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Power up Your Professional Development with Experiential Learning

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Kirsten Holt, founder of Creativity Sown, talks about experiential learning in teacher development. In this episode, Kirsten shares practical tips for getting started and highlights the value of building a community to exchange ideas and support growth.


Key talking points

What is experiential learning?

Kirsten explains that experiential learning involves applying knowledge in a practical setting (e.g., a classroom), followed by reflection and adjustment. This process helps teachers improve their teaching methods by learning from both successes and mistakes.

Iterative Process of Learning

Teachers are encouraged to try new activities, reflect on their outcomes, and make adjustments. This cycle of testing, analysing, and repeating leads to deeper learning and continuous professional development.

Collaborative and Reflective Practice

Experiential learning thrives in a collaborative environment where teachers share ideas, reflect on their experiences, and help each other improve. It helps foster a positive, engaging staff room culture or even an online community for solo practitioners.

Practical Applications and Resources:

Kirsten highlights how experiential learning can be applied to new technologies, such as AI, by experimenting with different teaching tools and approaches. She also gives the example of Creativity Sown, where teachers can exchange ideas and receive feedback.



References & Resources

Follow Kirsten on socials for more inspiring content.


Watch the video with closed captions or refer to the transcript below.

Transcript

00:00:00:04 - 00:00:11:09

Laura

TESOL pop season ten, episode three. Hello and welcome to TESOL Pop, the mini podcast busy teachers. My name is Laura and joining me today is founder of Creativity Sown

00:00:11:11 - 00:00:15:10

Laura

Kirsten Holt. In this episode, we talk about experiential learning and how it

00:00:15:10 - 00:00:22:10

Laura

can power your professional development. Let's join the conversation where I ask Kirsten to explain what experiential learning is.

00:00:22:12 - 00:00:48:04

Kirsten

Experiential learning is a really interesting area of CPD professional development. It's basically our deep dive into learning and looking at it from a practical point of view, rather than just the theoretical and easiest way to explain it is giving you an example. Say you've heard a great activity from one of your fellow teachers. Or indeed you thought of experiential learning and you think, what are what is that?

00:00:48:04 - 00:01:09:15

Kirsten

What am I going to do with it? The first step is to actually take that idea and try it out in the classroom. So you experience the activity you actually do it, perform it, and afterwards you then reflect on what went well and what didn't. And in this point, honestly, it doesn't matter if it went completely wrong. It’s your learning what happened.

00:01:09:15 - 00:01:29:15

Kirsten

What did you do from that that makes you think, oh, I need to do it differently next time. You then process it. You can discuss it with colleagues, you can reflect on your own, and then you try it again. You try it either with the same class a few weeks later. Don't do it side by side straight away, but try it again and then the class and see how it works better.

00:01:29:15 - 00:01:48:02

Kirsten

You might have changed the way you've using your rubrics. For example, you might your instructions to the class. You might have changed it. Try it again and then you begin to roll it out to more classes, different levels. You might have tried it with an intermediate class first, and now you're trying it with, upper or intermediate class or an elementary class.

00:01:48:04 - 00:02:20:04

Kirsten

Assess it and you keep going round. There's a really interesting model that we've got on the website where people can see how it works in practice. So basically activating knowledge, developing expertise, pushing through your comfort zone. Don't always try and do the same thing over and over again. You're familiar. It's putting you into something that you're, uncomfortable with doing just to see if it works in the classroom and then weigh up whether it is something you want to do again in your context or you want to share with other teachers, try in their context.

00:02:20:04 - 00:02:22:12

Kirsten

So that's it in a nutshell.

00:02:22:14 - 00:02:40:14

Laura

That's brilliant. And I think that's so relatable for the teachers that are listening. They probably take their learners through that journey regularly as they're developing skills as well. And what really resonated with me when you're describing this process is that it's okay for it not to go well, and not to be hard on yourself if you're trying something for the first time.

00:02:40:20 - 00:02:58:20

Laura

I think as teachers, we don't always give ourselves that slack. I'm thinking, perhaps of my own practice and trainers, teacher trainees I've worked with where they often make a beeline for, like, oh, this didn't go well, and I should have done this, and I did this wrong. And that can be quite off putting for them to even try it again.

00:02:58:20 - 00:03:02:02

Laura

Do you find that a similar kind of conversation you have?

00:03:02:03 - 00:03:21:24

Kirsten

Oh, 100%, absolutely. And I think actually you learn more from your mistakes and you do for if it goes well, because you can always think afterwards, it's the analysing afterwards of what went right and then what didn't you think, well what is it that I did? Did I put my instructions in the right way? Okay. What do I need to do?

00:03:21:24 - 00:03:45:23

Kirsten

Do I need to refine them better? And you build on that knowledge through your practice. So it becomes a lot more ingrained. And it's something you end up doing is second nature. So it's a really effective way to take it forwards. I've always found it such an interesting area because, I did a kitchen, refit in my house not so long ago, and I had, big cupboard.

00:03:45:23 - 00:04:10:10

Kirsten

And in the cupboard was all these papers from IATEFL and from, lots of conferences and all the notes I take. And this was back in the day before we went onto computers and our phone and making notes. But anyway, play a huge pile of papers and I, like, brushed the dust off it, you know, and until, oh crikey, I actually hadn't looked at all these very useful notes that I'd taken.

00:04:10:12 - 00:04:28:11

Kirsten

And I just put them aside as something nice to have. Experiential learning is really saying, okay, I'm going to pick one of those, and I'm going to try it straightaway in my classroom. And then you really activating the knowledge rather than leaving it sort of gathering dust in the corner and even metaphorically.

00:04:28:13 - 00:04:47:07

Laura

Yeah, yeah. That's brilliant. I just kind of, like, doesn’t have to be perfect. Just try it. Just go and put it into action. This is so wonderful that you're so passionate about experiential learning. I wonder what your story is and your experiences in using this in your own practice. Could you give us a little window into how you discovered this or fell in love, I should say, with this approach?

00:04:47:09 - 00:05:04:08

Kirsten

Well, yes, I think I fell in love with it from going back to when we were in the staffroom and we had a classroom gathering, as we called it. H was his nickname, and we used to, ask him for ideas and I say, oh, you know, I'm stuck with a particular form of grammar. Can you help me?

00:05:04:10 - 00:05:26:12

Kirsten

And H would come out with, well you could try this and try that and then so. Well that's nice. That is taking his advice and applying it verbatim. But is that really helping me with my learning? And it then made me start thinking, well, okay, I need to take that and experiment with it and twist it and try and make it work for me.

00:05:26:12 - 00:05:55:07

Kirsten

Moulding it into my own practice. So that I think, was when it started from, but it's a bit like a catalyst when you start talking about experiential learning. It makes other people start thinking, even in a conversation, you're I know you're thinking about teacher training and like it is something we are doing with our students. It's just now like saying take it into the classroom or into our teaching, teacher training with, our own practices.

00:05:55:09 - 00:06:15:23

Kirsten

So links of, you are so familiar with task based learning, if you've been using it in the classroom, discovery learning is kind of. Now thank. Oh, hey, that we can see is working, and we know it's effective with our students. So why don't we try and use it in our own learning? And that's when it sort of developed.

00:06:16:00 - 00:06:46:15

Kirsten

It was really interesting. And actually I had a teacher in one of the schools I worked in who had a box in the back of his classroom and on the box, it was like different files for print media, intermediate, etc., and he would get down the same box irrespective they whether he was teaching, Italian teenagers in the summer that came for a two week course or he was teaching, Korean students, they'd come over for a year's course and he'd pick out the box and get it down and teach exactly the same thing.

00:06:46:17 - 00:07:05:19

Kirsten

And he did it year in, year out. And I was thinking, gosh, well, that's nice for you, but how boring is that? We if we push our knowledge forwards and we try and encourage people to experiment, we certainly enrich everyone's teaching. And it makes the staff room a much more positive place is good for sharing ideas and building experience.

00:07:05:19 - 00:07:22:05

Kirsten

And even if you don't have a style frame, you can try it out at home. There's, a website, sites and platforms. Facebook is great where you can start asking each other for ideas and build up your practice that way. Or indeed, we'll come on to it in my own website. We'll be having community set practice.

00:07:22:05 - 00:07:52:24

Laura

And that can change a whole kind of atmosphere, like you said, in a school or among a community of teachers. When I'm thinking about, like the new AI things and things that are kind of coming into the fray of, of teaching and how, reactionary. I've seen, some people's responses to that and fearful. But what I feel is with the creating this kind of community of practice that is leaning into experiential learning, trying new things, not being afraid to try things, not being afraid of things, going a bit messily, whether it's in our own practice or trying with our students.

00:07:53:01 - 00:08:11:05

Laura

It makes the new things that come in to the industries that the external things a little less intimidating. I feel when you're like, okay, this is something new. ChatGPT being a big example that's happened over the past two years, shall we say. I'm I'm not afraid to try it. I'm not afraid to to be a learner, be a beginner and give it a go.

00:08:11:07 - 00:08:14:14

Laura

You know what? Maybe I can do that with my students who would be beginners together.

00:08:14:16 - 00:08:37:06

Kirsten

Oh, definitely. And that's, using AI actually is really good example. Because there's so much out there. I mean, I think they said at IATEFL there's like 160,000, 100,000, apps out there at the moment. Now, obviously as one teacher, you can't do all of that. And we can't even delve into all the possibilities of ChatGPT.

00:08:37:08 - 00:08:57:20

Kirsten

But if we if I talk a little bit and I tried it in my classroom or I wanted to do it, good example. I wanted to write a paper to send off for a conference. I could put the AI my experiment of making my proposal and then using AI to break it down to the 120 words I've got to get it into.

00:08:57:22 - 00:09:29:23

Kirsten

And then, my fellow teacher could try it with writing, a lesson plan and then report back on that so we could try our own little experiments. And then together, we've ended up with a much wider practice of AI than we would have done if we just done it on our own. So it sort of does is, it does develop this real, engaged and motivating staff room where people are really sharing and, and building up their learning practice rather than doing the same old, same old, day after day.

00:09:30:00 - 00:09:38:15

Kirsten

So it's it does create a real air of positivity. So I, I do say suggest that people try it even on a small idea.

00:09:38:15 - 00:10:05:01

Laura

I love these examples that you're giving both from your own practice. What inspired you to start using experiential learning to this example here of, like, bite sized things, working together, building a new kind of understanding of something that otherwise could be quite intimidating for one teacher to take on alone. What I'd love to do before we close up today is to just, give a little, little parting gift to listeners who are thinking, gosh, I'm so inspired, but I don't know where to start with experiential learning.

00:10:05:03 - 00:10:10:15

Laura

Where can I get started and start bringing this into our practice? Where would you suggest that they begin?

00:10:10:17 - 00:10:34:23

Kirsten

So, I would first of all, have a little brainstorm session in your staff room of ideas that you want to try out. Could be anything. Let's take AI, for example. You want to show, avoiding plagiarism in the classroom and how you can use AI. So, one example is you could use get students to write an essay.

00:10:34:23 - 00:10:56:15

Kirsten

It doesn't matter if they've used ChatGPT, but afterwards quiz them on how they made their essay. What what steps did they take? What was their planning process? Get them to talk about that. Try it with your class. If, it works and you think. Right, okay, I can use that again, then run it with a different class, different level.

00:10:56:15 - 00:11:16:20

Kirsten

If you haven't got a different level, have a chat with a fellow teacher and ask them to do the same thing. Then bring your ideas back together. I would love to know how you get on. You can share your ideas, with me on my website. Also find me on LinkedIn. And we've been developing in this communities a practice where people can share their ideas.

00:11:16:20 - 00:11:35:20

Kirsten

So don't worry if you don't even have a staff room, I know some of you are working on your own out there and that's fine. You can share them with me and the community and we can build up our experiential learning practice. So, do come and find us there. And you will look forward to hearing how you get on.

00:11:35:22 - 00:11:48:15

Laura

That's brilliant. What a lovely space to create an intentional space where teachers from all different backgrounds as well, can come together to try out new things and be inspired and yeah, develop their practice as a result. What's the name of the website that teachers can find this out?

00:11:48:15 - 00:12:11:20

Kirsten

Thanks. Laura, that's, www.creativitysown.com. And I think it's really nice to mention that, I also am doing experiential learning in my own practice. I worked for a company in the past who has a slogan “Always Learning”, and I think that I've taken that forward ever since. So, I am learning with the experiential learning.

00:12:11:20 - 00:12:27:17

Kirsten

So bear with the website. As we build up, we will be adding to the practice, adding things. So feedback is always welcome because that ends me, helps me do my experiential practice in developing the website. So I look forward to seeing you there.

00:12:27:19 - 00:12:31:23

Laura

Thank you so much, Kirsten for sharing today, it's been lovely talking to you. Thank you so much for your time.

00:12:31:23 - 00:12:32:22

Kirsten

Oh, thank you as well.

00:12:32:23 - 00:12:41:02

Laura

To learn more about Kirsten's work, you can follow her on Facebook, LinkedIn, and go to her website Creativity sown, as always, I've included those links in the show notes so you can find those easily.

00:12:41:03 - 00:13:04:09

Laura

If you've got a question or an idea that you'd like to pitch to the podcast, and you can go to the website tesolpop.com.

Finally, you can support the work we do by leaving a rating, a review wherever you listen to the podcast, by sharing today's episode with your teaching community, or by even buying as a coffee, by going to ko-fi.com/tesolpop

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