An experiential learning program to meet teachers' needs as a model of appropriate membership and leadership roles in discussion is described. The use of imagery and its influence on the methodology of the program are described, and evidence from teacher transcripts is discussed. It is concluded that effective discussion is the external evidence of having learned to communicate with others in a group and that the use of imagery is an indicator of discussion at its deepest level of communication.
ABSTRACTThis paper addresses the important relationship between production and operations management (POM) and information technology. An approach to POM education is presented in which information technology is used to create an experiential learning environment that integrates the topics taught in POM courses. Results of an implementation of the proposed approach are presented and implications are discussed for POM education.
AbstractThe theme of learning from experience as a means of improving the effectiveness of rural development projects and programmers has been common in recent years. Considerable effort has been put into refining, monitoring and evaluation systems to enhance organizational learning processes. However, an emphasis on normative approaches to evaluation and learning from experience has led to the neglect of research into the actual processes by which rural development agencies utilize experience. The case study presented here points to the shortcomings of such approaches and illustrates the partisan manner in which individuals and organizations treat the lessons of experience. Actively 'not learning from experience' is as much a part of organizational processes as learning from experience. This paper examines the implications of this finding and reviews alternative approaches to improving experiential learning in rural development activities. It is found that such a perspective does not generate the innocuous technical prescriptions characteristic of conventional approaches, but a number of useful directions for further research can be identified.
Competence has been defined as "the ability to meet or surpass prevailing standards of adequacy for a particular activity" (Butler, 1978 p.7). The authors describe in this article a framework for competency-based training, focused on the importance of training the public personnelist responsible for implementing staff development programs. Kolb's (1984) experiential learning model is suggested as a vehicle for instilling competencies which overcomes difficulties with many traditional, single modality approaches to training. The implications for public sector training programs are discussed.
AbstractCommodity paper trading games are widely used to give students experience in trading. One weakness of these games is that there are no monetary and only minor emotional consequences resulting from the students' trades. To simulate actual trading more realistically, a Student Commodity Pool (SCP) was organized at Kansas State University. Twenty‐nine students contributed $100 each to a pool account, formed groups to research and present trade recommendations and then traded actual futures and options contracts. As an experiential learning method, most students gave the class high marks. Other instructors may be able to establish SCPs with approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The Role of Management Development in Public Service Modernisation. The eighties saw the development of certain dominant models of management, where the emphasis was on tightening up control systems and forcing through cost reduction programmes. Public management for the 1990's needs to go beyond the mechanistic model of "management by direction" and develop "management by design" as the dominant learning model. Designing the circumstances under which personal initiative and talent can flourish to produce a high level of performance, is the challenge now facing public management. Taking personal responsibility for the performance of the organisation raises a number of problematic issues such as leadership, cultural change, legitimacy of the pro-active public manager, and the significance of experiential learning in transformational management development.
