Experiential learning refers to a process through which learners develop skills, values, and knowledge from direct experiences outside their learning environment (Ozogul, 2018). According to Kolb’s experiential learning theory developed by David Kolb in 1984, experiential learning is a process where knowledge is created through a transformative experience. That is, knowledge results from a combination of transforming and grasping experienced by the learner. The different approaches that experiential learning takes to pass knowledge to the learner include cooperative education. The main focus is to help learners develop the knowledge and skills required more digitally. Experiential learning focuses mainly on learners reflecting on their experience of doing things independently, applying what they learn to gain conceptual insights and practical expertise.
The cooperative learning approach is one of the experiential learning that requires learners to work together and interdependently to achieve mutual goals (Gudinavičius et al., 2020). Cooperative learning involves learners working together to accomplish shared goals to motivate, help, and support each other for deep learning to acquire the necessary skills. The group sharing of information is made effective by combining learners with different levels of ability who utilizes a variety of learning activities to promote their understanding of the course. Cooperative learning hinges on five elements to improve learners’ understanding, which includes interpersonal and small group social skills, positive independence, promotive interaction, individual’s accountability, and group processing.
The interpersonal and small group skills are enhanced through promoting interpersonal and teamwork skills, which is an essential strategy for effective leadership, trust-building, conflict management, and decision making (Namaziandost et al., 2019). The positive independence involves enhancing mutual goals by sharing materials, dividing roles, and making part of each student’s grade dependent on the whole group’s performance. Promotive interaction helps the learners to become committed to each other, which results in in-group cooperation. Individual accountability is enhanced in cooperative learning when students learn together but perform alone. Lastly is the group processing, which involves learners analyzing how well their group functioned in achieving the mutual goals and areas of improvement.
The cooperative learning approach is effectively applicable in our group topic, “To teach English speakers learning Chinese Mandarin.” Creating groups with learners with different abilities will promote the development of different opinions and views, which will help in coming up with an article that is well formulated. Through cooperative learning, learners will be able to present their ideas that promote cooperation among ourselves freely. The learners will tend to actively participate in the learning process, which empowers, which could not be possible through the teacher based format.
The main aim of the group working on our topic will be to enable all the learners to learn the hidden knowledge using their cognitive resources and transform it into concepts that we will easily relate to without much struggle. The group discussion will also give the English speakers to learn Speaking Chinese Mandarin as we will be communicating and responding to each other. Through active participation in the group, learners having a difficult time constructing Chinese sentences will have chances to nourish their communication skills as we will correct each other at a pace that one is comfortable with.
References
Gudinavičius, B., Bubnys, R., & Šimaitytė, S. (2020). BUILDING GENERAL COMPETENCIES OF SOCIAL WORK STUDENTS THROUGH EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING PROCESS. SOCIAL WELFARE: INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH, 2(9). https://doi.org/10.21277/sw.v2i9.489
Namaziandost, E., Neisi, L., Kheryadi, Nasri, M., & Heidari-Shahreza, M. (2019). Enhancing oral proficiency through cooperative learning among intermediate EFL learners: English learning motivation in focus. Cogent Education, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186x.2019.1683933
Ozogul, G. (2018). Best Practices in Engaging Online Learners Through Active and Experiential Learning Strategies. Interdisciplinary Journal Of Problem-Based Learning, 12(1). https://doi.org/10.7771/1541-5015.1764
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