engleski

Experiential teaching and learning about human rights

There is no doubt that psychologists and psychology students learn about human rights in informal (by personal experience, while working, etc.) and non-formal (attending various lectures, courses, etc.) learning environments. So the main challenge is how to transfer some bits of this ample knowledge tank into a formal educational process (e.g. university course). Since teaching processes are always learning processes for everyone involved, teaching methods in human rights education can be more efficient if they are more inclusive, experiential and interactive. Human rights relate with all kinds of people’s values and attitudes and it is important to reveal them to identify personal boundaries and to cope with them. While learning about human rights there should be a chance for discussing, debating, provoking, and providing arguments. This process of exploring how human rights are connected with students’ both personal and professional values should take place in a safe space in which problems can freely be identified, differences recognised and reflected upon. It is an opportunity for the teacher/facilitator, as well as for students to learn about concerns, attitudes, and values. Differences, disagreement, and even conflicts drive the learning process (Kolb, 1984). Experiential learning is about constructing knowledge that includes a combination of various processes, such as active participation, observing, reflecting, thinking, and sharing. Experiences, either gained in various concrete and immediate activities (e. g. problem solving, role playing, situation analyses, etc.) or life experiences from the past are the basis for observations, reflections and sharing. Finding common ground and shared principles related to human rights and testing them in particular cases are the inevitable method of learning. There are proofs why experiential learning is a good choice as a teaching method. Evaluation of experiential learning shows that it is at least as effective as other methods in cognitive learning (Gosenpud, 1990). However, students taught by the experiential method express more positive attitudes towards their learning experience than students exposed to other teaching methods (Gosenpud, 1990). Positive attitudes are usually reflected in greater course benefits, a higher quality teacher-student relationship, more satisfaction, or a greater feeling that skills were acquired. Especially the results regarding the impact of role playing indicate that attitudes do change as a result of this experience (Janis and Mann, 1965). When it comes to behavioral change or skill acquisition experiential methodologies are strongly influential, especially sensitivity training and role playing. Positive results are usually reflected in increased sensitivity, increased consideration, and increased interpersonal competence, proving also a transfer to the nontraining environment. Features of experiential learning that most clearly influence its effectiveness positively are: feedback (Goldstein and Sorcher, 1973), meaningfulness (DiVesta and Peverly, 1984), situations that are more involving for the learner (Ingersoll, 1973) and communication with fewer barriers than at lectures (Burns, Golen and Gentry, 1983). There is not one specific experiential learning technique. The best teaching employs a mix of several teaching strategies, a teacher who finds them meaningful and who delivers them skillfully and, of course, motivated students.

experiential teaching ; experiential learning ; human rights

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