Adult Learning and Experiential Learning

Wedding something old, from way back in the middle of the 20th Century to something new--current brain research informing leadership theory and practice , Roy Oswald, following his 30 year luminous career at the Alban Institute, has created a Center for EQ-HR Skills. He brought his new creation to Louisville Seminary last week in a high energy, intensive week-long laboratory http://www.lpts.edu/Academic_Programs/Emotional_Intelligence_08.asp. Thirty two judicatory executives, ministers and students participated in a ground-breaking event, new to virtually all of them.

The "T-Group" ('T" for training) was created in the 1940's and flourished through the 1960's as a premier way of enhancing the interpersonal and group effectiveness of leaders in many fields. Kurt Lewin, shown here from NNBD.org, was the pioneer who discovered the power of open and unstructured interaction in small groups as a learning technique. We call it experiential eduction, by which we learn by doing first, then reflecting on the experience and then practicing what we've learned in the group. it is designed for adult learners who assume full responsibility for their actions and their learning in the group setting. The National Training Laboratories in Bethel Maine was established to promote this method (www.ntl.org). Due to a variety of historical factors, the T-group method faded away in the latter third of the 20th century, but it has been receiving new energy among a group of former leaders in the movement, crystallizing around Oswald's new venture.

Oswald's genius brought him to the conclusion that he could best teach the new brain-discoveries in multiple intelligences, particularly emotional and social intelligence, through the experiential t-group method. I am pleased that Louisville Seminary could be a part of this new movement at Roy's invitation. I myself participated in T-groups in the 60's and 70's, learning to learn and learning to lead such groups with my mentor Burney Overton and others, so Roy invited me to dust off my group skills and become a co-leader for one of the small groups. Four other experienced and skilled and wise facilitators were imported for the event, all veterans of the Mid Atlantic Training Committee, a church based training program from that same era.

I discovered I still could do it. Moreover, I discovered how much of my core educational philosophy is still shaped by the theory behind t-groups. The job of the educator is to provide a safe environment for a group to form and cohere, and offer particular insights and suggestions for ways the group could practice their inter-personal and intra-group skills. I believe that the spark of creativity is in each one of us, and that we long to be transformed by our experiences into the people God longs for us to become. I have seen many times how receiving information from trusted group members about how one is perceived (often called "feedback") can create a learning loop to re-adjusting my self-understanding, and then putting new ways of functioning into practice in the group for further feedback.

I have a diminishing commitment to the "banking method" of education by which a student arrives empty at the "school" and the teacher deposits into the student the knowledge needed or sought, which the student can withdraw later as needed. Yes, some learning needs to be rote memorization and gathering basic knowledge, but the really valuable knowledge, the practical wisdom, is gained by experience, reflection, action and further reflection. We still have a long way to go, however, in preparing ministers for church leadership in the 21st century to provide them with the opportunities to experience and practice the wisdom they'll need.