Learning in vivo

Drafting experiential education procedures for a university

Those who have been involved in a policy and/or procedure creation process at a university will know it is not an easy task. Substantial literature reviews (which I blogged about during the recent past) that informed a first draft had been undertaken. This draft (Download Procedural Manual on Experiential Learning) has been distributed by e-mail to key role players within the university for critique and comment. The commentary received has been incorporated and a second draft made institutionally available on Intranet and called for commentary through the university's daily e-news mail (Download 2nd Draft of Procedural Manual on Experiential Learning).

At this point a meeting with a senior educational-support line manager resulted in further review and supplementation. A third draft -- Download 3rd Draft of Procedural Manual on Experiential Learning has been produced, which served as discussion document with several key stakeholders. Following thorough consultation and incorporation of input, contributions, commentary, critique and recommended structural changes the process has since arrived at a sixth draft -- Download 6th draft towards a Procedural Manual on Experiential Learning. The sixth draft got formally tabled at a committee within the structure and accepted in principle - subject to a few changes. This new version (Download Procedural Manual on Experiential Learning DRAFT 2-1 - apologies for the hyperlinks to Intranet pages that readers would not have access to) is now the official 2nd draft, for which a powerpoint presentation (Download Procedural Manual on Experiential Learning) had been prepared in order to present it at a next level internal committee.

Ultimately a Procedural Manual for Experiential Learning had been presented to Senate 13 June 2012 and approved, whereafter it was placed on Intranet with the University Council approved Policy for Experiential Learning.

Online classroom support pre-service teacher education

Teaching is complex, requiring in excess of 3000 decisions each day in the classroom, reports Ferry and Kervin (2007). This poses serious challenges to pre-service teacher education, aggravated by the theoretical education often fail to prepare students for the practicalities of the classroom. Simulated (virtual) classrooms are seen as a means to prepare students for their future role as teachers.

Ferry and Kervin (2007: 190) reports that a team of five University of Wollongong lecturers and two research students work together for a year to produce a funding proposal. A further six months got devoted to plan the development of the simulation. The development of the simulation comprises a number of stages/processes:

Step	Description		Duration	Budget
1	Planning the simulation — the development of: Inputs and outputs to guide the user Story to guide user		Nine (9) months	$5 000 for teaching relief
2	Using the teacher-created script to shape prototype version 1 of the software: Physical classroom organisation Classroom management Teaching and learning The development and incorporation of embedded tool ‘thinking space’		Twelve (12) months	project manager, teaching relief, programming & graphic design
3	Trial of the simulation software		Two (2) months	$10 000 project manager, teaching relief & programming
4	Refining the software		Nine (9) months	$60 000 project manager, programming & graphic design
5	Authenticating the virtual kindergarden experiences		Six (6) months	$10 000 project manager
6	Trial of the software		Three (3) months	$5 000 project manager, teaching relief & programming
		Totals:	18 & 41 months	$190 000

Stella^TM had been chosen during the planning phase as architecture for the simulation— “STELLA® offers a practical way to dynamically visualize and communicate how complex systems and ideas really work” (ISEE Systems, Inc.). The project-team further started the ‘story’—the teacher narrative for the simulation with the following basic flow:

Teacher organises the day		Tasks before the class starts		Learning & teaching experiences		End of literacy L&T

Two distinct cycle typess (management; plus teaching & learning) were identified to incorporate into the STELLA® software:

Management cycles	Teaching and learning cycles
1. The organisation of the classroom	5. Sequencing episode
2. The start of the day	6. Modelled reading episode
3. The late arrival of a student	7. Modelled writing episode
4. Random decisions	8. Retell of a familiar story episode

Ferry, B & Kervin, L. 2007. Developing an online classroom simulation to support a pre-service teacher education program. In D Gibson; C Aldrich & M Prensky. 2007. Games and simulations in online learning: research and development frameworks (pp 189 – 205). Hershey: Information Science Publishing.

ISEE Systems, Inc. STELLA Systems Thinking for Education and Research. Download STELLA_productsheet

Reflection by word association

Reflection comes naturally for some, but other struggle to become reflective. Chapter 12 of A Student Guide to Clinical Legal Education and Pro Bono contains an activity which would enhance reflectivity. Kerrigan and Murray (2011) suggest thinking about different terms for each letter of the word REFLECTION and give some examples. My suggestion would be to apply some of the ‘synonyms’.

R	reviewing, reasoning, rethinking, recapturing, reconstructing, reactions, responses, refining, realising, rigorous, retrospective
E	experience, emotions, experimenting, externalising, evolving
F	feelings, focus, forward moving
L	lifelong learning, linking (ideas or experiences), limitless
E	external issues, ethics, exploring, evaluation, engagement, explanations
C	critique, conscious, concepts, changes, context, curiosity, conclusions, cyclical, consequences, consideration, challenge, cognitive
T	thinking, trying out new ideas, taking stock, transforming, testing
I	ideas, improving, insight, inquiry, interpretation, interaction, integration, implications, identifying, interrogation
O	observing, objective, open mind
N	new experiences, new ideas, noticing

Kerrigan, K & Murray, V. (eds) 2011. A Student Guide to Clinical Legal Education and Pro Bono. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan

Three modes of experiential education

The Best Practices for Legal Education (2007) publication of the Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA) represents the fruit of 25 years of rich dialogue among American law teachers, lawyers, and judges, regarding the education of lawyers. In the foreword is stated that the American Bar Association convened a 1984 conference ‘Legal Education and the Profession: Approaching the 21st Century’. The foreword further states that in 1987 Justice Rosalie Wahl of the Minnesota Supreme Court and Chair of the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar rhetorically asked:

Have we really tried in law school to determine what skills, what attitudes, what character traits, what quality of mind are required of lawyers? Are we adequately educating students through the content and methodology of our present law school curriculums to perform effectively as lawyers after graduation?

The purpose of this elaborate prologue is to convey the credible nature of the three modes of experiential education identified in Chapter 5: Best Practices for Experiential Courses (pp 121 – 152, note that the page numbers of individual online chapters differ from the full publication) of the CLEA Best Practices for Legal Education (2007: 122), namely:

• In-house law clinics offering students opportunities to represent clients or perform other professional roles under the supervision of members of the faculty
• Externships — where students represent clients or perform other professional roles under the supervision of practicing lawyers or they observe or assist practicing lawyers or judges in their work
• Simulation-based courses granting students hypothetical situations to assume professional roles and perform law-related tasks

These three modes, although many different terms are used, are common in many disciplines, for example:

• Practicals, laboratory work, applied field experiences facilitated and managed by lecturers
• Work-integrated/experiential/work-based learning in the occupational field under supervision of an experienced practitioner
• Simulated learning providing experience in hypothetical situations

Brayne, Duncan and Grimes (1998: 244) address externships as a means for law students to obtain a credit “working in legal settings”. It is interesting to note that “in the United States, students may not receive financial compensation for work which warrants educational credit”. Brayne, Duncan and Grimes (1998) identify both advantages and disadvantages with regard to externships. Potential advantages include “lower costs, variety of opportunities, work experience, service to the community, and flexibility”. As far as disadvantages are concerned, the main one identified is the potential “lack of control over the quality of the educational experience”.

Brayne, H; Duncan, N & Grimes, R. 1998. Clinical legal education: active learning in your law school. London: Blackstone.

Stuckey, R & Others. 2007. Best Practices for Legal Education. United States: Clinical Legal Education Association. Retrieved 2 November 2011 from: http://www.cleaweb.org/best-practices -- note the hyperlink to the best practices blog at the bottom of the web page.

What are experiential programmes?

The Clinical Legal Education Association (CLEA) Best Practices for Legal Education (2007: 165, note that the page numbers of individual online chapters differ from the full publication) defines experiential programmes as those “rely on experiential education as a significant or primary method of instruction”. The experiences of students in the roles of lawyers, in simulations, as well as “their observations of practicing lawyers and judges” play an important role. The integration of theory and practice through “combining academic inquiry with actual experience” is regarded as experiential education.

Learning is not education, because learning happens as part of life through experiences, observations and eavesdropping. Education comprises learning opportunities that were designed; are managed; and may involve guided experience. Although law students may derive valuable learning experiences from part-time work experiences in legal settings, the CLEA Best Practices for Legal Education (2007: 165) argues cannot be regarded “experiential education because the learning in such environments is not necessarily accompanied by academic inquiry”.

Stuckey, R & Others. 2007. Best Practices for Legal Education. United States: Clinical Legal Education Association. Retrieved 2 November 2011 from: http://www.cleaweb.org/best-practices

Doing law as means to learning about law

In the developed, technocratic world people—especially younger generations—became accustomed to virtual realities on PC screens. Interactive PC games offer excitement, insight and fulfilment. Clinical simulations could offer similar stimulus, engagement observation how law works. Brayne, Duncan and Grimes (1998: 173) state aptly “doing law as means to learning about law is different from learning the law by reading it”. Reconstruction of legal incidents through the vehicle of simulations; and the presentation of social problems as law ‘cases’; are but two examples. A legal problem on paper does not contain the uncertainties, emotions and interactions that form part of the real-world realities of, for example, the attorney’s office, the police station or the courtroom.

Brayne, Duncan and Grimes (1998: 174) observes that “simulation is commonly regarded as a valuable part of clinical teaching, but one which is the poor relation of the real-client clinic”, because simulation lacks the “startling and awakening encounters … of coping with people” present in legal practice “who have a need of legal expertise”. On the other hand, simulations can provide opportunities not readily available and can invoke the emotions and flow of adrenalin associated with daily client work.

In undergraduate legal education, simulations would inculcate appropriate behaviours in addition to the realisation that there is more to lawyering than mastery of legal knowledge. Simulations further offer students safe opportunities to experiment and to learn from mistakes.

Brayne, Duncan and Grimes (1998: 183) emphasise that simulation can never be an alternative to real client work, but within a spectrum of teaching methods simulations could contribute to effective law learning.

Brayne, H; Duncan, N & Grimes, R. 1998. Clinical legal education: active learning in your law school. London: Blackstone.

Nine events of instruction — Gagné

Gagné’s “Nine Events of Instruction”, referenced in Becker (2007: 27 – 29) support the instructional design of five areas of learning capabilities:

• Verbal, both oral and written, information
• Intellectual skills, including manipulation of symbolic information as well as problem solving
• Creative cognitive strategies and control over own learning
• Physical motor skills
• Personal attitudes influencing choice

Gagné’s Nine Events provide for conditions of learning, as well as guidelines for selection of appropriate media:

1. Reception, attracting and gaining attention
2. Creating expectancy by making the objectives known
3. Retrieval of prior knowledge by stimulating recall of former learning
4. Presentation of the stimulus, encouragement and challenge (selective perception)
5. Offer self-contained learning—learning guidance provided within (semantic encoding)
6. Elicit interactive performance or responding
7. Reinforcement by providing feedback
8. Assessment of performance (retrieval)
9. Generalise by enhancing retention and transfer of learning

Becker, K. 2007. Pedagogy in commercial video games. In D Gibson; C Aldrich & M Prensky. 2007. Games and simulations in online learning: research and development frameworks (pp 21 – 47). Hershey: Information Science Publishing.

Instructional design mediates between learning theory and educational practice

In 1900 John Dewey already asserted the need for a mediating science between learning theory and educational practice; reports Akilli (2007: 7); yet the origins of instructional design dates back to World War II.

Akilli (2007: 9) reports further that since the 1990s six factors significantly impacted instructional design practices, namely:

• Performance technology movement
• Constructivism
• Electronic Performance Support Systems (EPPSc)
• Rapid prototyping
• Increasing use of Internet for distance education
• Knowledge management endeavours

Akilli (2007: 8) conveniently uses the term instructional design/development (IDD) because it covers the width and depth of activities involved in analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation. Although the number of IDDMs published increased the quality did not. An instructional design & development model (IDDM) includes at least five aspects (p. 9):

• Analysis of the setting and learner [student] needs
• Design of a set of specification for an effective, efficient and relevant learner [student] environment
• Development of all learner [student] and management materials; and
• Evaluation of the results of the development both formatively and summatively; and
• Distribution and monitoring of the learning environment across various settings, over an extended period of time

It is believed that some IDDMs only fit “narrow, well-defined, and static scenarios, because they are process-orientated rather than people-orientated, and use clumsy, bureaucratic, and linear approaches” (Akilli, 2007: 10). Instead IDDMs ought “to reflect the dynamic, complex, and non-linear nature of the design process” (p. 11). Adoption of “new scientific models, such as hermeneutics, fuzzy logic, and chaos theory” are suggested.

• Hermeneutics addresses the socio-historic context of individuals decoding and creating meanings.
• Chaos theory seeks self-similarity and self-organisation evident from repeating patterns at different complexity levels, such as a fractal.
• Fuzzy logic entails belief that reality can seldom be well represented in a bivalent manner; instead reality is multivalent with several in-between values; it is probabilistic; with continua measures.

Akilli, GK. 2007. Games and simulations: a new approach in education? In D Gibson; C Aldrich & M Prensky. 2007. Games and simulations in online learning: research and development frameworks (pp 1 – 20). Hershey: Information Science Publishing.

Simulations are interactive abstractions of real-life

Akilli (2007: 4) defines a simulation “as an interactive abstraction or simplification of some real life … or any attempt to imitate a real or imaginary environment or system”.

Although a substantial body of literature accumulated about simulations, Akilli (2007: 5) observes that it is still vague if games and/or simulations influence the learning of students in a positive way. Some literature does, however, describe the effects on:

• Discovery learning strategies
• Problem solving skills
• Computer usage skills
• Intellectual, visual and motor skills of students
• The engagement and interactivity of students
• Motivation to take responsibility for own learning

Evidence suggests, according to Akilli (2007: 6) “the use of games as instructional tools” in 3000 B.C. in China. Despite re-entry of use in the educational context in 1950s; games and simulations only became part of formal instructional design in the 1970s. However, it is reported that instructional designers encounter two problems:

• Absence of available comprehensive design paradigms — addressed through the publication referenced
• Lack of well-designed research findings — existing are mainly perceived reactions of students

Akilli, GK. 2007. Games and simulations: a new approach in education? In D Gibson; C Aldrich & M Prensky. 2007. Games and simulations in online learning: research and development frameworks (pp 1 – 20). Hershey: Information Science Publishing.

Simulations will result in educational benefits if their design

If the design of simulations is excellent and along multiple dimensions they will result in being educationally beneficial, is stated in the forword of Gibson, Aldrich and Prensky (2007). Furthermore is stated that:

• Simulations have the potential to dramatically improve the motivation of students if design-based research is used. The educational outcomes would further be dramatically improved, as well as new insights generated about the nature of learning.
• However, proponents of interactive media must recognise some learning derived from research about several types of learning experiences.
• People vary with regard to learning styles and strengths; and what engages them—educational designs therefore vary in success for different people.
• The motivation of some simulation participants will improve as result of the element of competition, whereas the motivation of others will diminish.
• Simulation designs must be carefully balanced between authenticity and validity to the real world in order to be effective; because reality is complex but oversimplification introduces misconceptions—the latter may reduce deep learning potential.

Gibson, D; Aldrich, C & Prensky M. 2007. Games and simulations in online learning: research and development frameworks. Hershey: Information Science Publishing.