Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development

Drawing from the intellectual origins of experiential learning in the works of John Dewey, Kurt Lewin, and Jean Piaget, this comprehensive and systematic book describes the process of experiential learning. The author proposes a model of the underlying structures of the learning process based on research in psychology, philosophy, and physiology, and bases its typology of individual learning styles and corresponding structures of knowledge in different academic disciplines and careers on this structural model. He also applies experiential learning to higher education and lifelong learning, particularly with regard to adult education.

Table of Contents:
I. THE FOUNDATIONS OF CONTEMPORARY APPROACHES TO EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING.  1. Experiential Learning in Higher Education: The Legacy of John Dewey.  2. Experiential Learning in Training and Organization Development: The Contributions of Kurt Lewin, Jean Piaget and the Cognitive-Development Tradition of Experiential Learning.  3. Other Contributions to Experiential Learning Theory. II. THE PROCESS OF EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING.  4. Three Models of the Experiential Learning Process.  5. Characteristics of Experiential Learning Summary: A Definition of Learning. III. STRUCTURAL FOUNDATIONS OF THE LEARNING PROCESS.  6. Process and Structure in Experiential Learning Summary. IV. INDIVIDUALITY IN LEARNING AND THE CONCEPT OF LEARNING STYLES.  7. The Scientific Study of Individuality.  8. Learning Styles: The Learning Style Inventory.  9. Evidence for the Structure of Learning. 10. Characteristics of the Basic Learning Styles. 11. Summary and Conclusion. V. THE STRUCTURE OF KNOWLEDGE. 12. Apprehension vs. Comprehension—A Dual Knowledge Theory. 13. The Dialectics of Apprehension and Comprehension. 14. The Dialectics of apprehension and Comprehension. 15. The Structure of Social Knowledge: World Hypotheses Based on Comprehension. 16. Contextualism and Organicism: The Synthetic World Hypotheses Based on Apprehension. 17. Social Knowledge as Living Systems of Inquiry—The Relation Between the Structure of Knowledge and Fields of Inquiry and Endeavor. VI. THE EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT. 18. Learning and Development as Transactions. 19. Between Person and Environment. 20. Differentiation and Integration in Development. 21. Unilinear vs. Multilinear Development. 22. The Experiential Learning Theory of Development. 23. Consciousness, Learning, and Development. VII. LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION. 24. Specialized Development and the Process of Accentuation. 25. Undergraduate Student Development in a Technological University. 26. Professional Education and Career Adaptation. 27. a Comparative Study of Professional Education in Social Work and Engineering. 28. Managing the Learning Process. 29. Implications for Higher Education. VIII. LIFELONG LEARNING AND INTEGRATIVE DEVELOPMENT. 30. Adaptive Flexibility and Integrative Development. 31. On Integrity and Integrative Knowledge.