The Importance of Experience in My Learning and Teaching

Let us first ask ourselves this question, "what is 'experience'?" or "what do we understand by the word 'experience'?"

Experience could mean a lot of things. It could mean; the know-how, familiarity, practice or skill. It may also mean; the occurrence, incident, encounters happening, event and so on and so forth. It could also mean; feel, go through, live through, be subjected to, come across etc, etc. So when we talk about experience, which type of experience are we referring to? That doesn’t matter because they inform each other. You have to be subjected to or live through a certain event or occurrence in order for you to be able to get the know-how or skill or feel of it. You have to be allowed to feel things in order to become familiar with them.

Having been subjected to the traditional kind of learning and teaching, my experience has led me to somehow teach in the same way. The teacher has to be at the core of learning and teaching and the students have to listen and absorb knowledge from the teacher. Personally, I am a traditionalist with a bit of the progressive teacher too. I decide what my students learn most of the time and I tend to tell them what to do. Those who do what I tell them to do are rewarded with marks. This happens a lot in both the English language class and the literature in English Class and it has produced results most of the time.  But I find that they learn better if allowed to, for instance, suggest topics they wish to focus on. They get so engrossed in finding the information working in groups and it is amazing how much they can come up with. Take for instance Topics for debate, report writing, story- telling, acting or reciting poetry or reconstructing scenes in plays and novels or even relating the plays and novels to real life experiences. There are hurdles however and these include;
·       limited time for activities
·       rigid curriculum
·       competition
·       big numbers
·       lack of conducive environment
·       lack of administrative support
to mention but a few.
The reason I use the progressive approach is that;
·       it gets the students to experience what they are studying and they learn  a lot better.
·       it takes away the boredom the students may feel in certain topics.
·       gives them chance to share quality ideas hence foster learning.
·       gives them chance to satisfy their curiosity.
·       learners are actively involved in the learning process.
·       promotes collaboration while minimizing competition amongst the learners.
·       keeps them excited and interested.
·       allows them to relate what they are learning to real life experiences
I wish to learn more of the progressive approaches because the little experience I have had with it has shown that the teacher does not have to shoulder the heavy weight. The teaching is made easier and more fun.
What we experience in life becomes the spring board for our knowledge and learning. When we are allowed to go through something, we learn from it and therefore acquire knowledge. We learn better when we are allowed to feel, to practice, to live through or to familiarize ourselves with certain situations, events occurrences etc. Every experience is a reference for learning.