Experiential Learning by Julia Callaghan

 Julia Callaghan, EDAC 634 Assignment 4 – Experience and Learning

Project Title: A psychoanalytic approach to healing math trauma

Goal: The goal of this workshop is to help students be successful in their college math course by removing learning blocks formed by negative past experiences in math.

Objectives: By attending this workshop, participants will:

• Reflect on their past experiences in math
• Learn one psychoanalytic strategy for examining negative feelings toward math
• Understand their past experience and see potential for growth in future experiences

Rationales: Boud, Keogh, and Walker’s model for experiential learning will be used to design this training through a psychoanalytic lens.

• Boud, Keogh, and Walker emphasized the impact that negative feelings can have on learning, noting that learning blocks can occur if students fail to address those negative feelings. Their model for experiential learning contained three stages: “(a) returning to and replaying the experience, (b) attending to the feelings that the experience provoked, and (c) reevaluating the experience” (Merriam & Baumgartner, 2020).
• Educators can promote experiential learning through a psychoanalytic lens by designing activities that elicit emotions, encourage students to pay attention to their minds, and bring unconscious feelings to the surface (Merriam & Baumgartner, 2020). Such activities could involve word and/or image association. A close examination of emotion can help “uncover aspects of our unconscious that block our learning” (Merriam & Baumgartner, 2020, p. 209).

Design:

Stages	Activity
(a) Returning to and replaying the experience	Hand out two half-sheets of paper to each participant. Prompt participants to introspect and dig deep as you ask them to close their eyes and think about a time when they were trying to learn math and it did not go well. Perhaps this is their worst experience they have had in math, or maybe it is just one memory from a long history of negative math experiences. Regardless, have them try to remember a specific event: where they were, what they were wearing, were they sitting or standing? Was there a teacher? What did they say? Were they taking a test? What happened? Think about this for a couple minutes.
(b) Attending to the feelings that the experience provoked	On the first half-sheet of paper, have them write down any words that come to mind when they think about that experience. After a minute or two, ask them to add any words that come to mind when they think about the word “math”. Give another couple minutes. Ask them to turn over their paper when done. Hand out the second half-sheet of paper. On this half-sheet, ask them to write out the most complicated mathematical symbols, expressions, numbers they can think of. Ask them to only use symbols and numbers, no words. They can draw pictures as well: ask them to express their feelings toward math with images and drawings. Allow five minutes for this. Ask them to turn over their paper when done.
(c) Reevaluating the experience	Now, ask participants to look at their blank half-sheets of paper and ask them to once again close their eyes and go back to that memory. But this time, have them imagine that they are not that younger version of themselves. Instead, they are a best friend, a favorite teacher, a cherished grandparent, seeing that younger version of themself who is feeling all those negative emotions. Ask them to look at themselves through the eyes of someone who loves and cares about them. Ask: what would they say? What would they tell that younger version of themselves?  Finally, have them open their eyes and write on that first half-sheet of paper (the blank side): I know my past experience was hard. I will have new experiences. And on the second half-sheet of paper: I can learn and understand math. I can do this.

Connection between activities and experience & learning:

The psychoanalytic activities in this workshop were designed using Boud, Keogh, and Walker’s three stage model for experiential learning as a framework. First, participants returned to and replayed in their minds a certain memory that elicited deep-seeded emotion surrounding their math education (stage 1). Next, using the half-sheets of paper, participants attended to the feelings provoked by the negative math experience (stage 2). Addressing negative feelings is a necessary component in unblocking a mental learning block (Merriam & Baumgartner, 2020, p. 209). Participants used word association and imagery to help bring out their unconscious emotions. Finally, participants reevaluated their experience by returning to the memory from a different perspective (stage 3). This conscious return to experiences, reevaluation of experiences, and consideration of whether we would do something differently is known as reflection-on-action (Merriam & Baumgartner, 2020). With acknowledgement and positive reframing of their past experiences, participants can feel refreshed and ready to have new, positive learning experiences in the future.