Using the Humanities and Experiential Learning to Promote Character Education

Abstract

This paper conducts an analysis of teaching the humanities by way of experiential learning, with the purpose being to facilitate character education among learners. It begins by providing an understanding of what experiential learning is and where the theory comes from. It then discusses its application in the field of humanities education and why character education and in particularly the development of virtue in learners is important. It provides evidence from research studies that have examined the role that experiential learning has in teaching and learning the humanities. It offers examples of how experiential learning can be applied in this field, and what researchers have done to test the theory of experiential learning in the building of character. Finally, it provides a conclusion regarding what educators can do to foster the development of virtue in learners by approaching the humanities by way of creative play and other methods of experiential learning.

Introduction

Experiential learning theory is based on the idea that learners acquire knowledge best when they can come to it through personal experience. Many theorists, from Dewey to Piaget to Vygotsky to Kolb, have added to this idea over the years, each one contributing to its development. This paper examines how experiential learning theory can be applied to the promotion of character education by way of the humanities. Character education is vital to the formation of virtue in learners, which is fundamental to self-actualization and moral development (Gong, 2010; Kristjansson, 2014; Lickona, 1993). Kohlberg (1963) has stated that moral development is not something that can stamped into a learner but rather is something that must be nurtured in an atmosphere that promotes its cultivation. Having exposure to the humanities is a way for learners to have such an atmosphere. However, from the standpoint of experiential learning theory, it is not enough for a learner merely to be exposed to information: the learner must be actively engaged with it so that it becomes part of the learners personal experience and facilitates the necessary food for recollection. This paper proposes that the promotion of character education can be facilitated through the process of experiential learning by having learners actively engage with the humanities (i.e., acting out dramas, participating in dialogues, and conducting critical analysis of texts).

Experiential Learning Theory

Dewey (1938) is often considered the seminal author on experiential learning due to his work entitled Experience and Education, in which he argued that knowledge contained in text books is beyond the reach of the experience that young learners already possess (p. 3). By basing education upon experience, it brings together both mature and immature minds so that there is interaction and engagement, and experience passes from one to the other. Vygotsky argued similarly in his theory of the zone of proximal development (ZPD), wherein it was posited that learners learn best when they can observe others who already have knowledge or skills and can demonstrate them in action. The young learners watch, imitate, perform and develop, much as Dewey suggested they should. Piaget also emphasized that learners develop their cognitive abilities by applying their minds to the real world around them. As Gray and Feldman (2004) have shown, the factor of creative play can help to facilitate this process.

The humanities represented a body of knowledge concerned not only with what it means to be human but also with what it means to be good. The humanities range in subject matter from philosophy, such as that of Plato and Aristotle, to the classics of literature, such as that of Shakespeare and Dostoevsky. Not only are these works informative and enlightening; they are also educative in terms of what it means to acquire virtue. Moreover, they can be engaging and offer an element of creative play that is vital to experiential learning for the young.

Combining the humanities with experiential learning can be a good way to facilitate character education, which is lacking in todays schools (Kristansson, 2014). Character education is what provides the foundation for the development and application of virtue in the real world, which Gong (2010) notes is sorely needed in any society, including a globalized one. By providing students with an opportunity to enter into a type of creative play with the humanities, educators can help them to experience these works in a manner that they become personal to the learners.

Kolb saw experiential learning as a way for learners to experiment with the ideas and knowledge they are taught; as a way for learners to have an experience directly, upon which they can reflect and from which they can grow; and as a way for learners to deepen their understanding of the knowledge they acquire by looking back and turning their experiences into knowledge that they can then build upon (i.e., scaffolding). Kolb (1984) points out that learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience (p. 38). Experience offers the learner a window onto the real world, where knowledge can be seen to have real application. Kolbs process of experiential learning consisted of concrete learning, wherein the learner is exposed to new information or given a new way to interpret previous experiences. Next came reflective observation, in which the learner applies his own understanding gained through experience to the information. Abstract conceptualization then occurs as new ideas are formulated within the learner. Finally, active experimentation is engaged upon wherein the learner applies new understanding to the world around him.

Kolbs theory expands upon the work of Dewey (1938), who stated that every experience enacted and undergone modifies the one who acts and undergoes, while this modification affects, whether we wish it or not, the quality of subsequent experiences (p. 35). And as Dewey (1938) noted that educators should utilize the surroundings, physical and social, that exist so as to extract from them all that they have to contribute to building exeriences that are worthwhile (p. 40), it makes sense for educators to make use of the humanities, which are in abundance and can include plays, films, shows, books, religious and philosophical works, and more.

The Humanities

The humanities fit into this scheme because they offer a representation of the real world that is fixed and can be analyzed and experienced. They offer a representation that is realistic and that mirrors nature. This is important to education because as Hunt Institute (2011) has shown, the philosophy of education that matters most in schools today and that aligns with the Common Core practice used in schools is the philosophy of realism. The humanities can help learners to develop understanding of themselves and the world by giving them a real world depiction of people like themselves in real life situations like what they might encounter. Whether it is Platos Euthyphro dialogue in which Socrates and Euthyphro discuss what it means to be good, or whether it is Hamlet asking what the point of living is, the humanities provide...…it directly in the real world.

Learning the humanities is essential to character development, as based on the seminal literature of Beesley (1940). Beesley (1940) shows that particularly when it comes to the cultivation of virtue, the experience of the humanities in a young learners life can shape that young learner in a positive way. The humanities take the learner back through time and into different cultures, contexts and situations. They reveal that even though civilizations and societies change, human nature is what it isit stays the same. The same universal problems and struggles that a character in a Shakespearean tragedy encounters can be relevant to the life of a person living today. Learners are able to recognize and identify different characters, traits, flaws and heroic qualities. They can apply these to their own day and age through examination and interaction with others, and it helps them to understand what they are seeing in their own lives, as the humanities enable them to understand not only their own selves better but also the world around them. Small (2013) concurs with this assessment and illustrates that the humanities can teach a learner how to be a good citizen. Small (2013) suggests that the practice of teaching the humanities fell out of favor in education because more focus was placed on other areas of learningbut if education is to be truly holistic and focus on developing the whole person it is essential that the humanities be a focus of that education so that the learner becomes an ideal citizen.

The combination of experiential learning with the teaching of the humanities opens the door to a deep-down discovery of and appreciation for virtue and character. The learner sees how characters are shaped by what people think and how they act. This is confirmed by Nurazizah and Sutarsih (2018) who show that character educationteaches habits of ways of thinking and behavior that help individuals to live and work together as family, community and state and help them to make accountable decisions (p. 258). In their study, they reveal that implementing character education in a school can be a favorable way to cultivate necessary qualities of character to help learners develop social, critical, political, and community values.

Conclusion

Experiential learning theory, as explained by Dewey, and developed further by Piaget, Vygotsky, Kolb and others, is helpful in showing how acquisition of deep-down knowledge is obtained in learners. Creative play is vital to the development of learners, and the more hands-on and actively participating learners are in the educative process, the more understanding, application and experimentation and reflection they can engage in. Experiential learning is a good way for learners to implement information that they obtain through texts: it allows them to develop their own experiences, which they can then draw upon to increase their knowledge and understanding. This is pertinent in the study of the humanities and in the development of character because it enables the learner to engage with the lessons the humanities provide and put those lessons into practice. Creative play, production, questioning, dialoguing, and critical analysis are all ways that learners can apply these lessons so as to make them their own. Through character education, supported by the humanities and experiential learning, learners can foster the development of virtue, which is important for good citizenship. Even in the global world of today, it is found that the cultivation of virtue ethics is needed. Experiential learning of the humanities can facilitate an appreciation for virtue among learners, which…