Creating plausibility in experience-based learning : educating city planners through simulations and studio case studies

Abstract

This study illuminates the creation of plausibility in experience-based learning. Two dimensions of plausibility, environmental perspective and human perspective, are identified through this qualitative study of participants in two graduate city planning courses. Eleven graduate students participated in a course which focused on a hypothetical city and a course which used a real city in a studio case study. The studio was modeled after Schon's reflective practicum. This study explores the creation of plausibility in the two scenarios from the emic view of the participants. Learners begin to live in the case as they bring images from the real world into the virtual world of the academic scenario. When learners gain perspectives on the contextual environment and the lives of the people in that scenario, the learning situation gains more plausibility. As a balance of realism and simplicity is achieved in experience-based learning scenarios, learners are motivated to suspend disbelief and live in the case. The study finds that two dimensions of plausibility, environmental perspective and human perspective, will enhance the plausibility of experience-based learning and thereby enhance learning. This study provides a close-up view of a city planning simulation and a reflective practicum. The findings show that the reflective practicum sufficiently bridges the boundary between the academy and the real world to allow participants to gain experience in the real world. Carefully designed experience-based learning can encourage preprofessionals to cross the boundary into the real world, gaining a perspective of professional practice from the relative protection of the academic world. The implications of environmental perspective and human perspective are discussed as they relate to the theory and practice of experience-based learning in education. Experience-based learning methods offer opportunites for practitioners and educators to research practice together while facilitating effective learning.