Thoughts on: A Handbook Of Refelctive And Experiental Learning - J. A. Moon

If you want to read the book but have not got your hands on it yet, this is a summary of my thoughts and collection of knowledge on it so far.

-All learning is based on experience --> All learning is therefore 'experiental learning', the book is more about consious learning.

-Want to explore the use of Reflective Writing for my own essay/artifact (maybe interviews)

Human minds 1992 - Margaret Donaldson --> inspiration
Marton and booth 1997
Baxter Magolda 1992

Quotes:
-To deal properly with a topic requires focus and boundaries or the discussion will be woolly.
It is not always easy to see ideas are missing if the words are not present. We relay on words and ideas as tools of investigation and if we do not have them, the investigation process is distorted.
-It is not possible to assume that, when confronted with any particular methods of instruction, all learners react by learning in the same manner.
-Process of learning is not about the accumulation of material of learning, but about the process of changing conceptions. Given that learning usually implies that a person becomes progressively wiser and better at learning and understanding, a better phrase might be 'transforming conceptions'.
-Meaningfulness is a judgement to be made by the learner in the context of the sense of her cognitive structure. --> many different interpretations but it is an individual judgement.
-With each change may come new learning that, in turn, will have an impact on the state of the cognitive structure, perhaps challending again the initial major change.
-We do not build meanings alone, but in conjuction with the collected experiences of others who may be teachers or scholars, or peers, past or present and all embedded in a culture of learning that is also socially agreed. p20

We're missing words in the vocab of learning; How do you define the material you're learning? And the material you're teaching? These things are not always the same.

Difference between skill and knowledge:
'To learn something can mean to come to know or to have knowledge or it can mean that a person is able to do something. Sometimes this is clarified as 'knowing that' and 'knowing how'. Skill is a form of the representation of learning and it is the ability to do something that has been learnt. '
Different types of skills:
-cognitive
-presentation
-physical/practical
-study

Ways learning is affected by its social context:
-The manner in which understandings have been contructed in past social situations.
-The toold used in order to develop those understandings (e.g. language)
-The conventions associated with the knowledge
-The manner in which learning is expressed
-The manner in which there is learning from the representation of learning

Understandings of learnings: p38
Absolutist - knowledge is certain or absolute
Transitional stage - there is partial certainty and partial uncertainty
Independent knowing - learning is uncertain, everyoine has her own beliefs
contextual knowing - knowledge is contructed and any judgement must be made on the basis of the evidence in that context.

External experience: the material of learning when we are learning about something outside of ourselves. it is the object, idea, the concept, the image -whatever it  is that the leraner wants to assimilate.
The internal experience: the experience that the learner brings to the learning situation from her current cognitive structure. It is the sum of prior experiences of the object. It is what she sees as related ideas with the effects other understanding of the nature of knowledge, relevant emotional influence and the influence of how she sees the learning task.
Appresentation: the manner in which a part of something that is percieved as an external experience can stimulate a much more complete or richer internal experience of the 'whole' of that thing to be conjured up.
epistemological:relating to the theory of knowledge, especially with regard to its methods, validity, and scope, and the distinction between justified belief and opinion.
Ill-structured broblems: have no right or wrong ansqwer, but require resoning and personal judgement. Ethical issues provide a good example.