Task C, Kolb's Learning Cycle

Reflect on an instance when you have concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation and active experimentation. Describe instances and explain how it was part of the cycle. Explain what happened to get to that point in the cycle and what it led to.
Kolb’s theory describes a model for managing learning. It suggests a continuous process by which students can develop their own learning. Kolb describes learning cycle made up of four elements: Concrete (doing, feeling), Observation (watching, assimilating) Abstract conceptualisation (thinking, considering) and active experimentation (transforming, adapting). He acknowledges that a learner can join the cycle at any point. I think the really interesting parts of the process are: abstract thinking and testing in active experimentation elements. It is through these parts of the process that I have grasped an experience and transformed it, adding my own meaning and understanding. For me it is when knowledge and experience interchange in importance determined by the situation in which I am applying my learning.
In 2008 I was cast for a role in a Theatre in Education production ‘Last Order’s’. The production was about the dangers of alcohol abuse and its impact upon individual responsibility and sexual behaviour. I auditioned for the role of Cassie a 15 year old, troubled teenager. Cassie organises a party for her friends and as a result of being plied with alcohol is forced into sexual activity with a seventeen year old male. At twenty two I had left behind my early teens and had to improvise the role of Cassie based upon my recent knowledge. The Director’s briefing notes and script helped me bring my own experience to the character well enough to secure the role.
I had to build upon the concrete experience I was recalling for a number of reasons. Firstly the Drama was being presented to groups of fifteen and sixteen year olds in school settings around the south of England and secondly each production was to be supported by ‘forum theatre’ and ‘hot seating’ in order to help the audience’s own learning about the issues.
Initially I studied characters in the TV drama ‘Waterloo Road’ concentrating on the fourteen and fifteen year olds specifically analysing: how they dressed, the headbands, earrings and the manner they wore their school ties: their style of speech, catch phrases and dialect: their behaviour towards each other and the adults in the programme.
I also visited my local park to watch teenagers interacting with each other, listening carefully to how they used humour, body language and voice to project their image. These activities were my character observation, redeveloping my experience and understanding of the life of a teenager.
I spent time thinking about Cassie and how to layer the thoughts and feelings I had been considering, onto her character. Cassie in the script was larger than life, uncaring, a bit of a bitch. She encouraged everyone to live for the moment. I had to consider how to present her vulnerability, insecurities and her desire to be accepted. The observation stage helped me to consider how to develop the role, how to expose Cassie’s resentment and insecurity when she was criticised by other teenagers. I was also asked to make sure that the audience sympathised with the character. This challenged me to develop two characteristics: Cassie’s brashness and her vulnerability whilst also making her realistic enough to be accepted by other teenagers.
I believe that the process I went through helped me to portray Cassie successfully. I was able to reveal her aggressive, devil may care attitude, whilst also showing her inexperience and conveying how she had been led into a situation which she couldn’t control. It was evident during the after show workshops that the students could empathise and understand how Cassie had behaved as she had and the danger she was in. After each production I was able to use the feedback and questions from the teenagers to refine how I presented ‘Cassie’ in the next show. I was demonstrating that I could combine my knowledge and experience to refine my performance.
It also became evident that some students understanding of the issues related to alcohol abuse and sexual activity developed faster than others. In these situations I began to adapt the role of Cassie within the drama and the workshops. I used a range of strategies: rhetorical questioning, intonation and different levels of explanation, to help the teenagers explore and understand the issues we were presenting. These strategies would change according to different groups of students and also within groups in the same school. This was the company and me personally grasping the experience and transforming it into meaning for ourselves and the students.
I had taken Cassie’s character, personalised my understanding of it and after adding my own perspective to it, I had applied it to different school situations. Further more I had started to understand how to modify, accentuate and exaggerate different elements of my learning in order to help the learning of others.