge

Strobel, J. , & van Barneveld, A. (2009). When is PBL More Effective? A Meta-synthesis of Meta-analyses Comparing PBL to Conventional Classrooms. Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning , Vol. 3 , No. 1

Teaching in a Digital Age Copyright © 2015 by Anthony William (Tony) Bates is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Wikiversity : Learning by doing

Welcome to a learning project about learning by doing . Learning by doing is an approach which has emerged from discussion of a Wikiversity learning model . On this page, we will explore what learning by doing means, how it works—as well as outline ways for you to learn by doing at Wikiversity.

• 1.1 Implementing activities into articles
• 2 What is "reflection"?
• 3.1 The original Wikiversity e-learning model
• 3.2 The problem with courses
• 3.3 Learning projects
• 3.4.1 Reading and discussion groups
• 3.4.2 Non-conventional courses
• 3.4.3 Tutorials
• 3.4.4 Projects that find, catalog and review online resources
• 3.4.5 Research projects
• 3.4.6 General Community Learning Projects
• 4 Resources
• 5 Interested persons
• 7 External links

What is learning by doing? [ edit source ]

Reading : Every curriculum tells a story - Roger C. Schank

Learning by doing is essentially about getting involved in an activity and, through the process of doing this activity, learning about things like:

• how that activity works,
• how you find (or feel about) the activity,
• what the activity makes you think about, and
• what doing this activity enables you to do.

You might also be prompted to think about the general nature of the activity—in other words, the way this activity is done by other people, in different contexts. Put together, this learning can serve to strengthen your own understanding of the activity through gaining practical, first-hand experience of the activity. It can also be a stimulating, motivating way for people to learn—in fact, people can often be having so much fun in taking part in the activity, that they can learn whilst being unaware that they are learning! While this may be desirable for some types of projects, where participation is the key, it may also cause problems in the sense that the learning gained from a specific task is diffuse and unrelated to other aspects of the learner's experience, worldview, and field-of-study. In other words, learning by doing is something that the learner should ideally reflect on during and after the activity to get most out of it—but it can also be an extremely natural way of learning (it is sometimes referred to as "incidental learning"), which can be undertaken—consciously or unconsciously—by anyone at any time.

Implementing activities into articles [ edit source ]

There is a template that can be used to denote that an activity can be done in the article. This is the activity template . It helps to keep the article organized and should be implemented more in articles. There are many articles which are missing activities and it would be nice if they were added.

What is "reflection"? [ edit source ]

Reflection is being able to 'pause', or 'step back' from your ongoing experience (or activity), in order to think about the activity, your part in it, how you did it/are doing it, what it means for you to do this activity, how you felt/feel whilst doing it, and how the activity relates to other experiences you've had or how it relates to what you want to do in the future—short and/or long term. It is about making sense of your experiences in a way that is meaningful and practical to you . There are different ways to reflect on activities—we generally start by thinking, then by writing down our thoughts in some form. The form this takes is entirely up to the individual—it can be in the form of a diary (or blog ), a poem, a narrative (story), or an academic essay. On this last possibility, it is usually better to keep reflections as "raw", personal, and honest as possible—something that is often missing in an academic paper—though academic papers often do emerge directly from people's reflective journals. Other forms of reflection can be visual—through painting, photographing, filming—or even other media like gathering together newspaper articles in a personally meaningful way, maybe even singing or dancing! The main thing is that your reflections are meaningful to you, that they are honest and true to your feelings, and that they help you make sense of what you are or have been doing.

Historical introduction [ edit source ]

What does "learn by doing" mean in the context of Wikiversity? The original Wikiversity project proposal suggested that at Wikiversity "learn by doing" should mean taking courses online.

The original Wikiversity e-learning model [ edit source ]

Wikipedia is for encyclopedia articles. Wikibooks is for textbook modules. Encyclopedia articles and textbooks are two specific types of learning resources. The original Wikiversity project proposal called for creation of a website where "learn by doing" would mean participating in online courses. This proposed "e-learning model" suggested that Wikiversity online courses would make use of encyclopedia articles, textbooks and other types of learning resources. Many people who were interested in the Wikiversity project imagined that Wikiversity would become an accredited educational institution.

The problem with courses [ edit source ]

Conventional courses rely on certified teachers who give grades to students for their course work. Students in conventional courses earn academic credit for passed courses within degree programs that confer degrees based on completed courses. However, Wikiversity is a wiki, a place for collaborative creation of webpages. Wikiversity has no means to certify teachers or become an accredited institution that can confer degrees. In November 2005 the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees rejected the first Wikiversity project proposal and instructed the Wikiversity community to modify the proposal to "exclude online-courses". The Board requested that the Wikiversity community "clarify [the] concept of e-learning" that will guide Wikiversity.

Learning projects [ edit source ]

There are many ways to "learn by doing" besides participating in conventional courses. The approved Wikiversity project proposal included an e-learning model based on the general idea of "learning projects". Wikiversity learning projects provide activities that allow Wikiversity participants to learn by doing.

"..... the idea here is to also host learning communities, so people who are actually trying to learn, actually have a place to come and interact and help each other figure out how to learn things. We're also going to be hosting and fostering research into how these kinds of things can be used more effectively." ( source )

Types of Wikiversity learning projects [ edit source ]

The Learning Projects Portal provides user-friendly access to Wikiversity learning projects. The Wikiversity community needs to catalog the many types of learning projects and develop resources that promote their development and effective use as learning resources.

Reading and discussion groups [ edit source ]

• Science as Religion
• Hitler's Germany
• Molecular Paleontology Reading Group
• Evolutionary Psychology

Non-conventional courses [ edit source ]

Tutorials [ edit source ].

• Wikiversity:Introduction
• Ruby on Rails website tutorial
• Lesson:Gimp Basics

Projects that find, catalog and review online resources [ edit source ]

• Hunter-gatherers project

Research projects [ edit source ]

See Research Portal

• Astronomy Project
• Learning to learn a wiki way
• Bloom clock project

General Community Learning Projects [ edit source ]

• Community service projects  – Wikiversity provides scholarly services to Wikimedia sister projects.
• Wikiversity the Movie  – community-wide project to produce a promotional video.
• Wikiversity Reports  – learn webcasting while reporting on Wikiversity
• Wiki-based learning  – The implications of wiki technology for online learning.
• Bibliography and Research Methods  – How to find and cite verifiable sources.
• Wikiversity translations  – Community service project to support Wikiversity Beta .
• Outreach  – Collaborations with other institutions and projects.

Resources [ edit source ]

• Teaching strategies for "learning by doing" activities (part of the "Engines for Educators" book)

Interested persons [ edit source ]

• Noura 19:02, 14 May 2008 (UTC) NouraRaslan [ reply ]
• CQ 15:48, 28 April 2009 (UTC) (a.k.a. yeoman ) [ reply ]
• Ahm masum ( discuss • contribs ) 18:48, 13 November 2019 (UTC) [ reply ]

See also [ edit source ]

• Active learning
• Contextual Learning
• Experiential learning
• Learning for doing  – is "learning by doing" only suitable in the context of "learning for doing"?
• Wikiversity:Learning resources  – how to recognize educational value in a resource.
• Help:Resource types  – catalogues descriptively what contributors really produce.
• Wikiversity:Featured  – lists many resources which might be considered of higher quality or as good examples of what can be done with Wikiversity. Good for getting ideas about what to do.

External links [ edit source ]

R.M. Felder and R. Brent, " Learning by Doing ," Chem. Engr. Education, 37 (4), 282–283 (2003)

• Learning models
• Wikiversity culture
• Ways of learning

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Learning by Doing

• First Online: 30 October 2022

Cite this chapter

• K. G. Srinivasa   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1022-8431 4 ,
• Muralidhar Kurni   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3324-893X 5 &
• Kuppala Saritha   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-5799-2325 6  

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In this method, Science research skills can be acquired, conceptual understanding generated by scientific instruments and activities by providing the remote laboratory experiments or instruments. Remote access to special equipment is now expanding for trainee teachers and students; in earlier days, it was utilized by scientists and university students. Access to remote laboratories will provide better food for thought. Instructors and learners need to provide adequate resources by providing hands-on investigations and direct observation, supplementing the typical learning. Such experiences also may be brought into the school classroom by having access to remote laboratories. The high-quality, distant telescope can provide the students with a daytime school science class to make night sky observations as an example of this method. This chapter presents the Learning-by-doing method, its importance, and how to do it. Also, we present the most important challenges of applying the learning-by-doing method.

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Srinivasa, K.G., Kurni, M., Saritha, K. (2022). Learning by Doing. In: Learning, Teaching, and Assessment Methods for Contemporary Learners. Springer Texts in Education. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-6734-4_7

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Learning by doing is a powerful way to adapt and develop new skills and abilities. By taking a hands-on approach to experiential learning, you are able to learn how to adapt based on your learning environment. John Dewey, an American philosopher who espoused the concept of learning by doing, said this in his book Democracy and Education :

Why is it that, in spite of the fact that teaching by pouring in, learning by passive absorption, are universally condemned, that they are still so entrenched in practice? That education is not an affair of "telling" and being told, but an active constructive process is a principle almost as generally violated in practice as conceded in theory. Is not this deplorable situation due to the fact that the doctrine is itself merely told? But its enactment in practice requires that the school environment be equipped with agencies for doing ... to an extent rarely attained.

It's unfortunate that most learnings in schools happen through passive consumption. the standard model used at school is a teacher lecturing to you about a certain topic. There is no curiosity associated with your learning. You are simply told to follow the curriculum. However, when you think about how learning occurs in real life, you naturally learn by trying it out. You are driven by a curiosity to learn. In fact, active learning becomes critical for adapting to new situations.

4 Different Types of Learning

According to the popular VARK model , there are four primary learning models:

• Reading/Writing
• Kinesthetic (hands-on, experiential learning)

In this article, we will focus primarily on kinesthetic, or hands-on learning. We will provide tips to capitalize on the upside of kinesthetic learning.

8 Tips For Learning By Doing

Here are some of the best tips to engage in active learning. By applying these guidelines, you'll find your groove and change the way you learn. We must see ourselves as life-long students. It's important now more than ever that we start transforming schools to enable students for project-based learning. This is the only way to be ready for what life has in store.

1. Start Experimenting

Experimentation is an important part of the learning process. Students learn better when they are given opportunities to try new things. By allowing students to try their hands at things outside of their comfort zone, it gives them a chance to see what they enjoy doing. Enable students to take active engagement in new tasks with minimal guidance. Allow them the opportunity to fail safely. This will breed confidence when they enter new situations, and they will be more adaptable to prosper.

2. Use Physical Movement

When you apply the kinesthetic teaching method, it's important to actually perform the physical movements. Through repetition, the movement becomes second-nature. When you see basketball players shooting thousands of shots in practice, it prepares them for the in-game moments when they need to perform. It's important to actually DO the task when you are learning by doing. Start moving now!

3. Take Active Participation

When there is an opportunity to learn, participate in it. Oftentimes, people sideline themselves because they don't want to embarrass themselves. Learn to be humble, and learn to take part. Active participants will outlearn passive observers 365 days of the year.

Learning by doing is simulating real-life, so sometimes the best lessons are learned outside the classroom. If you have an interest in farming, go to a farm and learn about the different processes that keep the farm going. If you like airplanes, find opportunities to work with or on airplanes. The best lessons are always in the real-life scenarios.

5. Build With Your Hands

This tip is metaphorical, but learning by doing often requires rolling up your sleeves and doing the hard work. When you are able to build with your hands, you will see the steps involved and how it is done. Whenever possible, try doing something by hand first so you can fully understand and appreciate the process.

6. Track Results

When you are learning through doing, keep a journal of your results. This is an important step because you want to see how your actions correlate with the end result. By actively keeping track, you know which knobs and levers to pull to achieve certain outcomes. The journal can serve as a guide for the future. Notice how muscular people at the gym keep a workout diary. They do this because it helps them understand what they are doing and what it accomplishes. Try tracking your results and see how that changes your outcomes.

7. Try Digital Educational Content

Online courses have become a great method of teaching and learning. Think of it like a flight simulator, you get to try doing things before getting into the pilot's seat. There is a plethora of great digital education you can learn from now. Teaching and learning can happen in front of your computer, and you are given learning communities that are actively engaged and wanting to improve. There are courses designed around problem-based learning, inquiry-based learning, and much more. With experiential educators, the courses challenge the student to learn through the application of the principles taught in the course and rewards student achievement. Use a digital course to provide the action guide to learn by doing.

8. Learn to Be Adaptable

Research in boys' education has established the power of taking learning into real-world settings. The four stages of experiential learning are: feeling, watching, thinking, doing. When you are in the first stage of learning by feeling, the student is introduced to new information for the first time. This stage is important in giving the students time to feel and adapt to the new settings. By providing concrete examples of starting anew, it eliminates the fear of trying something for the first time. With this newfound confidence, you can learn to adapt to almost any new situation seamlessly.

Final Words

Learning by doing outperforms passive learning every day. When you are willing to get your hands dirty and take on new challenges, the rewards lay on the other side. Be someone who is willing to experiment and participate in what life has to offer. Understand that learning doesn't always happen in the classroom and that real-life provides the best learning experiences. You are capable of more than you know. You can do anything if you are willing to try.

Center for Teaching

Learning by doing.

This article was originally published in the Spring 2002 issue of the CFT’s newsletter, Teaching Forum.

In this panel interview, four teaching assistants discuss how their teaching assistantships are preparing them for future academic positions. The TAs describe those experiences that they have found to be most enjoyable and challenging. Amy S. Hirschy is a teaching assistant in the Department of Leadership and Organizations. Meaghan E. Mundy is a teaching assistant in the Department of Leadership and Organizations. Christopher J. Mosunic is a teaching assistant in the Department of Psychology. Robert A. Nasatir is a teaching assistant in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.

CFT : What have been your most enjoyable experiences teaching at VU and why?

HIRSCHY : The most rewarding experiences I’ve had were when I found a way to help students understand a challenging concept. Students here are very bright and want to “get it.” When their understanding shifts from 2 dimensional form (such as words on a page) to 3-D, where they can see various angles of a concept and how it relates to other ideas, it’s a good class or individual conversation.

MOSUNIC : My formal teaching experiences at Vanderbilt have been limited, but leading discussion groups and assisting students to prepare for examinations have been very rewarding for me. Each has allowed me to be of significant help to the students rather than far removed from the students, e.g. not just the guy who grades the tests. In addition, I have enjoyed reviewing coursework from a teaching perspective rather than the perspective of a student who is only interested in doing well on exams and papers as their main goal. For me, reviewing coursework from a teaching perspective involves identifying the material that a student needs to know and focusing on the best ways to convey this information.

NASATIR : Because I teach Spanish, my goal is always to get my students to speak and participate in class in the target language. I plan every class with that end in mind. What is most satisfying is when an activity – a role-play scenario, an article, a poem, a short story, or even a seemingly dry grammar assignment – serves as a springboard for a discussion that is completely based on student reaction and participation. I love those moments when the students in effect take over the class and I can step aside and let them communicate in Spanish. One of the things that we don’t talk about much in pedagogy is knowing when and how to get out of the way of our students’ learning. It’s the difference between playing instructor and playing facilitator. There is nothing that is more satisfying than essentially moderating a conversation that I never could have anticipated. Students acquire and retain information when they interact and forget that they are learning.

MUNDY : What makes teaching most enjoyable for me is the ability to connect with students in ways that make them feel like participants in their learning, not recipients of what I pass onto them. Teaching in the Human and Organizational Development major provides opportunities for teachers to meet students halfway in the classroom and co-create experiences in which contributions are made to both the students’ and the instructors’ learning and development. Sometimes this entails taking risks or being creative and flexible in how material is presented. For example, if a discussion is sparked by a question asked by a student or a current news event, then I may forego my lesson plan for that lecture and let the students learn by discussing and debating the issues.

CFT : What have been your most challenging teaching experiences and why?

HIRSCHY : The most challenging teaching experiences for me are when I’m not sure of an answer to a question a student has asked. When this has been the case, I research the answer and either respond to the class by email afterwards or follow up the inquiry at the following class period. This helps me preserve my integrity (if not my ego at times), and they see a way to deal with a difficult situation that they may face in the future.

NASATIR : Teaching is a challenge both inside and outside of the classroom. You have to know your students’ personalities well enough to sense what kinds of exercises will work in class. Every group dynamic is different. It takes time, and a lot of trial and error, to understand what will get a response and what won’t. And sometimes, whether it’s because the students haven’t had enough sleep or you simply miscalculated, all your work seems to have missed its mark somehow. That’s when the real work begins. Like a jazz musician, you start to improvise, to twist things around a bit, until something clicks. Sometimes you have to throw an entire lesson plan out, right there on the spot, and do something completely different. But ultimately, that’s what teaching is all about, sizing up and working with different groups who have different needs.

MUNDY : The single most significant challenge I have experienced in my teaching has revolved around conflict and confrontations with individual students. Last summer I had a student struggling to manage the workload in a course and turn in assignments on time. After spending weeks working one-onone trying to help this student get through the term (many emails and individual meetings later), I was extremely disappointed when I suspected an Honor Code violation on a final project. Though the Honor Council handled the situation in a professional and caring manner, it was still a very difficult experience for me because I hated to see a student not succeed.

Nevertheless, due to the flagrancy of the violation, I felt it was my responsibility as a teacher to uphold the Honor Code and report the suspected violation. Having given much thought to my students’ academic responsibilities and my teaching responsibilities, I am confident in my decision to report the violation. I realized that though this experience itself was quite challenging, it forced me to confront my own fears about confrontation and personify the values I believe in and expect of my students too.

CFT : How do you feel your TA experiences are helping to prepare you for your career after graduation?

HIRSCHY : Since I’m interested in teaching at the college level, being a TA provides direct experience to help me in my career after graduation. It also makes me more observant of the teaching techniques that professors use in classes.

MOSUNIC : My TA experiences thus far have demonstrated the large amount of work that goes into creating exams and developing lectures. I have come to realize the intricacies involved in developing exams. For example, while creating exam questions, I have to be careful not to make the questions too difficult or a majority of students will fail the exam, or make the questions so easy that most students will get very high grades. It is tricky and time-intensive to develop exam questions that are not only fair (medium difficulty) but that also comprehensively cover the lecture and textbook material. Also, I have realized that developing lectures is extremely time-intensive and requires a great deal of discipline, effort, and patience.

NASATIR : On a very practical level, the teaching program in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese has embraced many of the latest and best improvements in Second Language Acquisition philosophy, computer technology, textbooks, etc. I am being educated in the nuts and bolts of being a teacher. This knowledge makes all the difference on the job market. Teaching at Vanderbilt helps practice and hone my skills in the classroom. MUNDY: My graduate program is Higher Education Administration, hence working with undergraduates in the classroom is an ideal experience for me. It has provided me with an opportunity to get to know undergraduate students, what they are like, what they value, and what interests them. This information has made me better able to shape my teaching behaviors and activities so that I might relate to them at their level of interest and ability. Also, it has provided me an in-depth understanding of the academic side of colleges and universities. For example, I have learned more about the governance of colleges and universities – how decisions are made about policies and procedures, different leadership styles of key administrators, the distinctions between different types of institutions (research institutions, liberal arts colleges), etc. This knowledge base has given me a perspective on higher education that transcends the classroom and affords me the opportunity to see higher education from many vantage points.

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BUY THIS BOOK

1997 --> 1997 104 pages. from $26.00

Hardcover ISBN: 9780804728409 Paperback ISBN: 9780804728416

This book by a Nobel laureate in economics begins with a brief exposition of Kenneth J. Arrow's classic paper "The Economic Implications of Learning by Doing" (1962). It shows how Arrow's idea fits into the modern theory of economic growth, and uses it as a springboard for a critical consideration of spectacular recent developments that have made growth theory a dynamic topic today.

The author then develops a new theory that combines learning by doing (identifying it with the concept of "continuous improvement") with a separate process of discrete "innovations." Learning by doing leads to a fairly smooth reduction in labor required per unit of output, tied to the rate of gross investment in new capital equipment. Innovations arrive at random; when one of them happens, the labor requirement takes a jump downward.

This new model, simple as it is, does not lend itself to self-contained solution. The author accordingly presents the results of a series of computer simulations that exhibit the variety of paths the new model economy can follow, showing, among other things, that early good luck can have a persistent effect. The book concludes with some general reflections on policies for economic growth, drawn not from any one modeling exercise but from general experience with a variety of growth models.

Of the four chapters of this book, the first two were presented as the Kenneth J. Arrow Lectures at Stanford University in 1993. The computer simulations were specially done for inclusion in this book. The final chapter on policies for economic growth was first presented as the Ernest Sturc Lecture at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington in 1991.

About the author

Robert M. Solow is Emeritus Institute Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author of several books, most recently A Critical Essay in Modern Macroeconomic Theory (with F. Hahn).

Africa and Preferential Trade

Richard E. Mshomba

Reversing Deforestation

Brent Sohngen and Douglas Southgate

Social Change, Industrialization, and the Service Economy in São Paulo, 1950-2020

Francisco Vidal Luna and Herbert S. Klein

Shadow Negotiators

Matias E. Margulis

Central Bank Capitalism

Joscha Wullweber

India Is Broken

Ashoka Mody

Jobless Growth in the Dominican Republic

Christian Krohn-Hansen

Interconnected Worlds

Henry Wai-chung Yeung

The Culture Transplant

Garett Jones

The Struggle for Development in Iran

Pooya Azadi, Mohsen B. Mesgaran, Matin Mirramezani

Poverty as Subsistence

Mihai Varga

The Decarbonization Imperative

Michael Lenox and Rebecca Duff

People learn in different ways. Some people learn by doing; some people learn by reading; others learn by listening to lectures or watching demonstrations. Which of these methods of learning is best for you? Use specific examples to support your choice.

Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Writing9 with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Fully explain your ideas

To get an excellent score in the IELTS Task 2 writing section, one of the easiest and most effective tips is structuring your writing in the most solid format. A great argument essay structure may be divided to four paragraphs, in which comprises of four sentences (excluding the conclusion paragraph, which comprises of three sentences).

For we to consider an essay structure a great one, it should be looking like this:

• Paragraph 1 - Introduction
• Sentence 1 - Background statement
• Sentence 2 - Detailed background statement
• Sentence 3 - Thesis
• Sentence 4 - Outline sentence
• Paragraph 2 - First supporting paragraph
• Sentence 1 - Topic sentence
• Sentence 2 - Example
• Sentence 3 - Discussion
• Sentence 4 - Conclusion
• Paragraph 3 - Second supporting paragraph
• Paragraph 4 - Conclusion
• Sentence 1 - Summary
• Sentence 2 - Restatement of thesis
• Sentence 3 - Prediction or recommendation

Our recommended essay structure above comprises of fifteen (15) sentences, which will make your essay approximately 250 to 275 words.

Discover more tips in The Ultimate Guide to Get a Target Band Score of 7+ » — a book that's free for 🚀 Premium users.

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It is important for people to take risks, in both their professional lives and personal lives. Do the advantages of taking these risks outweigh the disadvantages?

Several cities around the globe subscribed the idea of vertical development for residential buildings, others promtote independent houses in larger areas., nowadays children watch a lot of tv and play video games. however, some people think that these activities are not good for a child's mental health. to what extent do you agree or disagree, many manufactured food and drink products contain high level of sugars which causes many health problems. sugary products should be made more expensive to encourage people to consume less sugar. do you agree or disagree, in developing countries, children in rural communities have less access to education. some people believe that the problem can be solved by providing more schools and teachers, while others think that the problem can be solved by providing computers and internet access. discuss both views and give your own opinion..

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Using Data to Design Your Hybrid Work Policies

• Heidi Grant,
• Ginnie Carlier,
• Frank Giampietro

Surprising insights from EY’s survey of its U.S. hybrid, full in-person, and fully remote employees.

We’ve seen how fully remote work can lead to a loss of connection and development opportunities, particularly those that require observational learning, or learning by watching someone else do it. However, people still want to work from home at least some of the time because of the greater work-life balance and personal productivity that they experience. But what is the right amount of time to be in person? How can corporate policymakers and team leaders get the best of both worlds? The authors discuss how Ernst & Young LLP (EY U.S.) has taken a data-driven approach to questions around hybrid work. Their data comparing the performance and well-being of hybrid employees with their fully in-person and remote counterparts has yielded (often surprising) insights from which other organizations may benefit.

Despite years of effort and copious amounts of thought leadership (some of it of questionable value), leaders across industries are still struggling to figure out how to create policies that balance their desire to see employees back in the office with employees’ undiminished desire for flexibility. Managers are also struggling to make these arrangements and policies work and keep their teams engaged in an era of unprecedented uncertainty and burnout .

• Heidi Grant is a social psychologist who researches, writes, and speaks about the science of motivation. Her most recent book is Reinforcements: How to Get People to Help You . She’s also the author of Nine Things Successful People Do Differently and No One Understands You and What to Do About It . She is EY US Director of Learning R&D.
• GC Ginnie Carlier is EY Americas Vice Chair of Talent.
• FG Frank Giampietro is EY Americas Chief Wellbeing Officer.

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Gone are the days when kids ran out into the neighborhood cul-de-sac to kick around a ball and play hopscotch on the lawn. It’s 2024 — we’re living among the iPad generation.

Most American children spend between five to seven hours a day staring at a screen, according to the National Library of Medicine . In response, parents are frantically looking for ways to keep their kids engaged and learning — but with the help of their children’s chosen platform — modern technology.

Cristobal Viedma was one of the first pioneers in the world of children’s learning apps, deciding to build his own platform after discovering that the app market desperately lacked specialized early childhood learning tools. Viedma launched LingoKids in 2015, based on the “playlearning” approach — a concept that education should be enjoyable for children, and help them learn soft skills, such as creativity, compassion, and innovation in addition to more academic curriculum.

READ MORE: Best gifts for 5-year-olds

LingoKids partnered with Oxford University Press to develop this unique “playlearning” content for children between two and eight. Parents can choose between over 600 learning objectives and 1,200 activities that foster new skills; games, songs, puzzles, and virtual board games that teach new words , colors, numbers, animals, and everyday language while also harnessing critical thinking and problem-solving, on top of core educational subjects like addition, subtraction, vocabulary, even sequencing and basic coding.

The premise of LingoKids is that these games are so fun for kids to play, that they can barely tell they’re also serving educational purposes. It’s a win for parents and for kids.

Lingokids App

Viedma and his team wanted to create an environment that protects children’s privacy. Online safety is of paramount importance to parents. A 2023 University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll found that 67% of parents are concerned about the overuse of devices and screen time.

LingoKids safeguards data so parents don’t have to worry that their children’s personal information could become public. Young minds are also especially vulnerable to advertising, which is commonly found on children’s apps. Lingokids, however, is entirely add-free and 100% kid-safe, meaning that children can use the platform independently — always under the supervision of the Lingokids fun characters that guide their adventures.

Since its conception, the app has expanded to nearly every corner of the world. The software is available in English, as well as other languages including Dutch, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Russian. 

The learning platform has even received backing from UNICEF , earning two badges for being cognitive-friendly and mobility-friendly, according to users with vision, mobility, or cognitive challenges who reviewed and scored the app based on its usability.

Every day, more parents are turning to LingoKids, which now has over 78 million users and was named one of the world’s top EdTech companies for 2024 by TIME Magazine . Parents are seeing this app used in the classroom, by home school groups, and early learning centers. It’s even available on Amazon , with thousands of parents leaving glowing reviews.

Many agree that the app is especially useful during travel, or when they aren’t available to provide direct attention to their children. “Both kids found the games and the songs really enjoyable. Great app for you to have on a long journey. One subscription covers the whole family too so decent value,” one reviewer wrote.

Others have pointed out that the price point is also more accessible than some competing learning apps on the market. “I think it’s great value for the price. It’s an investment in my child’s future that’s already paying off!”

For a limited time only, Lingokids is offering a deal of 60% off the software just in time for summer. The app is available for $89.99 for a yearly subscription or $13.49 for a month-by-month plan.

Hunting for a headline-worthy haul?  Keep shopping with Post Wanted .

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The world is getting “smarter” every day, and to keep up with consumer expectations, companies are increasingly using machine learning algorithms to make things easier. You can see them in use in end-user devices (through face recognition for unlocking smartphones) or for detecting credit card fraud (like triggering alerts for unusual purchases).

Within  artificial intelligence  (AI) and  machine learning , there are two basic approaches: supervised learning and unsupervised learning. The main difference is that one uses labeled data to help predict outcomes, while the other does not. However, there are some nuances between the two approaches, and key areas in which one outperforms the other. This post clarifies the differences so you can choose the best approach for your situation.

Supervised learning  is a machine learning approach that’s defined by its use of labeled data sets. These data sets are designed to train or “supervise” algorithms into classifying data or predicting outcomes accurately. Using labeled inputs and outputs, the model can measure its accuracy and learn over time.

Supervised learning can be separated into two types of problems when  data mining : classification and regression:

• Classification  problems use an algorithm to accurately assign test data into specific categories, such as separating apples from oranges. Or, in the real world, supervised learning algorithms can be used to classify spam in a separate folder from your inbox. Linear classifiers, support vector machines, decision trees and  random forest  are all common types of classification algorithms.
• Regression  is another type of supervised learning method that uses an algorithm to understand the relationship between dependent and independent variables. Regression models are helpful for predicting numerical values based on different data points, such as sales revenue projections for a given business. Some popular regression algorithms are linear regression, logistic regression, and polynomial regression.

Unsupervised learning  uses machine learning algorithms to analyze and cluster unlabeled data sets. These algorithms discover hidden patterns in data without the need for human intervention (hence, they are “unsupervised”).

Unsupervised learning models are used for three main tasks: clustering, association and dimensionality reduction:

• Clustering  is a data mining technique for grouping unlabeled data based on their similarities or differences. For example, K-means clustering algorithms assign similar data points into groups, where the K value represents the size of the grouping and granularity. This technique is helpful for market segmentation, image compression, and so on.
• Association  is another type of unsupervised learning method that uses different rules to find relationships between variables in a given data set. These methods are frequently used for market basket analysis and recommendation engines, along the lines of “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought” recommendations.
• Dimensionality reduction  is a learning technique that is used when the number of features (or dimensions) in a given data set is too high. It reduces the number of data inputs to a manageable size while also preserving the data integrity. Often, this technique is used in the preprocessing data stage, such as when autoencoders remove noise from visual data to improve picture quality.

The main distinction between the two approaches is the use of labeled data sets. To put it simply, supervised learning uses labeled input and output data, while an unsupervised learning algorithm does not.

In supervised learning, the algorithm “learns” from the training data set by iteratively making predictions on the data and adjusting for the correct answer. While supervised learning models tend to be more accurate than unsupervised learning models, they require upfront human intervention to label the data appropriately. For example, a supervised learning model can predict how long your commute will be based on the time of day, weather conditions and so on. But first, you must train it to know that rainy weather extends the driving time.

Unsupervised learning models, in contrast, work on their own to discover the inherent structure of unlabeled data. Note that they still require some human intervention for validating output variables. For example, an unsupervised learning model can identify that online shoppers often purchase groups of products at the same time. However, a data analyst would need to validate that it makes sense for a recommendation engine to group baby clothes with an order of diapers, applesauce, and sippy cups.

• Goals:  In supervised learning, the goal is to predict outcomes for new data. You know up front the type of results to expect. With an unsupervised learning algorithm, the goal is to get insights from large volumes of new data. The machine learning itself determines what is different or interesting from the data set.
• Applications: Supervised learning models are ideal for spam detection, sentiment analysis, weather forecasting and pricing predictions, among other things. In contrast, unsupervised learning is a great fit for anomaly detection, recommendation engines, customer personas and medical imaging.
• Complexity:  Supervised learning is a simple method for machine learning, typically calculated by using programs like R or Python. In unsupervised learning, you need powerful tools for working with large amounts of unclassified data. Unsupervised learning models are computationally complex because they need a large training set to produce intended outcomes.
• Drawbacks: Supervised learning models can be time-consuming to train, and the labels for input and output variables require expertise. Meanwhile, unsupervised learning methods can have wildly inaccurate results unless you have human intervention to validate the output variables.

Choosing the right approach for your situation depends on how your data scientists assess the structure and volume of your data, as well as the use case. To make your decision, be sure to do the following:

• Evaluate your input data:  Is it labeled or unlabeled data? Do you have experts that can support extra labeling?
• Define your goals:  Do you have a recurring, well-defined problem to solve? Or will the algorithm need to predict new problems?
• Review your options for algorithms:  Are there algorithms with the same dimensionality that you need (number of features, attributes, or characteristics)? Can they support your data volume and structure?

Classifying big data can be a real challenge in supervised learning, but the results are highly accurate and trustworthy. In contrast, unsupervised learning can handle large volumes of data in real time. But, there’s a lack of transparency into how data is clustered and a higher risk of inaccurate results. This is where semi-supervised learning comes in.

Can’t decide on whether to use supervised or unsupervised learning?  Semi-supervised learning  is a happy medium, where you use a training data set with both labeled and unlabeled data. It’s particularly useful when it’s difficult to extract relevant features from data—and when you have a high volume of data.

Semi-supervised learning is ideal for medical images, where a small amount of training data can lead to a significant improvement in accuracy. For example, a radiologist can label a small subset of CT scans for tumors or diseases so the machine can more accurately predict which patients might require more medical attention.

Machine learning models are a powerful way to gain the data insights that improve our world. To learn more about the specific algorithms that are used with supervised and unsupervised learning, we encourage you to delve into the Learn Hub articles on these techniques. We also recommend checking out the blog post that goes a step further, with a detailed look at deep learning and neural networks.

• What is Supervised Learning?
• What is Unsupervised Learning?
• AI vs. Machine Learning vs. Deep Learning vs. Neural Networks: What’s the difference?

To learn more about how to build machine learning models, explore the free tutorials on the  IBM® Developer Hub .

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Student Opinion

Should Schools Serve Healthier Meals if It Changes Students’ Favorite Foods?

New federal rules will require school cafeterias to reduce the amount of salt and sugar in the foods they serve. Do you think students will embrace the changes?

By Shannon Doyne

Do you eat breakfast, lunch or snacks from your school’s cafeteria? If so, what do you eat? What are your favorite foods? How nutritious do you think your choices are?

New federal regulations on salt (or sodium) and sugar are coming to school cafeterias. Do you think they will change your favorite foods? Will they affect what and how much students eat at school?

In “ With New Salt and Sugar Limits, School Cafeterias Are ‘Cringing ,’” Julie Creswell writes about a debate over the new rules:

Around 11:40 on a cool spring day in early April, students began to stream into the lunchroom at Haleyville High School in Alabama. Cheerleaders, soccer and baseball players, and other members of the student body filed through the lunch line and sat at their tables. They chatted and laughed about upcoming games (go, Roaring Lions!) and prom as they dug into plates of chicken Alfredo, green beans and salad. Emma Anne Hallman, standing in a corner, watched the teenagers carefully. As the child nutrition director for the Haleyville City School District, she has the job of feeding 1,600 students, in prekindergarten through 12th grade. For months, Ms. Hallman and other heads of school lunch programs have worried about new federal regulations that would reduce allowable sodium levels and introduce new sugar restrictions for foods served in school cafeterias. A debate has raged, with many parents and nutritionists applauding efforts to make lunches more nutritious while some school lunch administrators fretted that the results will be less tasty to students, reducing consumption and increasing waste. “We are cringing, as it could result in changes across our menus,” Ms. Hallman said. “We would have to look at the sodium amounts in the recipes of some of our students’ favorite foods, like chicken wings, hot wings or even some of the Asian foods.”

The article continues:

While far from perfect (cafeterias serve plenty of processed foods), school lunches are arguably much healthier than they were a few years ago, thanks to a signature program geared toward combating childhood obesity and championed by Michelle Obama when she was first lady. The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, passed in 2010, required schools to reduce the calories, fat and sodium in foods served in cafeterias and to increase offerings of whole grains, fruits, vegetables and nonfat milk. The new regulations drew sharp criticism, however, and the Trump administration rolled back some of them, such as a prohibition on 1 percent chocolate milk. But last year, the Biden administration proposed updates that would gradually limit salt and sugar in school lunch foods in an attempt to meet federal dietary standards . On Wednesday, the Agriculture Department made the new rules final after scaling back several provisions in the earlier proposal and shifting the start dates. Instead of gradually cutting sodium in lunch foods by a third from current levels by the fall of 2029, school cafeterias will have to cut sodium levels 15 percent by the 2027-28 academic year. And for the first time, schools will need to limit the amount of added sugars in cereals and yogurts, starting in the 2025-26 academic year. Standing in a Haleyville School District pantry a few weeks ago, Ms. Hallman nodded to boxes containing cups of Cocoa Puffs and Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal. They contain less sugar than the cereals that are bought from grocery stores and poured into bowls at home. Still, she said many of these foods would most likely be affected by the new rules and have to be reworked by the manufacturer. The label of a Cocoa Puffs cereal bar, for instance, showed it had eight grams of added sugar, while a frosted strawberry Pop-Tart had 14 grams. “Breakfast, particularly grab-and-go options, is going to be tricky,” Ms. Hallman said. “The changes could affect how many times a week we can offer certain items with sugar to the students.” Many nutritionists and health-policy watchdog groups say the new rules on sodium and sugar are important, with so many children struggling to have or make nutritious choices outside school.

Students, read the entire article and then tell us:

Before reading the article, were you aware that public schools must meet nutritional standards set by the federal government? Do you think these rules are reflected in what meals get served, how often certain items appear on the menu, or what foods can be served together at your school?

What, if anything, surprised you about the challenges schools face when it comes to serving food? Does it make you see school lunch differently?

Do you think the people who prepare school meals are right to fear that the new rules will require them to change or discontinue some of the students’ favorite items? Or will students embrace healthier meals at school?

What do you notice about the foods served at your school? Do students tend to eat healthy most days? Are the most popular items high in sugar or sodium?

Now think about what gets thrown out in cafeteria trash cans. Is food waste a serious issue at your school? If so, what can be done to help?

If students are less likely to eat foods that are low in salt and sugar — and perhaps less tasty — is it still worth it to make school lunches healthier? Why or why not?

Do students at your school have a say in what the cafeteria serves? If menus were created by students, what do you think would change and why?

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.

Find more Student Opinion questions here. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate these prompts into your classroom.