Abstract
The purpose of this study is to elucidate the characteristics of the experiential learning for teachers in conformity with the context of educational practice in order to develop a model of factors contributing to such learning. For this purpose we have conducted two researches.In the first study, we interviewed school principals who had had extensive administrative experiences in education. The results of the interviews have shown us that it is possible to view teachers’ learning from the point of view of the “condition in which teachers learn from experience” and that their awareness of the condition along with a small adjustment of it within their community becomes a key. Based on this finding, a model of experiential learning for teachers has been developed.In the second study, the life histories of three teachers—one young, another middle-aged, and still another expert teacher—were analyzed on the basis of the experiential learning model developed in the first study. As a result of the second study, it has been made clear that whether a teacher learns from experience depends on the teacher’s condition in his/her teaching community. Thus, the key for opening up an amenable condition for teachers’ experiential learning is to take into consideration the community both inside and outside of their profession, in such a way as to transfer teachers to other schools in addition to inducing them to objectify their own practice. And further, we indicated validity and possibility of the improvement of the model.
