Didactic and Experiential Approaches to Teaching and Learning

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Didactic and Experiential Approaches to Teaching
and Learning
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• Opposing styles of teaching and learning
• An opposition in educational debate since
  Socrates (469 399 BC) and Plato (427 - 347 BC)
• Didactic (traditional, formal)
• Experiential (progressive, child centred,
  informal, discovery)

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Defining the Didactic Approach

• Man can only become man by education. He is
  merely what education makes of him. It is
  noticeable that man is only educated by man
  that is, by men who have themselves been
  educated (Kant, 19606).
• Assumes there is a body of knowledge that must be
  taught
• Timelessness of knowledge
• Founded on the belief that there is a universal
  methodology
• Knowledge can be effectively transmitted from one
  person to another

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Cont.

• Academic Characteristics
• Transfer of knowledge
• Structured system of instruction
• Observable learning outcomes
• Technical strategies
• Formal lecturing
• Rote learning
• Repetition
• Examination

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Defining the Experiential Approach

• Learner at the centre of educational process
• Emphasis on active participation
• Emphasis on enjoyment of discovery and he moment
  of recognition
• Emphasis on the present

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Experiential Methods in Practice

• The aim of teaching should not be to possess or
  project ourselves upon the younger generation,
  nor to teach them dogma, but rather to seek to
  set them free so that they in very truth
  create themselves and their opinions and, in time
  to come, shape their own future and that of the
  world which will belong no longer to us, but to
  them. (Russell, 198137).
• Focus on-
• Independence
• Freedom
• Individuals natural ability and natural
  attributes
• Empowering the learner
• Individual needs, learning styles, natural
  dispositions, natural attributes

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Argument for the Didactic Approach

• Subject/knowledge based (experts in field)
• Measurable outcomes
• Behaviour management (teacher in control e.g.
  science lessons)
• Equity in learning
• not only the children of the rich or the
  powerful only, but all alike, boys and girls,
  both noble and ignoble, rich and poor, in all
  cities and towns, villages and hamlets should be
  sent to school. (Comenius, 191066).
• Efficiency
• one master may teach hundreds of pupils at the
  same time, with ten times as little trouble as is
  now expended on the teaching of one. (Comenius,
  191082).

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Arguments Against the Didactic Approach

• Individual expected to fit the correct
  universal methodology
• Education is imposed on the learner by an
  external authority
• The traditional scheme is, in essence, one of
  imposition from above and from outside. It
  imposes adult standards, subject matter, and
  methods upon those who are only growing slowly
  towards maturity. The gap is so great that the
  required subject matter, the methods of learning
  and of behaving are foreign to the existing
  capacities of the young. (Dewey, 196318-19)
• Lack of emphasis on-
• Learning styles
• Preferences
• Experiences

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Arguments for the Experiential Approach

• Freedom to develop naturally at own pace.
• Age/stage appropriate e.g. learning through play
• Play is the purest, most spiritual activity of
  man at this stage, and, at the same time, typical
  of human life as a whole of the inner hidden
  natural life in man and all things. A child that
  plays thoroughly, with self-active determination,
  perseveringly until physical fatigue forbids,
  will surely be a thorough, determined man,
  capable of self-sacrifice for the promotion of
  the welfare of himself and others. (Froebel,
  199553).
• Individual reaches full potential through
  exploration and active participation
• Focus on childs natural curiosity
• Respect for the unique value and dignity of each
  human being

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Arguments against the Experiential Approach

• Concerns over subject knowledge/content
• to resist subjects on the grounds that they are
  inconsistent with childrens views of the world
  is to confine them within their own existing
  modes of thought and deny them access to some of
  the most powerful tools for making sense of the
  world which human beings have ever devised.
  (Alexander et al. 1992 para 64).
• Neglects social/cultural importance of education
• while it is self-evident that every individual,
  to an extent, constructs his/her own meanings,
  education is an encounter between these personal
  understandings and the public knowledge embodied
  in our cultural traditions. The teachers key
  responsibility is to mediate such encounters so
  the childs understanding is enriched.
  (Alexander et al. 1992para 64)

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Didactic and Experiential ApproachesPoints to
think about

• We all have preferred approaches and style (of
  teaching and learning)
• In practice it is usual for a combination of
  approaches to be used.
• It is essential then to think about some of the
  implications, benefits and limitations of each
  approach
• Status of the teacher / status of the
  pupil/student
• Teacher/student relation
• Effectiveness/usefulness of each approach
• Limitations of each approach
• Issues that affect/dictate the approach used
  (e.g. environment/teaching space, subject being
  taught, objectives of lesson)

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Questions for Discussion

• Drawing on your own experiences think of examples
  of the didactic and experiential approaches in
  action.
• Discuss the advantages and disadvantages,
  strengths and weaknesses of the approaches you
  experienced.