TRANSCRIPT OF VITA's VIDEO's Something Happens D: I'm going to ask you about Pedler and Burgoyne's model of experiential learning, which is a concept devised by David Kolb, based on the notion that you learn from experience. I'm going to ask you four very simple questions and what I'd like you do to is first of all start off by telling me about something that happened, which you would like to explore a little bit more. V: The thing that happened was that I decided to quit my university in Lithuania and come here. Start my studies here in a totally different system, to be able to get a better education - A western education. What Happens? D: The next question is what happened? By that I mean what was it like for you? V: Well, first, before starting my studies I was very scared. I didn't know what it would be like because I heard that it's very different; you have to discuss, you have to always say what you mean. I wasn't sure if I would be able to do that because I never had this experience in my country. There everything was based on lecturers' opinion, lecturers' books they had written. They used to read the books word by word and we had to write those words word by word. D: And how did you find it? V: Actually I used to just skip the lectures. I never went there because it was a waste of time. Just writing down. If you didn't understand something and you ask 'what does it mean?' they used to say 'I don't know, just read in the book'. D: So you were worried about what would happen when you got here. You had a model of education where you come from. So how did you find it? What was different? V: It was what I was expecting. That's why I came here. I found exactly what I wanted. It was individual work and group work together, discussing true case studies in the seminars and writing reports. In this module I learnt how to write reports. It was also very useful because we had a chance to learn to work together in a team. I found myself to be a good leader. D: I was going to say was there something you took from that experience? You mention leadership. V: The most important thing was discovering my leadership skills. At the beginning it was very hard to make all the team work and I didn't know exactly what to do either. But then somehow I thought I need a good mark - so if I need a good mark I have to try to motivate them, control them and organise. Everyone did separate things and I just made sure that they were all well done. If something was wrong we all discussed and offered some solutions. And it really worked. It was well done. The presentation was great. So What? D: You discovered this but so what? V: Well, it means I can also be successful in the following semesters. I certainly have more group work in other semesters and it would be very helpful to try the same things with different people with different personalities. More leaders. It will certainly help in my future career. I learnt to write reports. When I came here I found out that I would have to write four or three reports during this semester and I was scared, really scared, because I didn't know anything about writing. In my country writing was just copy paste, copy paste, straight from the book. No one cared about plagiarism. Here everyone was talking about plagiarism and I was so scared. I thought maybe if I just write the same idea in different words maybe they would call it plagiarism. D: So this was going on – what happened? V: Then I just tried to read the article or something and then think and reflect that in my own words. I hope it worked. D: What kind of things did you do to make that happen? V: I just spent some time thinking. For two days after reading the article I was thinking. Thinking what was exactly relevant to my report, what I could use and then just applying it to my report. What next? D: What next? So now what? How can you build on this? V: Well I will write more reports. D: Do you do any other kind of writing? V: No mostly reports. I have mostly reports. This really helped because I think that every semester they will become more and more difficult. They will become bigger, with more complicated problems, solutions and so on. So it will really help me. D: Do you keep a diary or journal? V: Of the studying you mean? No, I always keep everything in my mind. D: Surely that's something you might want to think about? V: No, I never write these things. I should learn actually. I was thinking that if you write things down it helps you. Like the dates when you have to hand in your reports, and some other important dates and your ideas about these things. It should help. I haven't tried it but I will try. D: So that's another 'so what' isn't it? So that's something for the future. Something you can try out. V: Yes. I'm sure that in the following semesters I have to learn how to write essays. That's another kind of writing. It will be a different layout but I will be able to apply some skills I already have, like researching on the Internet, in the articles and so on, and also referencing, which prevents you from being called a plagiariser. I'll surely be able to apply all these things but I have to know new things about essays because now I know nothing about that. I know nothing about what it is and what I have to write. So this is the thing that makes me a little bit worried. But as I know I have some skills from report writing, I will do well. D: So what now for you might be to learn to apply the skills you learnt in report writing and adapt them for essay writing and learn some new skills too? V: Yes, I guess. Actually, an essay – I know what it is. As far as I know it should be more flexible and not as formal as a report. So I have to learn to write in a new way, find new writing skills. Write in a more flexible way. A less formal way. D: And you have already done that in report writing. V: Yes, it should be a little bit different but more or less the same. I've done some essays in exams but I'm not sure if they're exactly what they're going to be in the future. So I will have to wait and see.