LESSON 7 : Direct, Purposeful Experiences and Beyond

Is a complex, integrated process involving people, procedures, ideas, devices, and organization for analyzing problems and devising, implementing, evaluating, and managing solution to those problems, involved in all aspects of human learning. Is a very board item. It is the application of scientific findings in our method, process or procedure of working in the field trip of education in order to effect learning. It embraces curriculum and instructional design, learning environment, theories of teaching-learning. It is also a filed study and a profession. It is the use of all human inventions for teachers to realize their mission to teach in order that students learn.

—  These are our concrete and first hand experiences that make up the foundation of our learning.

—  These are the rich experiences that our senses bring from which we construct the ideas, the concepts, the generalizations that give meaning and order to our lives (Dale, 1969)

Example of Direct activities

—  Preparing meals

—  Making a piece of furniture

—  Performing a laboratory experiment

—  Delivering a speech

—  Taking a trip

—  In contrast, indirect experiences are experience of other… people that we observe, read or hear about. They are not our experiences but still experiences in the sense that we see, read and hear about them. They are not first hand but rather vicarious.           

Why are these direct experiences described to be purposeful?

—  They are experiences that are internalized in the sense that these experiences involve the asking of questions that have significance in the life of the person undergoing the direct experience.

—  These experiences are undergone in relation to a purpose, i.e. learning

—  It is done in relation to a certain learning objective.

Summary:

Direct experiences are first hand experiences that serve as the foundation of learning. The opposite of direct experiences are indirect or vicarious experiences

Direct  experiences  lead us to concept formation and abstraction. We should not end our lessons knowing only the concrete. We go beyond the concrete by reaching the level of abstract concepts.