CHAPTER 7: Direct, Purposeful Experiences and Beyond

            Whatever skills or concepts we have did not come out of the blue. We spend hours doing the activity by ourselves in order to acquire the skill. Direct Purposeful experiences are concrete and first hand experiences that make up the foundation of our learning. These are the rich experiences that our senses bring from which we construct the ideas, the concepts, the generalizations that give meaning and order to our lives. (Dale, 1969). They are sensory experiences.

            These direct activities maybe preparing meals, making a piece of furniture, doing power point presentation, performing a laboratory experiment, delivering a speech, taking a trip, or making a piece of furniture.

            In contrast, indirect experiences are experiences of others. People that we observe read or hear about. They are not our own self-experiences but still experiences in the sense that we see, read and hear about them. They are not firsthand but rather explicit experiences.

Direct, Purposeful Experiences and Beyond implies that these direct experiences must not be the period or the end. We must be brought to a higher plane. The higher plane referred to here is the level of generalization and abstraction.

            REFLECTION

Direct and purposeful experiences are concrete and firsthand experiences that make up the foundation of our learning. It let the students give the opportunities to learn by doing. It makes us use of real things as instructional materials as long as we can and it help the students develop the 5 senses to the full heighten their sensitivity to the world.

The students has a direct participation with the responsibility for the outcome and also it helps to unabridged version of life itself and serves as the basis for the most effective and lasting learning. It also has the disadvantage of not all things can be learned through direct or firsthand experience.