Experiential Learning Vocabulary

Vocabulary terms and definitions related to experiential learning, reflection, and key frameworks from the lecture notes.

Room to Reflect

A self-paced lesson created before the seminar arguing that experience alone does not result in learning, and that reflection allows learners to make meaning and connect to existing knowledge.

Experiential Learning Model

A framework that engages learners through five stages: experiencing, sharing, processing, generalizing, and applying.

Reflection (Rodgers, 2002)

A function, drawing on John Dewey, that makes meaning by identifying relationships and continuities within an experience, between different experiences, and between experience and existing knowledge.

Experience

The raw material from which reflection creates meaning, allowing learning to carry forward rather than remaining isolated within a particular moment.

Container

The surrounding elements of an experience—including people, environment, appropriate level of challenge, facilitation, and space for reflection—that allow learners to construct meaning.

Zones of Comfort Framework

A framework demonstrating that an activity does not inherently belong to any particular zone, as the zone belongs to the learner.

5-4-3-2-1 Sensory Meditation

A facilitation exercise in which participants are invited to pay attention to their senses within a natural environment.

Ritualized Reflection

A phenomenon warned of by Boud and Walker (1998) where learners simply go through expected motions or produce responses they think they are supposed to give.

Reflective Journaling

A practice discussed by Deepa and Mansurali (2022) that shifts ownership of learning toward the learner and supports the shift from surface learning to deeper evaluation and change.

Learning Transfer

The process of using what is recognized from reflecting on past experiences to choose how to navigate future experiences.