The Instructor’s Toolbox: A Meaning-Centered Framework for the Social Construction of Experiential Learning

Abstract

A meaning-centered view of learning transactions suggests that a course can be viewed as a socially constructed conversation that spans several class meetings. When viewed from this perspective, the choices presented in an experiential toolbox to a skilled instructor take into account different kinds of communication goals associated with various experiential learning tools. Some tools serve the purpose of building or reinforcing content, other tools enhance how individual interactants (e.g., the instructor-carpenter and the student-materials) relate to each other, and still others may gauge how various aspects of the conversation are going.