UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Research shows that career and technology education instructors are using experiential learning to teach safety and health subjects in their secondary education programs.
Mark Threeton, associate professor of education (workforce education) and associate director of the Professional Development Center for Technical Education (CTE), said inherent dangers within CTE careers such as biotechnology, electromechanical engineering technology, and mechatronics technology, to name a few, can exist within the instructional processes of the related technical courses, which are offered in schools.
Experiential learning, according to Threeton’s research titled “An Investigation of Experiential Learning Strategies,” provides students with an opportunity to actively engage in the educational process through a combination of doing, feeling, watching and thinking activities while constructing new meaning and application from the learning experience.
“I have been conducting research on experiential learning practices for several years, and when implemented correctly by educators, the transfer of student learning is greatly enhanced,” Threeton said. “As a simulated educational environment for STEM-related technical fields, these educators must provide a safe learning environment while simultaneously preparing students to work safely in school, in order to transfer these skill sets to real-world applications and future careers.”
Threeton said to accomplish this, technical educators utilize certain instructional strategies, which aid in promoting the transfer of learning.
“One of these strategies is experiential education,” he said. “However, there have been few studies that actually examined these instructional strategies. A better understanding of this instructional approach could lead to enhanced teaching, learning and safety practices in schools and beyond.”
Threeton’s qualitative research revealed that experiential learning — learning by doing, hands-on learning and providing an experience to students — is being used by a majority of teachers for safety and health subjects. His three-state study — conducted via Zoom because of the COVID-19 pandemic — included 42 secondary-level CTE educators actively teaching in Colorado, Kansas and Pennsylvania.
He found that professional development opportunities should be provided to educators on the fundamentals of promoting the transfer of learning through authentic experiential learning practices, and that the study should be replicated on a larger scale within diverse STEM-related educational programs nationwide.
“A majority of the educators in this study were utilizing experiential education, which is a positive sign. However, more emphasis should be placed on the thinking, reflecting and processing elements of the model, as this is critical for students to construct new meaning and application from learning experiences,” Threeton said.
“Based on this research, I have developed experiential learning practices to better assist educators in promoting enhanced learning and skill development for their students.”
Threeton cited the four modes of Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle — 2005 research from Kolb and Kolb — as concrete experience (feeling), reflective observation (watching), abstract conceptualization (thinking) and active experimentation (doing). Threeton said examining the transfer of learning through experience is paramount to keeping students safe within school and in their future careers.