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Louis Tietje^[1]
Metropolitan College of New York

Audrey Cohen and her associates developed the Purpose-Centered System of Education for Metropolitan College of New York, formerly The College for Human Services and Audrey Cohen College. The system was subsequently extended to the elementary and secondary levels of education. Cohen believed that her theory of purpose-centered learning was unique. Historically, however, experiential learning has existed as a parallel theory, which some assume is the same as or a version of purpose-centered learning. In this paper, I question that assumption and suggest reasons for rejecting it, note fatal criticisms of David Kolb's influential version of experiential learning, and argue that purpose-centered learning is a better theory.

Contents 1 Introduction 2 What Did Audrey Cohen and her Associates Say? 3 David Kolb's Version of Experiential Learning 4 Purpose-Centered Versus Experiential Learning: Some Differences 5 An Example to Illustrate the Differences 6 Conclusion 7 References 8 Bibliography

[edit] Introduction

Metropolitan College of New York (MCNY) is one of those experimental colleges of the 1960s.^[2] The college's founder, Audrey Cohen, together with a coterie of likeminded reformers, created for the human services an entire undergraduate curriculum that was transdisciplinary. The founders' long-range goal was to extend the curricular model to all levels of education. They called their theory of learning "purpose-centered learning," which was institutionalized in the Purpose-Centered System of Education (PCE).

In this system of education, courses are called "Dimensions" and semesters are called "Purposes." All knowledge transmitted in the curriculum is organized into the same set of categories: Values and Ethics, Self and Others, Systems, Skills, and a "Purpose" seminar. Students take this same set of Dimensional courses each semester. The content differs from semester to semester on the basis of the designated purpose or theme of the semester. There is no concern that any particular discipline be represented in the Dimensions or courses: content is selected from any discipline that is relevant or useful to the purpose of a semester.

This system may be best described as "transdisciplinary" because Audrey Cohen tried to formulate a conceptual framework that transcends disciplinary boundaries. Cohen considered PCE to be "a brand new educational model," which "provided the guidelines for a transdisciplinary, practice-oriented curriculum, a curriculum organized to help students apply theory from the liberal arts and professional studies to the solution of real human problems in human service positions in business and the not-for-profit world."^[3]

The uniqueness of the college's educational model has been emphasized in the published literature, including catalogues. In the 1996-1998 Catalog, for example, we find this mission statement: "The mission of Audrey Cohen College is to use learning to improve the world through national dissemination of its unique Purpose-Centered System of Education—the only fully integrated curriculum from kindergarten through the graduate level." This statement remained in force until it was replaced in 2003 by the following: "To provide a superior, experientially-based education that fosters personal and professional development, promotes social justice, and encourages positive change in workplaces and communities." In 2003, a vision statement was also added: "To be acknowledged as the college of choice for experiential learning and applied scholarship" (Metropolitan College of New York, Mission, Vision, Values).

Hence the 2003 mission statement for the first time excludes mention of "Purpose-Centered System of Education" and includes the terms "experientially-based education" and "experiential learning." Unlike PCE, "experientially-based education" and "experiential learning" refer to an established tradition in adult education.^[4] The 2003 mission statement suggests that experientially-based education is the same as Purpose-Centered Education and that experiential learning is the same as purpose-centered learning.

In the remainder of this paper, I will argue that purpose-centered learning is not the same as or a version of experiential learning. My argument will be developed through a review of what Cohen and her associates said about experiential learning, an outline of David Kolb's theory of experiential learning and its comparison with purpose-centered learning, and the analysis of an example that illustrates the theoretical differences.

[edit] What Did Audrey Cohen and her Associates Say?

I read the corpus of writings and noted when and how Audrey Cohen and her associates discussed experience and experiential learning. It became clear that Cohen did not use the term "experience" very often and clearly never in any special sense as a technical term in her Purpose-Centered System of Education. Indeed, it is unclear how much Cohen knew about the tradition of experiential learning and the work of David Kolb, the tradition's most influential exponent. She mentions experiential education,^[5] the value of learning by experience,^[6] the experiential component of work study programs,^[7] and Kolb's experiential learning cycle,^[8] but she never discusses them in depth or demonstrates that she has more than an acquaintance with or superficial understanding of them. There is no evidence that Cohen thought she was working within the tradition of experiential learning or that purpose-centered learning was a form of experiential learning. She was not interested in clarifying differences and similarities between the two. Rather, for her experiential learning was a resource to be exploited when useful in purpose-centered learning: "Education for the service society must take what is useful from the social sciences, the liberal arts, professional studies, and experiential education and build an entirely new model that is oriented towards service."^[9]

Barbara Walton, in her foreword to The College for Human Services: An Applied Transdisciplinary Curriculum, says that experience is a legitimate source of knowledge, but it is not the only source of knowledge in the College's approach to learning:

The notion that learning can be separated from action, that theory comes first and application of theory later, is foreign to the College. It asks students to apply what they have learned immediately in their jobs and to analyze the results. If this leads to revision or refinement of facts and ideas, so much the better. In the process, job performance assumes an equal role with classroom performance and actual experience is respected as a source of knowledge along with knowledge from books.^[10]

This is the only place in the corpus that experience is identified as a source of knowledge. The assertion does not seem consistent with the usual formulations which indicate that the task is to connect, relate, integrate or blend theory and practice, not derive theory from experience. Cohen's discussions imply that students need to draw on theory from their classroom studies because it is not immediately available in experience.

[edit] David Kolb's Version of Experiential Learning

Defining the term "experience" may be the major difficulty in comparing experiential and purpose-centered learning. Understanding the meaning of purpose-centered learning is easier because it has not been discussed by many people in many contexts over such a large period of time. As James Campbell notes about John Dewey's view, there have been so many discussions of the nature of experience that any attempt to reconstruct its meaning is problematic: "Philosophical discussions of the nature of experience are many, and each requires of us some changes in our ways of thinking. Dewey recognizes that any attempt to reconstruct our understanding of such a well-worn term as ‘experience' will be problematic; and he himself appears to have decided eventually that this term was hopelessly entwined with undesirable connotations and abandoned attempts to rehabilitate it."^[11]

Because various versions of experiential learning may rely on different understandings of the concept of experience, I have selected David Kolb's version for comparison with purpose-centered learning.^[12] Kolb developed his theory of experiential learning over the same period of time that Cohen developed her theory of purpose-centered learning. He is widely recognized as the most influential exponent of experiential learning. The scholarly consensus is that "David Kolb's book Experiential Learning (1984) is perhaps the best known presentation of the approach. Kolb's four-stage model of learning elaborated in the book is regarded as classical and as a foundation for experiential learning."^[13]

Kolb's model begins with what he calls "concrete experience." Concrete experience is grasped through apprehension or comprehension, and it is transformed through intention or extension. The second stage is reflective observation, which involves grasping through apprehension and transformation through intention. The third stage, abstract conceptualization, involves grasping through comprehension and transformation through intention. In the fourth stage, active experimentation, concrete experience is grasped through conceptualization and transformed through extension. Kolb defines experiential learning as "the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience. Knowledge results from the combination of grasping and transforming experience."^[14] "According to the four-stage learning cycle. . .immediate or concrete experiences are the basis for observation and reflections. These reflections are assimilated and distilled into abstract concepts from which new implications for action can be drawn. These implications can be actively tested and serve as guides in creating new experiences."^[15]

What is the status of experience in this learning theory? Kolb assumes that experience — "here-and-now concrete experience"^[16] — is the foundational source of knowledge. He says that learners "must be able to involve themselves fully, openly, and without bias in new experiences."^[17] They create or construct knowledge by grasping and transforming experience. This is an empiricist view, "which bases our knowledge, or the materials from which it is constructed, on experience through the traditional five senses," that is reminiscent of Locke, "the first of the so-called British Empiricists."^[18] Miettinen argues that the characterization of "how experience is translated into concepts. . .resembles the empiricist theory of scientific knowledge proposed by the logical empiricists in the 1930-1950s."^[19] "According to the empiricist theory of science, true knowledge is based on perceptions. With his senses an unprejudiced observer can make unbiased perceptions of reality. . . . Whereas empiricist philosophy regards observations of reality and nature as a starting point of knowledge, Kolb postulates observation of experience as a starting point."^[20]

There are two basic difficulties with Kolb's concept of experience. The first is that it does not seem possible for individuals to immerse themselves in new experiences without bias. This would only be true if they were disembodied and disembedded, and experience gave them unmediated access to the world. According to the postmodern critique offered by Usher, Bryant, & Johnston,

Experience is constructed as transparent, giving unmediated access to the world. Language, symbolic systems and discourses are seen simply as neutral vehicles for describing what all rational selves can experience. Knowledge of the world is possible because there is a one-to-one correspondence between the world and the way it is represented through experience. Rational procedures such as reflection can be used by all and enable experience to be sorted, validated and transformed into knowledge. This monological concept of experience, certainly in its rationalisitc and humanistic variants, is essentially individualistic and psychologistic. Consciousness is a key attribute with knowledge of the world a function of the autonomous, reflective self—the self as an ideal-knower, independent of contingency and specificity, disembodied and disembedded.^[21]

The other difficulty is logical. In Kolb's model, we are required to move from concrete experience, "tangible, felt qualities of the world, relying on our senses,"^[22] to abstract conceptualization. Knowledge must be derived from or justified by sense experience. But how do we logically derive propositional content from non-propositional experience? As Dretske says,

Beliefs justify other beliefs by standing in appropriate logical and explanatory relationships to them, relations that require the possession of content. If experiences are not themselves belief-like in character, if they have no propositional content, they cannot imply, cannot explain or be explained by, anything. How , then, can they function as reasons to believe anything?^[23]

[edit] Purpose-Centered Versus Experiential Learning: Some Differences

In a comparison of purpose-centered and experiential learning, differences in four areas are noteworthy. First, Audrey Cohen's theory is specifically called "purpose-centered learning" not experiential learning. As a 1996 article on the system points out, "Purpose-centered learning happens when people learn in response to a practical challenge, and the Purpose-Centered System of Education enables students to use their academic learning to make positive changes in the world."^[24] Although this is a late formulation, it is consistent with Cohen's earliest articulations of her theory.

Second, in purpose-centered learning, action, or perhaps better, purposeful action, not experience, plays the central role in the learning process. Students are motivated to learn when they confront a practical challenge or problem. Their Dimensional courses (Values and Ethics, Self and Others, Systems, Skills, and the Purpose seminar) contain resources that help them to understand the problem. On the basis of an informed understanding of the problem, they propose a plan of constructive action, implement the plan, and evaluate the results to determine the extent to which the problem has been solved. "Constructive Action," not "experience," is a technical term in Cohen's system of education.^[25]

Third, the purposes of purpose-centered and experiential learning are different. In purpose-centered learning, the aim is to use knowledge to produce social change toward empowerment and social justice.^[26] In experiential learning, the purpose is to construct personal knowledge out of here-and-now concrete experience. Experience is the foundational source of knowledge.

Hence purpose-centered learning escapes both criticisms of Kolb's concept of experience. In purpose-centered learning, people are not required to immerse themselves in experiences without bias. Bias is not a concern if there is normative change toward empowerment and social justice. Purpose-centered learning is also not concerned with the derivation of knowledge from experience. Cohen's theory allows us to be agnostic with regard to the sources of knowledge. The point is the usefulness or efficacy of knowledge.

Fourth, the epistemologies of purpose-centered and experiential learning are different. In purpose-centered learning, people learn by responding to a practical challenge or solving a problem. In experiential learning, people learn by reflection on immediate, personal experience—here-and-now concrete experience—which gives unmediated access to reality.

Audrey Cohen said, "For all my adult life, I have struggled conceptually with the idea of blending theory and practice."^[27] She was not interested in how knowledge was produced but how knowledge and action, theory and practice, were related. Her formulations suggest an instrumental understanding of knowledge. Knowledge or theory must be usable—instrumental to the end of change, which is aimed at empowerment and ultimately social justice. In this struggle, we hear echoes of Marx's eleventh thesis on Feuerbach: "The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to change it."^[28]

[edit] An Example to Illustrate the Differences

Whether we use the term "experience" or "action" (or "activity"), is purpose-centered learning concerned with generating, constructing, producing, or creating new knowledge? Or is purpose-centered learning concerned with making a connection between knowledge and experience or action ("blending theory and practice")? Experience cannot be a unique source of knowledge "along with knowledge from books," as Barbara Walton suggests. Why not?

For example, let us say that I manage a rent-controlled apartment building as an investment for a law firm's clients in New York City's Greenwich Village. Some managerial problems provoke my thinking, reflection, and theorizing (What "provokes" reflection on concrete experience in Kolb's model? What is the reason for moving from one stage to another—simply a desire to know?):

• The condition of the building is deteriorating and consequently
• the property values are falling.
• My time is consumed and I must undergo aggravation in court with tenants, either in attempts to collect back rent or in response to actions of tenants because needed repairs in their apartments were not made.
• My time and an attorney's time are costs to the firm.
• If rent money is not available, investors must pay for a minimal level of maintenance (by law), which they do not totally recover in a tax deduction.

Are these managerial problems the same as concrete experiences in the first stage of Kolb's model? Are these problems new, here-and-now personal experiences in which I involve myself without bias? (Cohen uses the term "practical challenge," not "concrete experience.") Clearly, I am involved with bias, but in Cohen's theory it doesn't matter.

What explains these problems? Kolb recommends that explanations be conceptualized on the basis of reflective observation (second and third stages). Following the recommendation, I conceive of the following common-sense explanations, which I admit I have heard from time to time from various constituents:

• I am a greedy and uncaring representative of my law firm's interest, which is to make as much money as possible for its investors. The firm does not care about the tenants' needs and situations that make it difficult at times to pay the rent in a timely fashion. I harass them by taking them to court, and I try to maintain the lowest level of maintenance to save money for the investors.
• The tenants are greedy and manipulative. They have a great money-saving deal in their rent-controlled apartments. They have unrealistic expectations about the kinds of repairs for which a landlord should be responsible, especially in these cheap apartments. They do not take of their apartments in the same way they would if they owned them. In essence, their back rent is the same as an interest-free loan. The longer they can avoid paying the rent, the higher the interest rate.
• I am obviously not a good financial manager of the properties. I have not properly managed the cash flow, and I have not been cost-conscious in spending on building maintenance.

I might assume that these common-sense explanations derive from my reflection on or thinking about my experience—that the managerial experience itself is the source of knowledge. But what I am not aware of is the linguistically mediated theoretical conceptualizations that are in my head because I occupy a social location in a particular society in a particular time and place. As Ludwig Wittgenstein suggests, an idea is "like a pair of glasses on our nose through which we see whatever we look at" (Quoted in Miettinen, 2000, p. 62). In other words, understanding is theory-laden. Experience is culturally mediated. Walton is misguided in thinking that actual experience is a source of knowledge.

However, one reason to attend school is to expand our repertoire of ideas. Cohen proposed a reorganization of learning "that eliminates the framework of the disciplines while maintaining their content" (Cohen & Jordan, 1996, p. 37). Let us say that I am fortunate to be enrolled in MCNY's MPA program while I am working at the law firm. In a Systems Dimension class focusing on social problems and policy, I encounter an alternative explanation from the discipline of economics, which I did not construct by reflective observation and abstract conceptualization based on that reflection. In an economics textbook, I read that rent control leads to a number of undesirable results. One of them is that

The quality of rental housing will deteriorate. Economic thinking suggests that there are two ways to raise prices. The nominal price can be increased, quality being held constant. Alternatively, quality can be reduced, while the nominal price is maintained. When landlords are prohibited from adopting the former, they will use the latter. Normal maintenance and repair service will deteriorate. . . . Eventually, the quality of the rental housing will reflect the controlled price. Cheap housing will be of cheap quality.^[29]

I have expanded my repertoire from three to four theories. But how do I know which is the correct theory? First, we must remember that in purpose-centered learning no source of knowledge is privileged, either reading theory in a textbook or my own theorizing at the workplace. Second, in purpose-centered learning there is no way of knowing which theory best corresponds to reality or the facts. Rather, a purpose-centered approach includes two pragmatic tests of the theories:

• Which theory leads to a solution of the problem?
• Which theory increases empowerment and social justice?

Each theory implies a different action, hopefully a constructive action, to solve the problem. Some theories may not be immediately or easily testable. Regarding the textbook theory, our strategy might be to lobby lawmakers to repeal rent control laws. Until the laws are repealed and we evaluate what happens, we only have the logic of an economic way of thinking or evidence from other localities that have repealed local rent control laws. The application of pragmatic tests replaces active experimentation, the fourth stage of Kolb's model. In purpose-centered learning theory, a normative test is applied, not just hypothesis-testing.

[edit] Conclusion

I have argued in this paper that conceptually and logically purpose-centered and experiential learning are not the same theory of learning in different languages. Purpose-centered learning is not a form or version of experiential learning. The purpose-centered learning cycle that I have suggested is not the same as Kolb's experiential learning cycle. The stages may be similar, but how they are understood and connected is different. Purpose-centered learning is a unique theory of learning within the pragmatic philosophical tradition. Purposed-centered learning is a better theory because it meets the need for a practical theory, especially in adult education, but escapes the fatal criticisms of Kolb's experiential theory of learning.

[edit] References

1. ↑ Louis H. Tietje (BA, Concordia University; M.T.S., Lutheran School of Theology; PhD, Union Theological Seminary) has served on the faculty of the Master of Public Administration program at Metropolitan College of New York since the program's inception over ten years ago. He is currently teaching courses in organizational behavior, ethics, social problems and policy as well as program planning. He also contributes to the administration of the MPA program and the Urban Dialogues. Dr. Tietje's research interests include applied ethics, social policy as well as social and political philosophy. Prior to joining MCNY's faculty, Dr. Tietje managed the financial analysis and planning services of a law firm and served as an independent consultant in management and finance to a variety of professional clients. He has also been an elementary school teacher and orchestral conductor for a theater company. His projects and publications include an entry in the Encyclopedia of Bioethics, a major monograph on manageable student educational debt levels as well as a contribution to the production of the documentary film, Changing our Minds: The Story of Dr. Evelyn Hooker, which was nominated for an Academy Award.
2. ↑ Grant, G., & Riesman, D. (1978). "The activist-radical impulse: The College for Human Services." In The Perpetual Dream: Reform and Experiment in the American College (pp. 135-176). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
3. ↑ Cohen, A. C. (1997). The service society and a theory of learning linking education work life. New York: Audrey Cohen College. (Original work published 1976), p. 3
4. ↑ Cantor, J. A. (1995). "Experiential learning in higher education: Linking classroom and community." ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report No. 7. Washington, DC: The George Washington University, Graduate School of Education and Human Development.
   Fenwick, T. J. (2003). Learning through experience: Troubling orthodoxies and intersecting questions. Malabar, FL: Krieger.
   Malinen, A. Towards the essence of adult experiential learning: A reading of the theories of Knowles, Kolb, Mezirow, Revans and Schon. University of Jyvskyla: SoPhi, 2000.
   Merriam, S. B., Caffarella, R. S., & Baumgartner, L. M. Learning in adulthood: A comprehensive guide (3rd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2007.
5. ↑ Cohen, A. C. The service society and a theory of learning linking education work life. New York: Audrey Cohen College, 1997. (Original work published 1976), p. 17
6. ↑ Cohen, A. C. The third alternative. New York: College for Human Services, 1988. (Original work published 1975), p. 13
7. ↑ Ibid., p. 18
8. ↑ Cohen, A. C. "Human service". In Arthur W. Chickering and Associates (Ed.), The modern American college (pp. 512-528). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass 1988.
9. ↑ Cohen, A. C. The service society and a theory of learning linking education work life. New York: Audrey Cohen College, 1997. (Original work published 1976), p. 17
10. ↑ Walton, B. J. (Ed.). (1982). The College for Human Services: An applied transdisciplinary curriculum. New York: College for Human Services, 1982. pp. II-III; italics added
11. ↑ Campbell. J. Understanding John Dewey: Nature and cooperative intelligence. Chicago: Open Court, 1995, p. 68
12. ↑ For a discussion of alternative versions of experiential learning and nuances in the understanding of experience, see Fenwick, T. J. Learning through experience: Troubling orthodoxies and intersecting questions. Malabar, FL: Krieger, 2003.
    Malinen, A. Towards the essence of adult experiential learning: A reading of the theories of Knowles, Kolb, Mezirow, Revans and Schon. University of Jyvskyla: SoPhi, 2000.
    Merriam, S. B., Caffarella, R. S., & Baumgartner, L. M. Learning in adulthood: A comprehensive guide (3rd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2007.
13. ↑ Miettinen, R. "The concept of experiential learning and John Dewey’s theory of reflective thought and action". International Journal of Lifelong Education, 19(1):(2000, January-February), pp. 54-72.
14. ↑ Kolb, D. A. Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1984, p. 41
15. ↑ Kolb, D. A., Boyatzis, R. E., & Mainemelis, C. Experiential learning theory: Previous research and new directions, Retrieved March 23, 2007, from [1] pp. 2-3
16. ↑ Kolb, D. A. Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development, p. 21
17. ↑ Ibid., p. 30
18. ↑ Lacey, A. "Empiricism." In T. Honderich (Ed.), The Oxford companion to philosophy 2nd ed., New York: Oxford University Press, 2005
19. ↑ Miettinen, R. "The concept of experiential learning and John Dewey’s theory of reflective thought and action". International Journal of Lifelong Education, 19(1):(2000, January-February), p. 62
20. ↑ Ibid., p. 62
21. ↑ Usher, R., Bryant, I., & Johnston, R. Adult education and the postmodern challenge: Learning beyond the limits. New York: Routledge, 1997, p. 101
22. ↑ Kolb, Boyatzis, & Mainemelis, p. 3
23. ↑ Dretske, F. (2005). Experience. In T. Honderich (Ed.), The Oxford companion to philosophy (2nd ed., p. 281). New York: Oxford University Press, 205, p. 281
24. ↑ Cohen, A., & Jordan, J. "Audrey Cohen College system of education: Purpose-centered education," in S. Stringfield, S. Ross, & L. Smith (Eds.), Bold plans for school restructuring (pp. 25-51). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 1996, p. 30
25. ↑ See Metropolitan College of New York, A Special Terminology
26. ↑ For definitions, see Cohen, A. C. "The citizen as the integrating agent: Productivity in the human services." Human Services Monograph Series (Project SHARE, No. 9, 1978, September) pp. 1, 5; see also Cohen, A. "Empowerment: Toward a new definition of self-help." In H. S. Harris & D. C. Maloney (Eds.), Human services: Contemporary issues and trends. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1996.
27. ↑ Cohen, A. C. "The citizen as the integrating agent: Productivity in the human services." Human Services Monograph Series (Project SHARE, No. 9, 1978, September) p. 70
28. ↑ Marx, K. "Theses on Feuerbach." In R. C. Tucker (Ed.), The Marx-Engels reader New York: W. W. Norton, 1972. (Original work published 1888), p. 109
29. ↑ Gwartney, J. D., Stroup, R. L., & Sobel, R. S. Economics: Private and public choice (9th ed.). Fort Worth, TX: Dryden Press, 2000, p. 99

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