2. Experiential Learning: The theory
David A. Kolb has developed the “experiential learning model” in 1984, building on the previous studies by John
Dewey, Kurt Lewin and Jean Piaget. The model takes learning as a process rather than an outcome. The learning
cycle has four stages in Kolb’s model showing how ‘experience’ is transformed, through ‘reflection’, into concepts
that guide future experiences. Although this model has some limitations, it has important implications for
education. Thus, based on experiential learning approach, there have been practical strategies developed later, such
as the “learning by doing model” by Schank (1997). Schank (1997) opposes the conventional model of instruction,
claiming that: “nothing anyone says will do any more than inspire you. You must internalize the procedures to do a
better job. To do this you must try them out and receive help when you fail.” He advocates learning from failures in a “natural” way. However, such suggestions need a culture of experimentation in the work place, but conditions to support this kind of “natural learning” in real life do not usually exist (Reynolds et al., 2002).
Simulation games seem to overcome this problem to some extent. There have been various simulations developed
for international business undergraduate (and/or graduate) students and in a number of studies scholars report on the
effectiveness of adopting such simulations into business curriculum (e.g. Li et al., 2007). Like simulations there are
other forms of experiential learning methods in business education such as internships, service learning projects, etc.
Experiential learning assignments in Business classes are more likely to develop students’ interpersonal and
communication skills, understanding of course concepts, teamwork and team building, listening skills, and critical-
thinking and problem-solving skills as proposed by Gremler, et al. (2000). The net effect according to proponents of
experiential learning is that students become more interested and engaged, retain the information better and for
longer periods, and learn how to apply otherwise elusive theoretical constructs (Alon, 2004).
3. A Model of Experiential Learning for International Business
International Trade and Marketing (INTM) Department in Gediz University was established in 2010. Gediz
University is a foundation university unique for hosting more than 70 nationalities in Izmir, Turkey. The department
itself has been our “larger project” in fact, of which the outcome is going to be taken when we will have our first
graduates next year. Learning objectives of the Department’s curriculum have been determined in cooperation with
all the partners (both the private and the public sector) in accordance with the Bologna Process. Their prospective
profile of graduates was similar to those indicated in the national survey by TEPAV (2007) such as good social and
communication skills, team work capabilities, foreign language skills, and so on; but there were also some
characteristics specific to a career in international trade, such as awareness of cultural differences, and adaptability.
As the founders of the department and based on our professional experiences we were aware of the special learning
styles suitable for this field of study. Therefore, “experiential learning styles should take priority wherever possible”
has been adopted as the Faculty’s motto; thus we have devised a set of instruments to involve students with real life
experiences.
For this purpose, developing and maintaining relationships with business was crucial in order that the students’
experiences would be “real”. We decided to start with local business people, in particular the small and medium
sized enterprises (SMEs) in the region, some of them with lots of potential for doing business abroad but never or
rarely engaged in international trade, mainly due to lack of necessary knowledge and skills on how to do it, or being
sceptical about opening up to new markets. Having the potential of international students enrolled in our program,
one of our aims was also to examine how the multicultural nature of a university could be utilized in a mutually
beneficial way, by helping to develop contacts between the local businessmen and our students, who might well be
trade partners in the future.
We made use of local business networks (Exporters’ Union and Associations of Businessmen) to get into touch with individual firms. Besides, we made protocols with these associations concerning internships and making greater use of student potential to carry out certain activities within their regular activities. These activities include organizations of workshops, meetings, trade fairs, industrial promotion and marketing, and so on. In these protocols a general framework for the university-industry collaboration has been outlined and the cooperative activities were not limited to what is specified by the texts.
Starting in the very first year with the freshman students in the Spring term of 2011-2012 until the Spring term of
2013-2014, experience based learning activities implemented in INTM department can be grouped in two
categories:
x Category I: Experiments of mutual-learning - EML (in which all the parties involved get the
learning benefit):
x Country presentations to local businessmen - Department’s international students working in pairs with
Turkish students make presentations to exporters who wish to export their products to new markets.
x Translation support by the students to Business Associations at their international meetings.
x Providing student support to individual SMEs in their international marketing research.
x Business plan writing support for new entrepreneurs.
x Internships
x Category II: Experiments of self-learning - ESL (in which only the students get the learning
benefit):
x Experiential learning inside the classroom - lecturing by making use of experiential learning techniques
(videos, slides, simulations, and students’ presentations) as much as possible, depending on the nature of
the course.
x Attending domestic and international trade fairs organized in Izmir to observe how to develop business
contacts.
x Paper presentations in Students’ Academic Congresses x Visits abroad (Seminars and study abroad programs) x Participating in Student Club Activities
x Participation in panels, workshops, seminars and interviews with business leaders on entrepreneurship and
business.
x Preparation of projects, participation in competitions x Field trips
4. Methodology
This is a rich source of data and there might be many interesting findings coming out of this project. As explained before, the project is still continuing, so is the data collection process. At this stage, what we are interested to know is the students’ feelings and assessments about their own experiences. Although the most appropriate methodology seems to be a qualitative approach, because of time constraints, I decided to start with a questionnaire with openended questions. This will also help us to provide preparatory data for our further in-depth research.
In the questionnaire, students in their third years at the university were asked to evaluate (self-report) the impact of their individual experience as a participant of the experiential learning activities carried out at INTM Department. Out of 50 students, 40 accepted to fill in the questionnaire and in order to increase the quality of answers and avoid problems connected with time constraint they were let free to bring their answers back in a couple of days. Out of the 40 respondents, 28 were Turkish, 12 were international students†.
5. Results
Here are the results of the questionnaire: Except for 4 Turkish and 4 international students who participated only
in inside-the classroom experiential learning, all the respondent students have participated at least in one of the
activities organized ‘outside’ the classroom. 20 Turkish and 6 international students participated in real life
experiences - i.e. the EML activities in which the students came face-to-face with local businessmen and which are
beneficial to all the parties involved. It is clear from the answers that there is an important difference between EML
and ESL participants even in their approach to the questionnaire. EML participants were enthusiastic in sharing their
experiences. They have tried to write as much as possible including many details about their feelings. They have
particularly answered the open-ended last question in which they were asked to compare with traditional learning
methods inside the classroom, most of them preferred learning by doing approach because “it enables you to engage
in, participate so that you can learn more”. Among these students, those who wanted to explain their own feelings
about experiential learning activities emphasized that they feel “motivated”; and chose the reason for motivation as
“the activity brought me together with “real” people so I had the excitement of a real life experience”.
‘Non-EML’ (or ESL) participants consider the activities were useful mainly for the development of personal
skills such as, speaking up and/or making presentations in public; working as a group/team; looking from different
points of view… Some of these students, particularly those who participated only in inside-the classroom learning
activities, either have no feelings about their learning experience or said they were not happy with the ‘lectures’.
† Third year international students in INTM Department who participated in the survey were from Azerbaijan, Guin้e, Kyrgyzstan, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Yemen.
Feray Erselcan / Procedia - Social
2. ผ่านการเรียนรู้: ทฤษฎี David A. Kolb ได้พัฒนา "เรียนรู้ผ่านโมเดล" ในปี 1984 อาคารศึกษาก่อนหน้านี้โดยจอห์น Dewey, Kurt Lewin และฌ็องปียาแฌ แบบใช้เวลาเรียนรู้เป็นกระบวนการมากกว่าผล การเรียนรู้ วงจรมีสี่ขั้นตอนในรูปแบบของ Kolb ที่แสดงว่า 'สัมผัส' มีแปลง ผ่าน 'สะท้อน' เป็นแนวคิด ประสบการณ์การแนะนำว่าในอนาคต แม้ว่ารุ่นนี้มีข้อจำกัดบางประการ มีนัยสำคัญสำหรับ การศึกษา ดังนั้น ใช้วิธีการเรียนรู้ผ่าน มีการปฏิบัติกลยุทธ์พัฒนาในภายหลัง เช่น เป็นการ "เรียนรู้ด้วยการทำแบบจำลอง" โดย Schank (1997) รูปแบบทั่วไปของคำสั่ง opposes Schank (1997) ว่า ที่: "ไม่ว่า ใครจะทำ มากกว่าแรงบันดาลใจให้คุณ คุณต้อง internalize ขั้นตอนการดำเนินการ งานที่ดี การทำเช่นนี้ คุณต้องลองพวกเขาออก และได้รับความช่วยเหลือเมื่อคุณล้มเหลว" เขาสนับสนุนการเรียนรู้จากความล้มเหลวในทาง "ธรรมชาติ" อย่างไรก็ตาม คำแนะนำดังกล่าวจำเป็นวัฒนธรรมของการทดลองในสถานทำงาน แต่เงื่อนไขการสนับสนุนของ "ธรรมชาติเรียนรู้" ในชีวิตจริงมักจะมีอยู่ (เรย์โนลด์สและ al., 2002) เกมดูเหมือนจะ เอาชนะปัญหานี้บ้าง มีการจำลองสถานการณ์ต่าง ๆ ที่ได้รับการพัฒนา สำหรับนักธุรกิจระดับปริญญาตรี (และ/หรือบัณฑิตวิทยาลัย) และ ในจำนวนการศึกษานักวิชาการรายงานเกี่ยวกับการ ประสิทธิผลของการใช้สถานการณ์จำลองดังกล่าวเป็นหลักสูตรทางธุรกิจ (เช่น Li et al., 2007) เช่นจำลองที่มี แบบฟอร์มอื่น ๆ ของวิธีการเรียนรู้ผ่านในธุรกิจศึกษาเช่นโครงการบริการการเรียนรู้ ฝึกงาน ฯลฯ กำหนดผ่านการเรียนรู้ในชั้นธุรกิจมีแนวโน้มที่จะพัฒนานักมนุษยสัมพันธ์ และ ทักษะการสื่อสาร เข้าใจหลักสูตรแนวคิด ทำงานเป็นทีม และทีมงานสำคัญ และ อาคาร ทักษะ การฟัง-การคิด และการ แก้ปัญหาทักษะตามที่เสนอโดย Gremler และ al. (2000) ผลสุทธิตาม proponents ของ ผ่านการเรียนรู้คือ นักเรียนกลายเป็นความสนใจมากขึ้น และหมั้น เก็บรายละเอียดดีกว่า และสำหรับ นาน และเรียนรู้วิธีการใช้โครงสร้างทฤษฎีหรือเปรียว (Alon, 2004) 3. รูปแบบการเรียนผ่านสำหรับธุรกิจระหว่างประเทศ ประเทศและแผนกการตลาด (INTM) ในมหาวิทยาลัย Gediz ได้ก่อตั้งขึ้นในปี 2553 Gediz มหาวิทยาลัยเป็นมหาวิทยาลัยมูลนิธิเฉพาะสำหรับเชื้อมากกว่า 70 ในอิซมีร์ ตุรกี แผนก ตัวเองได้ "โครงการขนาดใหญ่" ในความเป็นจริง ซึ่งผลที่ได้กำลังที่จะใช้เมื่อเราจะครั้งแรกของเรา สำเร็จศึกษาปีต่อไป กำหนดวัตถุประสงค์การเรียนรู้ของหลักสูตรของภาควิชาร่วมกับ ในหุ้นส่วนทั้งหมด (ทั้งส่วนตัวและภาครัฐ) ตามกระบวนการของโลน่า ความคาดหวัง โปรไฟล์ของบัณฑิตผู้ตามในการสำรวจแห่งชาติ TEPAV (2007) เช่นสังคมที่ดี และ ทักษะการสื่อสาร ความสามารถทีมงาน ภาษา และอื่น ๆ แต่ยังมีบาง ลักษณะเฉพาะของอาชีพในการค้าระหว่างประเทศ เช่นความแตกต่างทางวัฒนธรรม และหลากหลาย เป็นผู้ก่อตั้งของภาคและในประสบการณ์ของเรา เราได้ตระหนักถึงการเรียนรู้พิเศษ ลักษณะที่เหมาะสมสำหรับฟิลด์นี้การศึกษา ดังนั้น "เรียนรู้ผ่านควรใช้ระดับความสำคัญเป็นไป" นำมาใช้เป็นคำขวัญของคณะ ดังนั้น เราได้คิดค้นชุดอุปกรณ์เกี่ยวข้องกับการเรียนกับชีวิตจริง ประสบการณ์ สำหรับวัตถุประสงค์นี้ รักษาการ และพัฒนาความสัมพันธ์กับธุรกิจเป็นสิ่งสำคัญใน ลำดับที่ของนักเรียน ประสบการณ์จะเป็น "จริง" เราตัดสินใจที่จะเริ่มต้น ด้วยนักธุรกิจท้องถิ่น โดยเฉพาะขนาดเล็กและขนาดกลาง ขนาดวิสาหกิจในภูมิภาค บางส่วนของพวกเขามีศักยภาพในการทำธุรกิจต่างประเทศ แต่ไม่เคย หรือ ไม่ค่อยหมั้นในการค้าระหว่างประเทศ ครบกำหนดส่วนใหญ่ขาดความรู้ที่จำเป็นและทักษะเกี่ยวกับวิธีการทำ หรือการ ความเกี่ยวกับการเปิดตลาดใหม่ มีศักยภาพของนักเรียนต่างชาติที่ลงทะเบียนในโปรแกรมของเรา จุดมุ่งหมายของเราอย่างใดอย่างหนึ่งยังตรวจสอบว่าสามารถใช้ธรรมชาติวัฒนธรรมนานาชาติของมหาวิทยาลัยในการร่วมกัน beneficial way, by helping to develop contacts between the local businessmen and our students, who might well be trade partners in the future. We made use of local business networks (Exporters’ Union and Associations of Businessmen) to get into touch with individual firms. Besides, we made protocols with these associations concerning internships and making greater use of student potential to carry out certain activities within their regular activities. These activities include organizations of workshops, meetings, trade fairs, industrial promotion and marketing, and so on. In these protocols a general framework for the university-industry collaboration has been outlined and the cooperative activities were not limited to what is specified by the texts. Starting in the very first year with the freshman students in the Spring term of 2011-2012 until the Spring term of 2013-2014, experience based learning activities implemented in INTM department can be grouped in two categories: x Category I: Experiments of mutual-learning - EML (in which all the parties involved get the learning benefit): x Country presentations to local businessmen - Department’s international students working in pairs with Turkish students make presentations to exporters who wish to export their products to new markets. x Translation support by the students to Business Associations at their international meetings. x Providing student support to individual SMEs in their international marketing research. x Business plan writing support for new entrepreneurs. x Internships x Category II: Experiments of self-learning - ESL (in which only the students get the learning benefit): x Experiential learning inside the classroom - lecturing by making use of experiential learning techniques (videos, slides, simulations, and students’ presentations) as much as possible, depending on the nature of the course. x Attending domestic and international trade fairs organized in Izmir to observe how to develop business contacts. x Paper presentations in Students’ Academic Congresses x Visits abroad (Seminars and study abroad programs) x Participating in Student Club Activities x Participation in panels, workshops, seminars and interviews with business leaders on entrepreneurship and business. x Preparation of projects, participation in competitions x Field trips 4. Methodology This is a rich source of data and there might be many interesting findings coming out of this project. As explained before, the project is still continuing, so is the data collection process. At this stage, what we are interested to know is the students’ feelings and assessments about their own experiences. Although the most appropriate methodology seems to be a qualitative approach, because of time constraints, I decided to start with a questionnaire with openended questions. This will also help us to provide preparatory data for our further in-depth research. In the questionnaire, students in their third years at the university were asked to evaluate (self-report) the impact of their individual experience as a participant of the experiential learning activities carried out at INTM Department. Out of 50 students, 40 accepted to fill in the questionnaire and in order to increase the quality of answers and avoid problems connected with time constraint they were let free to bring their answers back in a couple of days. Out of the 40 respondents, 28 were Turkish, 12 were international students†. 5. Results Here are the results of the questionnaire: Except for 4 Turkish and 4 international students who participated only in inside-the classroom experiential learning, all the respondent students have participated at least in one of the activities organized ‘outside’ the classroom. 20 Turkish and 6 international students participated in real life experiences - i.e. the EML activities in which the students came face-to-face with local businessmen and which are beneficial to all the parties involved. It is clear from the answers that there is an important difference between EML and ESL participants even in their approach to the questionnaire. EML participants were enthusiastic in sharing their experiences. They have tried to write as much as possible including many details about their feelings. They have particularly answered the open-ended last question in which they were asked to compare with traditional learning methods inside the classroom, most of them preferred learning by doing approach because “it enables you to engage
in, participate so that you can learn more”. Among these students, those who wanted to explain their own feelings
about experiential learning activities emphasized that they feel “motivated”; and chose the reason for motivation as
“the activity brought me together with “real” people so I had the excitement of a real life experience”.
‘Non-EML’ (or ESL) participants consider the activities were useful mainly for the development of personal
skills such as, speaking up and/or making presentations in public; working as a group/team; looking from different
points of view… Some of these students, particularly those who participated only in inside-the classroom learning
activities, either have no feelings about their learning experience or said they were not happy with the ‘lectures’.
† Third year international students in INTM Department who participated in the survey were from Azerbaijan, Guin้e, Kyrgyzstan, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Yemen.
Feray Erselcan / Procedia - Social
การแปล กรุณารอสักครู่..
