Experiential Learning and Reflection Vocabulary

Key vocabulary terms, theoretical frameworks, and concepts from the experiential learning and reflection lecture notes.

Room to Reflect

A pre-seminar self-paced lesson created by the author which posits that experience alone does not result in learning, and that reflection is required to make meaning from raw experience.

Experiential Learning Model

A framework for learning consisting of five key stages: experiencing, sharing, processing, generalizing, and applying.

Reflection (Rodgers, 2002)

Drawing on John Dewey, the process of making meaning by identifying relationships and continuities within an experience, between different experiences, and between experience and existing knowledge.

Zones of Comfort

A framework illustrating that challenge levels reside within the learner rather than the activity itself, meaning an activity can place different individuals in comfort, stretch, or exhaustion zones.

5-4-3-2-1 Sensory Meditation

A student facilitation exercise led by the author at the river, inviting participants to focus on their senses to demonstrate how facilitators set conditions while learners construct individual meaning.

Ritualized Reflection

A phenomenon warned against by Boud and Walker (1998) where reflection lacks genuine depth because learners merely go through expected motions or deliver answers they believe are expected.

Reflective Journaling

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

Container

The surrounding environment steward by a facilitator—encompassing the social group, physical setting, challenge level, psychological safety, and space—that enables learners to construct their own meaning.

Hartmann et al. (2023)

Researchers cited for emphasizing the role of reflection in connecting separate experiences and allowing learning to carry forward rather than remaining isolated within a single moment.

Learning Transfer

The process of applying insights, feedback, and reflective evaluations gained from one experience to subsequent contexts, designs, or actions.