Challenging Factors In The Practices Of Experiential Learning For Students’ Professional Development At Higher Education

Abstract

Learning is nurtured by the occurrence of experiences that enables the students to create new knowledge and apply it in new settings with the help of experiential learning. In the light of Kolb’s experiential learning model (ELM), both teachers and students may avail a mechanism that enables them to nurture their experiences and overcome challenges. Learning develops through active participation and involvement in educational settings until a practicable learning environment would be provided. This exploratory single case-study endows the researcher to explore the vantages of faculty members about hindering facets in the practices of experiential learning for professional development of students at university premises. The semi-structured interviews consisted of 45-60 minutes duration were conducted from five participants who were teachers with relevant expertise in the field of education and were selected through purposive sampling technique. The interview protocol was prepared by the researchers and finalized after getting validated by five experts in the relevant field of interest. Trustworthiness (dependability) was considered in terms of ensuring reliability among instrumentation and analysis procedures of the research. The intensive data were analyzed through the coding and categorization process. Emergent themes of the study were: need of conducive environment, promote creative thinking, need of self-assessment, lack of communication, lack of research exposure, and discouraging attitudes. The study may be helpful for the students of higher education levels to keep experiential learning as their prior goal of education and utilize it in improving the essential skills needed for professionalism. This research may also be beneficial for the teachers in developing such activities and strategies in which the incorporation of experiential learning might be possible.