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Akademické centrum osobnostního rozvoje, Ústav pedagogických věd
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Why Reflect in the Process of Learning (with particular reference to experiential learning)?
Jenny Moon, Centre for Excellence in Media Production, Bournemouth University, UK
Jenny@Cemp.ac.uk
Resources:
 2004 A Handbook of Reflective and Experiential Learning
 2006 Learning Journals, a handbook for reflective practice and professional development
 2008 Critical Thinking, an exploration in theory and practice
 All published by Routledge. London
 Other publications are listed at www.cemp.ac.uk/people/jennymoon.php
What I am going to cover in order to answer my question.
 Some initial points (the implication of constructed terms; learning and the representation of learning).
 How I see learning
 How I see reflective learning (my definition, reflective learning as learning; learning from reflection).
 Experiential learning (how it relates to learning and mediation).
 How reflective learning might relate to experiential learning and vice versa.
 Why reflect in the process of learning from experience
 A comment about helping students to improve their capacity to reflect.
 An addendum!
Some initial points
Reflective learning, experiential learning and learning and ‘experience’ are constructed terms. We, as teachers
or relatively sophisticated thinkers, can deal with the idea that these terms are constructed, but younger
learners cannot understand why there can be several theories to account for one phenomenon or different
definitions for the same idea. For example, here are three comments that imply views of experiential learning:
 ‘The insight gained through the conscious or unconscious internalization of our own or observed
experiences which build upon our past experiences or knowledge’ (Beard and Wilson, 2002:16);
 ‘The contrast between non-experiential and experiential learning is one between more and less
abstract and more and less linguistic sets of symbols that are employed in the transactions in which
learning takes place….’ (Tumin, 1976: 41);
 ‘….experiential learning means that learning that occurs when changes in judgments, feelings or
skills result for a particular person from living through an event or events’ (Chickering,1976:63)
Can we really see how they are all comments about the same activity? We should be particularly careful in
how we discuss these terms with less sophisticated learners. In terms of this lecture, lecture, I need to be clear
that I talk about the definitions I use for generic learning (learning processes in general) and the more specific
reflective learning and experiential learning. Obviously in the short time of a lecture I can only skim over the
ways in which I researched ideas in order to build my definitions. The 2004 book contains the reasoning.
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Another idea that I want to put forward at this stage is that when we talk of learning, we usually imply two
processes – learning and the representation of learning. If I am learning from a book, looking at me, you
would not know if I am learning anything or not. It is not until I talk about my learning, write about it, draw
pictures to represent it, do a dance or in some way enact my learning (etc)…that you could know that I have
learnt anything. Learning happens in our heads. The further representation of it is an important process. We
assess students on the basis of the representation of their learning. I may be excellent as a learner but poor in
a particular form of representation. A dyslexic student may be very able as a learner, but very poor at writing,
though better at talking etc. A point I will make here is that we learn from the process of representation of our
learning. Furthermore representation of learning provides us with a form of feedback. Response to feedback
is another opportunity for learning. The roles of representation of learning and dealing with feedback are
particularly important for reflective and experiential learning.
How I see the process of learning
I draw particularly on the book by Marton and Booth, 1997.
I have always been surprised that most other writers do not relate experiential and reflective learning to the
learning process in general. I make sense of them in that context. You will see that I think that the idea of
experiential learning involves some reflective learning and reflective learning involves learning from experience
and both are elements in meaningful learning. They overlap.
I start by being clear that learning and teaching are different. Learning was and sometimes still is seen only as
what someone is taught (ie in terms of teaching). Partly because of that we do not always have appropriate
vocabulary around it. To talk about learning and teaching processes, I developed words material of teaching
and material of learning to describe what is taught and what is learnt. Apart from providing useful vocabulary,
they enable us to be clear that even in a taught situation, what is taught is not necessarily the same as what is
learnt. A learner engages in the learning process. The teacher may enable or facilitate that learning in various
ways but of course learning can happen despite teaching. I use the word mediation of learning to imply any
support processes for learning, one of which might be formal teaching. I come back to this.
I use an example of students learning about a specific flower in order to illustrate how I see learning. With
respect to this process, there are two more concepts to introduce
(derived from Marton and Booth, 1997). Relating these definitions to the flower, external experience is the
learner’s perceived features of the flower as sensed and as noticed. The learner cannot focus on everything
about the flower at the same time and the student artist might notice colour, the student florist, the structure
of the flower in relation to others, the botanist, the structure of stamens etc. The internal experience of the
flower is the prior knowledge and prior experience of that flower which will relate to these disciplines, will
relate it to plants that are like it, plants in general, any emotional connotations of this plant (perhaps the scent
reminds the learner of a wonderful moment), the colour reminds her of a dress etc. Prior experience can be
derived from material of teaching, knowledge derived from print, television, direct experiences etc. ‘Cognitive
structure’ is a term that means more or less the same as internal experience and below I use both terms.
In these terms, and put simply, learning, then, is the process in which the external experience is assimilated
(taken in) and the internal experience is brought to bear in the process of accommodation of prior ideas to new
ideas, associations etc. In the accommodation process, there are several possibilities for the cognitive
structure. With respect to that flower:
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 what the learner knows is unchanged (nothing new is learnt but ideas may be confirmed)
 new ideas may be added (eg a new observation is made)
 or the cognitive structure may be modified because the new knowledge conflicts with prior
knowledge.
When cognitive structure is modified or added to, there is change or development of knowledge of the flower
and what was external experience now become integrated as part of the internal experience/cognitive
structure which will be brought to bear when the learner looks at other flowers etc.
So far, I talk of internal and external experience as if they are separated. I suggest that in what we might call
meaningful learning, the internal experience of the flower – the prior knowledge of it, feelings about it, related
experiences of flowers etc - guides the processes of accommodation so we do not perceive the external
experience of the flower like a photograph presented but we intelligently focus on what it is that interests us,
or what is new or significant at this event of learning depending on our discipline etc. So I can now say that we
construe the external experience of the flower according to the composition of our internal experience.
Reflection and learning
Since this lecture is partially about reflection, I need to consider how reflection relates to learning before I
continue expanding on learning and learning from experience. In the space of time available, I cannot justify
my definition of reflection but this is covered in Moon (1999, 2004). The definition I use was partly developed
in my 1999 book:
Reflection is a form of mental processing, like a form of thinking that we may use to fulfill a purpose or
to achieve some anticipated outcome. Alternatively we may simply ‘be reflective’, and then an
outcome can be unexpected. The term ‘reflection’ is applied to relatively complex ideas for which
there is not an obvious solution and it largely refers to the further processing of new ill-structured
knowledge and/or understanding that we already possess.
I realised that this general definition did not seem to accord well with the use of reflection in academic
situations - where students are required to reflect and may be told what it is that they should reflect on, so I
added the following:
In academic contexts the notion of reflection has been developed as a tool to support learning. It is
likely to involve a conscious and stated purpose for the reflection with an outcome that is specified in
terms of learning, action or clarification. The academic reflection may be preceded by a description of
the purpose and / or the subject matter of the reflection. The process and outcome of the reflective
work is likely to be in a represented (eg written) form and to be seen by others and to be assessed.
These factors can affect its nature and quality.
I give you the following quotation from fiction because I think it provides an excellent metaphor for reflection and
accords nicely with my definition:
‘Harry stared at the stone basin. The contents had returned to their original silvery white state,
swirling and rippling beneath his gaze.
“What is it?” Harry asked shakily.
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Akademické centrum osobnostního rozvoje, Ústav pedagogických věd
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“This? It is called a pensieve”, said Dumbledore. “I sometimes find - and I am sure that you know the
feeling - that I simply have too many thoughts and memories crammed into my mind.”
“Er”, said Harry, who couldn’t truthfully say that he had ever felt anything of the sort.
“At these times”, said Dumbledore, indicating the stone basin, “I use the pensieve. One simply
siphons the excess thoughts from one’s mind, pours them into the basin, and examines them at one’s
leisure. It becomes easier to spot patterns and links, you understand, when they are in this form”’.
(From ‘The Goblet of Fire’, JK Rowling).
.
I call this reorganising process in reflection ‘cognitive housekeeping’.
I suggest that there are a number of ways in which we learn from reflection. I list some below:
We learn from reflection:
 in the normal process of learning where material is other than very simple (rote) learning and our
intention is for meaningful learning. We learn from reflection because it is involved in the process of
accommodation when the cognitive structure is reorganised in response to new material of learning
(external experience).
 when we re-organise our cognitive structures without the input of new material of learning (as in the
Harry Potter quotation)
 when we represent our learning (ie the content of our cognitive structure) – eg translating thoughts
into written form, etc. There is also feedback from the new form.
 we tend to reflect when the material is ill-structured (see below).
 in a number of ways the process of reflection provides conditions that promote good learning. These
include the provision of intellectual space, slowing and pacing of learning, and a sense of ownership
etc.
What I consider to be the more important aspects of my work on reflective learning concern the notion that reflection
can be superficial and little more than description, or deeper and then we have the chance to deepen the quality of our
learning.
I return now to explore more about learning from experience and in particular the role of mediation in learning.
Mediation and learning from experience
From what I have written about learning processes, I can say that all learning is learning from experience
because we learn from our experience of the external world on the basis of the current experience of our
internal world of experience. As an aside I would see rote learning as learning from external experience, but
with much less involvement of our internal experience. We just learn the material and add it to what we know
without much modification.
So returning to ‘learning from experience’ – all learning is learning from experience. However, from the
amount written about it and from the promotion of experiential learning as a ‘good and efficient method of
learning’, we are led to assume that there is something more to it. I make sense of it in this way. The usual
meaning of experiential learning in education is that learners directly engage and are actively involved with the
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physical material of learning (eg the flower itself) in the relevant context of that topic (eg in the field or garden)
and there is relatively little mediation. Educational experiential learning has quite a specific meaning and I
designate it ‘experiential learning’ and from now on it is on this meaning that I will focus.
To explore ‘experiential learning’ further I need to consider what we mean by mediation. Going back to the
learning about the flower, the roles of the teacher in mediating another’s learning process may be any of the
following.
 In advance of the experience of the flower, the teacher may have described the flower to learners and
pointed out special features, helping learners to clarify their internal experience so that they can more
easily accommodate their prior experience to the experience of the flower itself.
 She may have given learners guided reading in preparation for seeing the actual flower.
 She may have related the flower to similar flowers.
 She may have shown them a film, given them pictures in a book or lecture on the flower when she
may have relied on their imaginations to provide a basis for her descriptions. She might ask learners
to look up the flower on the Google. One learner may have already done this without the teacher’s
guidance…..
(Just to complicate the notion of mediation, is the fact that a teacher may have stood in front of a learner
relating the flower to similar flowers, but the learner may have been thinking of his date last night….) Teaching
and learning are different!
These (above) are all ways of supporting the development of the learner’s internal experience through
mediation which in turn will facilitate the appropriate learning from external experience. However which of
these could count as ‘experiential learning’? There is no right answer. Whether the learner touches a flower or
looks at a flower on a video, whether she does or does not actually see the real flower, she has learnt from
having an experience and we cannot say that the level of mediation is going to distinguish one sort of learning
from another. All learning relies on the translation of perceptions gained in having external experience, into
nerve impulses.
The connotations of ‘experiential learning’ as an educational experience
‘Experiential learning’ is not straight forward. This is evident in the discussion of mediation. So the best I can
do to provide an identity to it here - in brief is to collect the various connotations implied in discussions of the
educational interpreted version of ‘experiential learning’. This list of connotations are derived from a review of
the literature in Moon, 2004.
 ‘Experiential learning’ has a connotation of ‘goodness’ about it. It is meant to be more substantial
learning. It might be, but not necessarily
 Generally speaking ‘experiential learning’ implies learning outside the classroom with less direct
mediation. In a classroom, ideas tend to be organised, and separated from what I will call ‘background
noise’ – or figure from ground (again a term from Marton’s writing). In contrast, material of learning
in real situations is more likely to be ill structured (King and Kitchener, 1992) – ie ‘messy’ material of
learning, not simplified to make learning easier.
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 The learner needs to direct her attention herself and distinguish what she needs to know from
irrelevant learning (again, herself – operating a distinction of figure from ground). She has to be more
autonomous.
 Learning by doing tends to be associated with ‘experiential learning’
 Usually the learner has to translate her observations into language in reports or the writing of
assignments. This is another form of learning – from the representation of learning.
 Learning from direct experience can take more effort than sitting in a classroom. We possibly learn
more when we make effort.
 Reflection is involved.
A number of these connotations are linked and to continue this lecture, I will return to a number of them and
then come round to the last – reflective learning – that relates to a number of the other connotations. The next
few paragraphs generally suggest how ‘experiential learning’ may be seen as a ‘good’ way of learning (see the
first connotation).
To function well in the real world outside the classroom, learners need to learn to deal with ill structured
knowledge in an autonomous (ie relatively unmediated) manner. It is important for the development of the
learner’s understanding of knowledge (epistemological development), and her ability to evolve into
sophisticated thinker who can make independent judgements as a professional person.
In the list of connotations, there are two references to learning from the representation of learning. The first is
in the connotation that the learner tends to be actively engaged (doing) in the learning situation and the
second is that she is likely to have to talk about or write about her learning. I have described already how
learning from the representation of learning – translating internal understanding to a format for
communication is an important source of learning. And associated with this is the enablement of feedback
either to one’s self or from another. As an example of the learning from the representation of learning, I return
to the flower. Learners are asked to dissect a flower and write an account of what they see:
 In doing the dissection, they will be getting a form of feedback from the success and failure of their
knowledge, revising some ideas, confirming others.
 They have to transform the knowledge – which may be quite disorganised - into a written form. They
will learn more from the process of reorganising those ideas.
 They will potentially get feedback from the account that they have written – have they missed
something, used the wrong term, not been sufficiently clear.
 etc
Reflection in experiential learning
So now I come back to the title of this lecture and consider why reflection is necessary in the processes of
educational ‘experiential learning’. I think that by now you will be seeing that there are many ways in which I
would say that reflection is involved in experiential learning. I return to the list of ways in which I suggested we
learn from reflective learning. We learn from reflection:
 in the normal process of learning where material is other than very simple (rote) learning and our
intention is for meaningful learning. We learn from reflection because it is involved in the process of
e-mail: acor@acor.cz
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accommodation when the cognitive structure is reorganised in response to new material of learning
(external experience).
 when we re-organise our cognitive structures without the input of new material of learning (as in the
Harry Potter quotation)
 when we represent our learning (ie the content of our cognitive structure) – eg translating thoughts
into written form, etc. There is also feedback from the new form.
 we tend to reflect when the material is ill-structured.
 in a number of ways the process of reflection provides conditions that promote good learning. These
include the provision of intellectual space, slowing and pacing of learning, and a sense of ownership
etc.
 And I said that deep reflection enables us to deepen our learning.
I can now suggest how reflection is involved in ‘experiential learning’ – and indeed, is essential if there is to be a
reasonable quality of learning.
 Almost by definition, the material of learning of ‘experiential learning’ is ill-structured;
 In deliberate situations of ‘experiential learning’, there will be the intention by the learner for
meaningful learning. This involves reflection not only in terms of enhancement of the conditions for
good learning but in particular, reflection allows us to deepen the quality of that learning through
reviewing how the new learning relates to what we know already and the ‘cognitive housekeeping’
mechanism of thinking it through again (without new external experience).
 I have said that direct mediation is relatively lessened in ‘experiential learning’ and this puts more
reliance on the learner to make sense of the situation using reflection.
 I have associated practices of learning ‘by doing’, the practices of writing or talking about the learning
achieved and the availability of feedback with ‘experiential learning’. All these involve learning from
the representation of learning and this involves reflection.
So I would say that reflection is an essential element of ‘experiential learning’ in the educational context where the
intention is for meaningful learning. That process of learning is enhanced when we are asked to represent that learning
in writing or speech or another form. An example of such representation might be a learning journal, the giving of
presentations or the writing of one-off reflective pieces.
A pedagogical issue - helping learners to learn to reflect
When we ask learners to write reflectively two things usually happen:
Some learners have no idea what we mean by reflective learning. (This applies also to some teachers)
Most learners will write very superficially and as a consequence will tend to learn little.
I use a structured exercise – called a graduated scenario to get over these problems. The exercise involves
learners in reading short pieces which represent someone reflecting on an event. There are four versions of
the same piece written at four increasing depths of reflection. In essence participants see examples of
reflective writing at increasing depths and they have a chance to discuss and share their learning of what
changes between superficial descriptive reflection and deep reflection. The exercise is based on a well
researched framework that they ‘take home’. The framework can guide their subsequent reflective writing.
The self instruction version of this exercise will be available to you electronically (or e-mail me if it is not!).
e-mail: acor@acor.cz
web: www.acor.cz
Akademické centrum osobnostního rozvoje, Ústav pedagogických věd
Filozofická fakulta Masarykovy univerzity, Arna Nováka 1, 602 00 Brno
An addendum: Mirror Neurones
I want to mention one thing that I encountered towards the end of my writing of my book on the use of story in
higher education (2010). As a concept, it needs to enter the world of education theory and it has direct
relevance to experiential learning and reflection. It gives an important role to processes of imagination. The
material concerns fairly recent discoveries of ‘mirror neurones’ in the human brain. I came across this in a
reference in New Scientist (Slack, 2007) and in Mar and Oatley, 2008. Mirror neurones fire when the subject
observes an action and again when she enacts it. This immediately seems to be an explanation for why
yawning seems to be ‘infectious’! But as I have thought further about it. Without going into the physiology I
speculate that mirror neurone systems may hold the key to the manner in which we learn from them though
vicarious experiencing when listening to story or a lecture or when watching someone do something. It may
have implications for the notion of ‘engagement’ in a story or lecture or for the value of observing others doing
something. A general introduction to this material is in Rizzolatti, Fabbri-Destro and Cattaneo (2009) and an
overview is found in Wikipedia.