Doing it for real: A study of experiential and situated learning approaches in teaching journalism practice

In recent years there has been a huge growth in apprenticeship and internship style learning in the UK but does this provide students with a safe place to make mistakes or are they simply mirroring the mistakes of others? This paper will examine the application of the Experiential Learning Cycle of Kolb (Kolb, 1984) in journalism education alongside the Situated Learning and Communities of Practice approach as advocated by Lave and Wenger (Lave and Wenger, 1991). It will examine the ethical challenges faced using both models in relation to creating a safe place to make mistakes in an era of intense pressure to engage in the public domain. The author will do this by looking at two case studies of universities in the UK teaching journalism through practice and adopting different approaches to students engaging with industry and placing their work in the public domain and the ethical and pedagogical challenges this produces