INVESTIGATION OF THE LEARNING PROCESS IN A RECURRENT EDUCATION PROGRAM WITH DESIGN AND ART THINKING

Recurrent education attracts a lot of interest these days. However, it is unclear how working adults in recurrent educational programs gain learning in the experience. Thus, this study aims to clarify the learning process by adopting the proposed framework for analysis. The “LAD (Learning Acquisition and Depth) framework” was developed based on Kolb’s experiential learning model and Reflection Intensity framework by Hartmann et al. to enable the investigation of the learning process and depth by analyzing participants’ reflections. The recurrent educational program employing design and art thinking was targeted, and semi-structured interviews with four participants were conducted. The proposed framework could visualize the learning process into four reflection levels and structure the link among small learnings. In addition, the result also implies that the current framework needs to incorporate the participants’ learning within their workplaces to holistically understand the process, which might be unique to the recurrent education. This study could contribute to understanding the learning process and improving the educational project-based programs.