I've Been Immersed

U T A with star in the center, used when staff photo is unavailable

by Marquell Anteola
September 16 2016

I had the opportunity to attend ACRL’s week-long Immersion Teacher Track this past July in Burlington, Vermont.  According to their website, “Teacher Track focuses on individual development for those who are interested in enhancing, refreshing, or extending their individual instruction.  Curriculum includes teaching techniques, learning theory, leadership, and assessment framed in the context of information literacy.” 

Although this was a super intense week, we had class or activities planned from 8am – 8pm, I found it so beneficial.  While I feel l have a strong understanding teaching techniques, I learned a lot about learning theory.  While we were presented with a few different theories, I felt most drawn to Kolb’s experiential learning style theory, because this uses four different learning styles as the learning travels through the four cycle.  Kolb’s definition is that “learning is a process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience.  Knowledge results from the combination of grasping experience and transforming it.”

Here is a great visual of Kolb’s learning cycle showing the different learning styles:

In the first stage, Concrete Experience, learners actively experience an activity.  Moving to Reflective Observation, learners consciously reflect on that experience.  Next is Abstract Conceptualization, where learners conceptualize what is observed.  And finally, Active Experimentation allows learners to test what he/she learned in the previous steps.  

I will be constantly thinking about Kolb's learning cycle as I plan and create the new curriculum for our library sessions for the First-Year Writing Program.  

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