1.  What does “reflection” mean?

2.  What gets your “attention” during a learning experience? (The conceptual frameworks that will help you most with this question are from Fiddler and Marienau.)

3.  Describe the feedback loop. What is the difference between a positive and a negative feedback loop?  (theories from Korthagen and Vasalos).

4.  Why are you continuing your education at this point? (This question refers to the Korthhagen and Vasalos Onion Model)

5.  How would you describe yourself as a learner?
How would you describe the learning experiences you had in the past?

6.  Describe an example experience of when you learned something new. Did it change your beliefs in some way? Or, did the experience not challenge your opinions very much? (This question comes from the David Kolb Acquisition model.)

7.  When you learned something new during a job, did it involve an aspect of being a “team player”? How did the social relationships affect how you learned? (Kegan and Lahey)

8.  How do beliefs and opinions we already have affect how we see a situation?

*Good strong paragraph for each answer that shows you know the material* 

ORGL 3000. The Feedback Loop between Reflection and
Action (Korthagen & Vasalos)
Two other education theorists, Korthagen and Vasalos, describe the process of self-transformation through learning
experiences and reflection on those experiences as a feedback loop. Note the phases one can go through in analyzing,
describing and reflecting on previous experiences. We have some action that we undertake, we look back on it, we
become aware of essential aspects of it (aspects that we might not have been fully aware of when we were “in the
moment” of the action itself), and we create and think up new alternative modes of action. The idea here is that reflective
learning is a developmental process, a process in which we see what works and what doesn’t work, and we modify what
we do based on how it is working, over and over again, perhaps all the time:

From: Korthagen, Fred A.J., & Vasalos, Angelo (2010). Going to the core: Deepening reflection by
connecting the person to the profession (Chapter 27, in Nona Lyons (Ed.) Handbook of Reflection
and Reflective Inquiry. New York: Springer.)

Photo of Fred A.J. Korthagen taken from:
http://www.aera.net/About-AERA/Fellows/2015-AERA-Fellows
Photo of Angelo Vasalos taken from: http://absolutewakefulness.com/about-angelo

ORGL 3000. Kegan & Lahey. Three Phases Part II: Subject and
Object
One of the interesting aspects of Kegan and Lahey’s conceptual framework is that they ask us to look at our self in two
ways. At each level of the process, we are both a subject (as in a thinking subject, the subject “I” in the sentence “I
think”) and as an object, something that can be studied, as in “the object of one’s attention”:

From: Kegan, Robert, & Lahey, Lisa Laskow (2010). From subject to object: A constructive-
developmental approach to reflective practice (chapter 22, pp. 433-449) in Nona Lyons (Ed.)
Handbook of Reflection and Reflective Inquiry. New York: Springer.

Photo of Robert Kegan taken from: https://www.gse.harvard.edu/faculty/robert-kegan
Photo of Lisa Laskow Lahey from taken from:
https://www.amazon.com/Lisa-Laskow-Lahey/e/B001KH9ZQC

ORGL 3000. Kegan & Lahey. Three Phases: Socialized, Self-
Authoring, Self-Transforming
Kegan and Lahey further describe these stages as shifting from emphasizing our own beliefs and ideas in the first place
(socialized), to a gradual ability to step back and look at our beliefs in a broader context (self-authoring), and then finally
being able to see the limitations in our own belief system and acknowledge the values in other’s ideas (self-transforming).
The next two pages have diagrams that illustrate this process:

From: Kegan, Robert, & Lahey, Lisa Laskow (2010). From subject to object: A constructive-
developmental approach to reflective practice (chapter 22, pp. 433-449) in Nona Lyons (Ed.)
Handbook of Reflection and Reflective Inquiry. New York: Springer.

Photo of Robert Kegan taken from: https://
www.gse.harvard.edu/faculty/robert-kegan
Photo of Lisa Laskow Lahey from taken from: https://
www.amazon.com/Lisa-Laskow-Lahey/e/B001KH9ZQC

ORGL3000. Kolb: Table 6.1 A Complex Set of Ideas about How

We Learn
In case you were wondering how complex Kolb’s own conceptual scheme gets, here it is! Don’t worry, you don’t have to
memorize the whole thing. But just think about how it might make sense to reflect on how we learn using this kind of a
set of concepts. Take a look at the line that mentions “Concrete Experience” on the left side, about eight lines down. See
how the movement is from the left to the right: we start out with direct sensing and feeling in the world, then we develop
self-awareness about our own values, then we can differentiate others’ beliefs and feelings, and eventually we feel a
commitment to our own values while at the same time appreciating differences of opinion in our broader social context.
What our courses are doing is helping you to become more aware of this process in yourself. In the first phase you are in
the Acquisition stage, moving to Specialization, then to Integration.

Table 6.1 from Kolb, David A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Photo of David A. Kolb from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:David_Kolb

ORGL3000. The Three Phases of Reflection and the Self in Kolb

Below, see one of Kolb’s own diagrams describing how this process of reflective learning is
developmental, how it actually develops the self, and gives you new ways of interacting with the
world. To read a diagram like this, imagine yourself moving up the diagram from the bottom in the
same direction as the arrow on the left side. Then read the different descriptions of the self on the
right side. Our three Reflective Seminars, ORGL 3000, 3050 and 4000, correspond to these three
phases.

In ORGL 3000, you focus on yourself as an “acquisition” phase learner. You analyze your own
assumptions, beliefs and feelings as they relate to specific learning experiences. As you
develop more skill, more ability to work with complex ideas, with other people, with a social and
physical context, you enter the ORGL 3050 “specialization” phase. You are aware of disagreements
and other ideas more in this phase, and your learning experiences will involve negotiating those
differences as you interact with the world. The third phase, of “integration”, is the more mature phase
in which you have learned more about how to interact with the world and you are able to transform, to
adapt, to new situations and new schools of thought. In ORGL 4000 you will be writing about this
level of self and reflection. In the Capstone course, ORGL 4690, you will be focusing on how your
previous experiences and learning connect and integrate with your current degree program.

Figure 6.3 from Kolb, David A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and
development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Photo of David A. Kolb from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:David_Kolb

ANew Agenda for Higher Education: Shaping a Life of the Mind for Practice. 2008. William M.

Sullivan and Matthew S. Rosin. The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Excerpts from Chapter IV: Practical Reason as an Educational Agenda
pages 93 – 95.

Sullivan and Rosen wrote the book as a result of a series of seminars through the Carnegie Foundation in which
educators explored the changing nature of higher education, in view of today’s challenges in the workplace.

For purposes of the ORGL seminars, you will be particularly interested in understanding the concepts highlighted.
By the way, “the academy” refers to institutions of higher education.

Comments on Sullivan & Rosen’s “A New Agenda for Higher Education: Shaping a Life of the Mind for Practice” (2008)
Publisher: San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

“Higher education is edging ever closer to becoming a universal requirement,” said Carnegie Senior Scholar William M.
Sullivan. “And today’s students will need to meet the practical and professional challenges that await them with insight,
technical know-how and discerning moral commitment.”

Sullivan and Rosen propose that undergraduate education must move beyond “critical thinking” to the idea of
“practical reasoning” as a focal point for curriculum and teaching. To do so, they present a new agenda that integrates
teaching practices from the liberal arts—which develop students’ ability to assume responsibility for their purposes
and identity—with those from professional education, which stress competence and practice.

“It’s important for students to learn to think, to reason, to interrogate text and understand it; but that is not enough,”
said Carnegie President Lee S. Shulman. “It’s also important that students learn to act, to do, to perform—but this still is
not enough. Today’s undergraduates must learn to think and act responsibly, with integrity, civility and caring. Practical
reasoning integrates these three habits—of mind, hand and heart—that are essential for the formation of today’s
students. This work traces an exciting portrait of the potential of undergraduate education in the coming century.”

Practical reasoning suggests a repertoire of skills and habits of mind that can help adults figure out what to do when
navigating the challenges of contemporary adult life.

ORGL3000. Fiddler & Marienau: Events Model of
Learning from Experience
Experience involves Feedback from Event to Attention to Experience
to Reflection to New Learning

Here is another diagram from Fiddler and Marienau that shows how our previous
learning is always already influencing and shaping how we see new experiences. We
may have a new Event, like Kolb in the automobile museum. Kolb’s attention gets
pulled in certain ways, he may already have some kind of focus based on what he knew
of automobiles before he went to the museum. That shapes his Experience, he focused
on some things more than others. Later on, he reflects on his experience and realizes,
“Wow, I did not know there were so many other kinds of automobiles like those without
engines!” That is what made going to the museum a meaningful learning experience,
he realized not only something new, but he revised his own concept of automobile, his
beliefs, because of the Event and the Experience. What gets your attention in a
new experience?

Figure 7.1 from Fiddler, Morris, &Marienau, Catherine. (2008, summer). Developing habits of reflection for
meaningful learning. In, S. Reed & C. Marienau (Eds.), Linking adults with community: Promoting civic
engagement through community-based learning. New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 118.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 75-85.

Photo of Catherine Marienau taken from:
http://snl.depaul.edu/faculty-and-staff/faculty-a-z/Pages/catherine-marienau.aspx
Photo of Morry Fiddler taken from: https://www.insightmedicalgenetics.com/our-team/