in this lesson we'll talk in detail about the cold experiential learning cycle the Kolb cycle is a method of reflective thinking which is foundational to prior learning assessment what we learn today will lay the groundwork for much of the rest of our course to get us thinking reflectively let's do a mental activity this activity is called what so what now what and it will push us to move outside of our comfort zone with our thinking to begin let's set some ground rules I'll introduce a topic and we'll use the method it's a basic way to promote discussion that begins with reviewing the details of the experience and moves toward critical thinking problem-solving and creating an action plan now let's choose our first topic for discussion then we'll progress through each of these questions what so what now what for the first time through this activity I want you to think about the first training course you completed in your career maybe it was basic training for a branch of the Armed Forces maybe it was a 30 minute or even shorter supervisor led introduction to the computer system perhaps it was new employee onboarding for the purposes of this activity think about the first training you ever completed ready here we go we'll start off with what what is descriptive it includes facts like what happened and with whom pause the lecture here to think about the what of the first training course you completed now let's move on to so what so what is a shift from descriptive to interpretive it introduces the meaning of the experience for each participant it includes the feelings involved and the lessons learned it also gets at the why of what happened pause the lecture here to think about so what now we'll move on to now what now what is contextual it's seeing the place of the situation in light of the big picture it involves applying the lessons learned or insights gained to new situations it also involves setting future goals or creating an action plan pause the lecture here to think about the now what nice job are you ready to play one more time this time I want you to choose the topic pause the lecture here and mentally go through the steps what so what now what now that we've warmed up with some reflective thinking let's dig into the first section of today's material all about the Kolb experiential learning cycle the Kolb experiential learning cycle is named for its creator David Kolb David Kolb is a social psychologist and educational theorist whose interests focus on experiential learning and professional development in 1984 he presented a cyclical model of experiential learning this is a method of reflective thinking and writing and it's foundational to prior learning assessment much of the work that you'll do in this course and others in the program will be structured using this cycle the handout titled cold experiential cycle guiding questions will help you through each step of the cycle an important part of learning is articulating and evaluating what you learned because your brain integrates new learning into the mental structures of what you already know reflection is the way to build and cement your learning into those structures think of your brain as a palace with many rooms and you keep adding in more furniture in the next few slides we'll talk about a mental model for reflecting on learning the Kolb experiential learning cycle will use that handout I talked about as we go you'll want to keep the handout for reference throughout this course and the rest of the program the first step of the Kolb experiential learning cycle is concrete experience concrete experience is the actual event Kolb maintains that learners should become actively involved in the exploration of the learning experience if they're to get the most out of it this can involve drawing up a checklist of things that the learner should try to do such as active observation of what's going on producing a law or a record of some sort and formulating appropriate questions questions surrounding the identification of the event or learning experience can be things like what was done why when where how long were there others involved and the depth and breadth of the experience the verbs that you'll want to use when writing about this step include worked created prepared implemented conducted or produced as an example someone may have learned a shortcut in completing a form for work in this step you'll describe a learning experience or product that illustrates a competency or a grouping of competencies explain what you did or applied that shows your learning of the competency write about the experience that shows my learning is preparing such or the products that Dimon's this competency is step two is reflective observation these are the thought processes and patterns or trends of the experience the learner then relates this experience to other experiences in his or her life this is generally acknowledged to be the most difficult stage of the Kolb cycle but it's probably the most crucial of all students and practitioners should reflect on what they learned how they learned it why they learned it whether the learning experience could have been more effective and so on discussion of these reflections with one's instructor can prove extremely helpful as can discussion with one's peers either informally or at a formal debriefing session of some sort the questions surrounding this portion of the cycle are more evaluative what worked what didn't work are there patterns or similarities or differences the verbs that you'll want to use include observed watched noticed saw thought or discovered discuss what you noticed or observed analyze what you learned in experiencing or producing discuss what expertise you gained or expanded such as in experiencing I noticed this or in producing I discovered that when appropriate relate what you learned to the program goals and competencies this is like the furniture that you're moving into the palace the third step is abstract conceptualization this is a stage that is very often left out of experiential learning programs but again it's extremely important if the learners are to gain the maximum possible benefit for such learning the main object of this stage is to link the actual learning experience with theories that were meant to underpin it and or with greater understanding of the theories that the learning experience was designed to illustrate again discussion with one's instructor can prove extremely helpful during this stage of the Kolb cycle as can discussion with fellow learners the questions during this stage of the cycle include what insights have I had is this the same observation as with other experiences what theories or principles have I formulated as a result use verbs such as concluded theorized found realized deduced or learned evaluate your learning as it relates to a bigger picture to a theory posed by an author or your own ideas discuss any rules theories or concepts that apply to this learning right about conclusions you've drawn from the experience or how creating the product helped you to realize the ability to generalize is a key difference between a typical user in a problem-solver it is the essence of learning from experience this is like the rooms of the palace the fourth and final step of the cold experiential learning cycle is active experimentation active experimentation is the point in the cycle where the learner applies the learning from the experience to new situations the learner develops strength of learning for future experiences or events the questions for this portion of the cycle are how can I use this learning in another situation with this knowledge be useful in another situation how can I bake predictions based on this knowledge for future experiences you'll use verbs such as used updated applied tried implemented or changed what happened as a result of the experience reflection and learning what new ways did you create you might write based on this experience I changed the way I you could discuss why the learning is valuable to your job role you might write used the product in my work too at this point you should be fairly comfortable with each of the four steps of the Kolb cycle obviously I don't expect you to be an expert at this point but you'll get lots of practice using it in this course and in the rest of the program so now it's time to talk about the assignment after completing the readings the self-assessment and going through this lecture and all the related activities you'll lose use the cold experiential learning cycle to write a one-page reflection essay about what you've learned begin with the concrete experience that is what you did in this instance you visited several web sites took a survey and learned more about your own learning style use the guiding questions to complete the cycle as a general rule of thumb you should expect that each step of the cycle will comprise approximately one quarter of your essay in other words you should devote 25% of your writing to concrete experience to end 25% of your writing to reflective observation and so on well that's it for this lesson your instructor will review this reflection essay and will then provide you with detailed feedback this is like a practice run for future reflection essays you'll use the cold experiential learning cycle in every course in this program