Experiential Education, By Marin Burton

As a leader, I define myself as an experiential educator. Often, when I initially try to define experiential education for others, I receive blank stares or looks of confusion. Sometimes I receive comments such as, “Do you mean hands-on learning? or “Oh, you mean that ropes stuff.” While experiential education does involve an active, “hands-on” approach to learning and can use challenge (or ropes) courses as one tool to achieve its educational outcomes, there is a lot more to it than that.

The Association for Experiential Education offers the following definition: Experiential education is a philosophy and methodology in which educators purposefully engage with learners in direct experience and focused reflection in order to increase knowledge, develop skills and clarify values (The Association for Experiential Education, 2010). Closely examining the combination of words in this definition helps to clarify its meaning even further. AEE chooses to refer to experiential education as both a philosophy and a methodology revealing the strong connection between the merging of theory and practice. It is both; not mutually exclusive but rather working in concert to create this educational approach. The words “purposefully engage” signify the intentional nature of the educator’s work as creating intentional learning processes as well as their active role within the educational environment. The use of the word with may seem like a small choice; however, it reveals a powerful idea concerning the interaction between educator and learner.

As a leader, I am concerned about how experiences inform us to learn to become engaged citizens in the world. I use experiential education as a medium for opportunities to examine how learning can become applicable beyond one isolated experience. To understand the process of learning, we can refer to David Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle.

Kolb's Experiential Learning Cycle

Kolb (1984) developed this cyclical model offering signposts for the process of learning. He argues that students must have an experience, reflect on that experience, make broader generalizations from their reflections and observations and then find ways to apply the new meaning to other aspects of their world.

Often, we can get caught in the trap of offering an experience and letting it speak for itself. When we do this, we miss about three fourths of the learning process an intentional experiential educator strives for. While the “hands-on learning” and “ropes stuff” might be beneficial on its own, it is within the reflection and application stages of experiential learning that we can engage in meaningful experiences that inform us as leaders and active citizens within society.

Author:
Marin E. Burton, Ph.D
Director, Team QUEST

Managing Relationships, Task and Process, By Katelyn Chapman

Do you feel conflict between managing relationships, getting the task done, and/or deciding on the process? Some people tend to be more task-oriented- thinking “I just want to do it. Why should we talk about HOW we are going to do it?” While others have more concern for people and are relational-oriented- thinking “Is everyone involved? How are we accommodating each other’s needs?” Still others are process-oriented- thinking “How are we going to do this? We need a specific plan of what’s going on before we do anything.”

The Leadership Triangle identifies three aspects of any activity- (1) Task, (2) Process, (3) Relational.

What’s the Task? It’s the goal or what you’re trying to get done. For example, when trying to complete a high ropes course, your task is to physically complete the course. What tasks can you think of?

What’s the Process? It’s how you went about completing the task… Did you plan how you were going to climb the course or did you just go for it? If you just went for it, you most likely tend to be more “task-oriented.” Did you discuss it with everyone involved? Did everyone equally participate in the planning? Were the key stakeholders involved? What are the consequences of planning or not planning? Is there a penalty or risk if you do it wrong?

What’s the Relational? The people in your activity! Are people invited to contribute their thoughts/ideas? What’s the dynamic among group members? How are people’s needs being met?

How do you incorporate these 3 elements to get results? GREAT question! What do you think and why? I suggest you identify where you are within the triangle for a specific situation. Now that you are aware of your position, do you need to shift to incorporate another aspect more?

Another suggestion is to recognize when activities tend to shift to one aspect. For example, when an activity is a competition, what tends to happen? People generally become extremely task-oriented and may do so at the jeopardy of the people (relational) and not use the most effective process. When do people become more relational? A possibility is if someone has something in their personal life that’s a serious concern- i.e. sickness or death in the family.

The key to remember is that where you want to be in the triangle depends on the situation. By better managing relationships, task and process, your results will be improved!

Author:
Katelyn Chapman
Leadership Graduate Assistant
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG)

Getting Your Team on the Same Page, By Katelyn Chapman

Are you part of a new team at school or work? Here are some six tips for getting your team on the same page and increasing your chances of a successful outcome. I invite you to review these tips and then ask yourself what hinders you from putting these into action… You know you should “Get Ready, Aim, and Fire” but are you just firing?

1. Build social capital- Understand each other (name, role in organization, strengths/weaknesses, etc.). By providing open space for individuals to candidly discuss their strengths and weaknesses, the team gains an invaluable understanding of each other. The team will then be able to leverage each other’s strengths.


2. Identify a shared vision- Every business needs a vision (where you want to go) as part of their long-term or “strategic plan,” so what’s different for a team? Nothing! Teams also need this glue to align interests, making sure that everyone is aiming for the same end result. Please note the importance of having input from every member at this stage, so everyone feels a part of the end result and knows they contributed. What happens if a team doesn’t have this shared vision? Say you are part of a team and three members think the end goal is to get a project completed for 20 people, whereas others think it’s for 200 people. The members will have different perspectives of what is “right and wrong” for the group. This shared view also helps the members of the group who are “bigger picture” thinkers.


3. Identify roles that best fit individual’s strengths/ weaknesses. By engaging people, they will be more directly involved, and therefore form a stronger bond with the team. This can also help individuals identify themselves as a leader. If an individual does not volunteer for a position but you see leadership potential, you can say, “You seem to have a lot of leadership potential.” The use of this coaching has been suggested by the Leadership Identity Development Model as a way to help move individuals through the different stages of leadership development.

4. Identify meeting times- Is there a regular time/place that works for everyone so people can have a predictable time?


5. Construct a time-line- Set sequential goals that will help you get to the end result. This will help shape your big picture idea and especially accommodate the detailed-oriented team members. This will also serve as an ongoing communication tool- expressing the status of the different project tasks.


6. Identify “Rules of Engagement”- What are the consequences for tasks not being completed? In my most successful group projects for business and academics, we agreed when tasks would be completed, how they would be submitted, and consequences. When people know they will be held accountable for something, they will be more likely to not put your project/team on the back burner. This serves as a preventative step to those DISASTER TEAMS, and something you can use as a “check in” during the duration of the project.

Author: Katelyn Chapman

Choose Your Challenge, By Katelyn Chapman

“Here, we do ‘challenge by choice.’” Does that sound familiar? Choice Philosophy helps give participants a sense of control, assuring that they have the final decision on what they are and are not comfortable with, hence promoting their emotional safety. At The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) Team QUEST, we steer away from the ‘challenge by choice,’ and incorporate ‘choose your challenge.’ This twist of words encourages the positive possibilities rather than giving the participant an opt-out perspective.

As facilitators, how do we know the fine-line between coaching someone to push their comfort zone and jeopardizing the choice philosophy? It’s important for us to read when participants merely need a little encouragement from the other participants or us. Or, is the group encouraging them excessively and the possibility of negative peer pressure exists?

We were talking about this the other day at UNCG Team QUEST and the Director told a story, “I had this girl that was adamantly afraid of the high ropes…I talked her through it. At the end, she embraced me and said, ‘Thank you so much. I could never have done it without you.’” My first reaction to myself was “Oh that’s so nice!” As I thought that, she said, “And I thought, OH NO! We are not here to make someone feel dependent on us. If they feel they couldn’t have done it on their own, then how will they be empowered next time that happens? Sometimes, the best learning comes when people don’t complete something successfully, and then after they wish they had done it. Next time they have an opportunity, they won’t pass it by.” Then, I had an Ah Ha moment! It made sense, but why didn’t I ever think about it from that perspective? I believe the human element of selfishness can get in the way. As facilitators, we tend to want our group to ‘be successful’ by completing the element. Now there’s some food for thought…

Author:
Katelyn Chapman
Leadership Graduate Assistant
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG)