The Impact of Reality-Learning
Reality-Learning actually Works!
Reality-Learning is a unique variant of experiential learning that focuses on changing the perception of reality. It deploys a constructivist, andragogical approach to bring about actual changes in behavior made sustainable by the perceptions of a fresh social reality. Reality-learning is a learning experience that exposes students to authentic, real world experiences for a classroom-based curriculum.
Reality-Learning as sociocultural interaction is a dynamic process where reality is continuously being re-created as it is interpreted and renegotiated by team members using an innovative thinking process. As the students internalize the activity worldview of the “Blue Ocean” frame, it becomes for them a mean for interpreting and refreshing the social reality by communicating using the language of Blue Ocean Strategy (BOS).
The time frame for the Reality-Learning Project activities spans only a 2-month period. Like so many change efforts, this experimental initiative has no conclusive or definite outcomes.
Reality-Learning Feedback
In their Reality-Learning feedback, students articulate unconventional experiences and speculate on the long-term outcomes of the Reality-Learning impact; in fact, just like any authentic learning in real life!
It is reasonable to expect the shared multiple perspectives of freshly constructed social realities to deepen their understanding of meaningful reality lessons and the significance for their life. As a communal activity, Reality-Learning is also a sharing of the culture. Knowledge, from the Reality-Learning perspective, does not reside solely in the head of each individual, but distributed across individuals as co-learners whose joint interactions and negotiations determine decisions and the solutions to real problems using the BOS “sense-making” thinking framework.
Students are required to submit their learning feedback electronically on a Blackboard eLearning platform through the following channels:
· Keeping of a journal and their reflection
· Submission of a project report with key lessons and ‘failure’ milestones
· Online submission of learning feedback at the end of the course
Every student brings to the classroom certain experiences, ways of thinking, predispositions, habits and interpretive frameworks. Their select business organization has its own historically developed features: cultural patterns, tools and symbols, and social relations. As the students engage in the Project activities as a team, they collaborate in interpreting the situation, using tools and thinking about what is going on and what needs to be done. They try to make sense of what’s going on based on their previous experiences, individually and collectively. The emergent knowledge created is thus shared, as diverse as they are, within themselves and other communities of learners whom they also share a sense of belonging to the common Reality-Learning culture.
Students begin to learn, to the extent of their respective participation, in their learning “community” over the time duration of the Reality-Learning Project. As the Project progresses, they take part in the use of more (in terms of quantity, complexity and importance) situated knowledge as they prepare for the regular scheduled reporting and discussions.
Finally, the Reality-Learning community in the classroom learns as it constructs, organizes, distributes and uses the different knowledge of the learners to produce for all a fresh, collective “sense” of the real world out there.
The IMPACT Outcomes of Reality-Learning
The Final Lessons learnt are articulated online by 100% of the 1,225 students in the program over 2 semesters. They described the diverse Reality-Learning outcomes attained and pointed to the existence of different cognitive learning styles which would have varying degree of impact on their respective personal development for real-life readiness.
Below are representative excerpts from the Reality-Learning feedback:
“I can describe HRM in just one word, which is “WOW!” It is a subject totally different from any other subjects that I have taken. This will be one of the subjects that I will remember for my whole life, because HRM gives me the attitude and courage to walk out of the comfort zone. It trained me in strategic thinking. These will benefit me forever.” – Tian Yafei
“After all, aren’t all lectures in university ought to be liked that? So provoking, so unimaginable and breathless! From the start, the course has made me see, feel, sense, taste and hear and do things in a different perspective in a different light.” – Chen Jianming Edwin.
“The “reality” learning is indeed useful for us students to tap on our different abilities and potentials to the fullest, even though it’s quite ‘tiring’ to be honest. It definitely gave us the space to express our ideas, our thoughts in “out of the box” style and empower us young people to speak up what’s in our mind. Very often, some of us usually at our ages tend to be caught ‘lost’ in purpose of life, thereby resulting in a state whereby we could be afraid of expressing our inner views and thoughts. Good learning journey and experience in overall! Prof Michael had made me a more “ready” person.” – Choo Yue Lang, Preston
“The HRM course enabled students to experience the realities and demands of actual working life, ranging from frustrating team members to slave-driving bosses. Prof Heng’s efforts are commendable as no other modules in NTU can offer us such real life lessons and also getting me to expand my comfort zone and mental boundaries.” - Ng Him Yick
“The HRM project has also made me more inquisitive. It has fuelled my passion for learning after making me aware that my knowledge of the world is severely inadequate. Previously, the spoon-feeding way of education have stunted my personal growth, as there wasn’t a need for me to think to obtain solutions and I have been living like a frog in the well. This course took me out of my comfort zone (being spoon-fed and in an engineering field) to make me understand education is beyond institution, beyond specialization.” — Li Guowei
“This particular module was very interesting and unusual as compared to the other modules. The professors had structured the course in such a manner to push ourselves beyond limits unknown to us. The lectures were more like a thinking journey than educational, making me actually think a step ahead about the matters discussed. It was more to challenge the comfortable thought and opinion on how we run our daily life. The flow of the arguments was there because we were prepared and felt confident.” – Jamalulail bin Amin
“The HRM course is a quite different compared with all the engineering subjects and even communication and economic subjects. This subject equipped us from the aspect of how to adapt ourselves to the real world. There are so many things taught in the subject and the way it been taught is fantastic. It is definitely not a boring subject. Prof. Heng conduct it by a vivid way through his own experience. His own experience not only well elaborates the theories but also enlighten us to think more about what a life should be. This is my first time to think about my own life so carefully and realize the meaning of my own life and what I really want for the rest of my life.” – Yao Qing
“In my viewpoint, there is only one thing that EE4041 did to students, it is to shut the window before us, and kick everyone out of the door, to experience life, the life-experiences. The rest of the course is self-taught, taught by our very own life-experiences. It is through these encounters I began to understand the person inside me. For instance, I once thought I could control my temper well, but I actually raised my voice on one of my group member in public. It is from these incidents that made me think through on my own actions which I do not see normally and eventually leading me to make adjustments on myself.” - Tang Junwen
The evaluation of Reality-Learning uses both formative and summative assessments. The Reality-Learning project activities/tasks are developed as formative or summative tools to engage students and provide the teacher with measurable criteria from which to evaluate student understanding and progress.
In Final Project Reports and during Presentations, students articulate their understanding and engagement of the Project objectives for a summative assessment. During frequent and regular, at times daily, interactions with project teams, formative assessments are used to evaluate the Reality-Learning process to monitor developmental progress status and inform instructional adjustments appropriate to their further learning needs.
REALITY-LEARNING — The Next Level
Reality-Learning depends on the complex interaction between Reality-Learning Facilitators with the students and their Reality-Learning activities. Knowledge and understanding reside in the mind of the knower. Multiple perspectives deepen our understanding of meaningful reality lessons and develop sustainable flexible adaptability skills in a turbulent world undergoing rapid globalisation.
Further research could include evaluating the nature and intensity of learning outcomes attained in Reality-Learning; relating Reality-Learning to specific cognitive preferences and assessing/tracking Reality-Learning impact on personal development over time. The understanding and delivery of Reality-Learning clearly crisscross many other disciplines such as philosophy, psychology, economics, sociology and political science. Using other sensemaking frames for Reality-Learning should also yield interesting learning outcomes.
The urgent imperative of education in the present era of turbulent change and uncertainties is to set the students on the path of seeking, discovering and unpacking answers to the right set of questions. Education is essentially about equipping our children with the ability to act responsibly in a complex society.
The key Talent Management focus in education and learning is to foster and grow in students the skills of learning without being taught. In fact, the traditional purpose and function of education is never so much to provide answers, as it is to nurture and equip young minds to ask the right questions when confronting the complex cues of the real world. Reality-learning empowers students through authentic learning contexts to engage the emergent dynamic global realities more effectively and victoriously.
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