Abstract:

Background:
The most valuable capital in organizations is the investment in human beings (Becker, 1993). Organizations need to focus on developing expertise and knowledge in individuals and groups (Swanson, 2022). We live in a knowledge economy where there is a need for skilled labor and education that has robust organizational structures and communication networks that support innovation (Roberts, 2016). As a result of the knowledge economy universities are offering more experiential learning programs that emphasize the development of skills and knowledge needed in the workplace to drive organizational goals and innovation (Servage, 2009). One trend at many universities is the development of scholar practitioners (Perry, 2020) in education doctoral (EDD) programs. These programs emphasize experiential learning that is transformative, allowing students to become leaders able to solve complex problems of practice (Perry, 2020).
EDD programs that focus on experiential learning tend to use andragogy (Knowles et al., 2020) to support and engage learning. These programs promote critical thinking skills that will help learners relate new knowledge to their own life experiences.
Theoretical Framework: This study utilized a theoretical framework of experiential learning, (Kolb, 1984) integrative learning (Huber et al., 2004) and transformative learning (Taylor & Cranton, 2012) to explore how students learn and apply their learning to their work.

Methods:
The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological research study was to explore the perceptions and lived experiences of students from a scholarly practitioner EDD program. The researcher sought to understand the students’ perception of how an EDD program grounded in experiential and integrative learning shaped students’ learning. Data was collected from the first 11 participants who responded to open-ended questions on Survey Monkey. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Themes were identified, and their implications were theorized relative to previous literature. Four themes emerged.

Results:
One emergent theme was students did not need to imagine how they were going to apply what they were learning, instead they were able to apply what they learned directly to real world problems. The second emergent theme was students were able to draw on what they had studied to contribute innovative ideas to solve difficult problems and implement change. The third emergent theme was students developed interdisciplinary perspectives by learning from students in other disciplines that lead to more engaging and relevant understanding of the material. The fourth emergent theme was students learning experience was transformative.

Conclusions:
Due to integrative learning in classes, students transformed their thinking enabling them to solve problems and effect change as a leader in their organizations. Students also developed an interdisciplinary perspective by learning from their classmates. EDD programs that espouse experiential learning have the capacity to develop leaders that will contribute to the knowledge economy.

Keywords:

Experiential Learning, Integrative Learning, Education Doctorate, Knowledge Economy.