Lesson 7

Lesson 7- Direct, Purposeful Experiences and Beyond

" From the rich experiences that our sense bring. we construct the ideas, concepts, generalizations that give meaning and order to our lives."
                   

What are referred to as direct, purposeful experiences?

        - These are our concrete and firsthand experiences that make up the foundation of our learning. These are the rich experience that our sense bring from which we construct the ideas, the concepts, the generalizations that give meaning and order to or lives. (Dale, 1969) The are sensory experiences.

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

            Climbing a mountain is firsthand, direct experience. Seeing it done in films or reading about it is vicarious, substitute experience. It is clear, therefore, that we can approach the world of reality directly through the sense and indirectly with reduced sensory experience. 

* Direct Experiences are firsthand experiences that serve as the foundation of learning. The opposite of direct experiences are indirect or vicarious experiences. 

 Direct Experiences lead us to the concept formation and abstraction. We should not end our lessons knowing only the concrete. We go beyond the concrete by reaching the level of abstract concepts.