Experiential Learning of Business Practicum Students

Research Paper from the year 2015 in the subject Pedagogy - Higher Education, grade: 95.00, , language: English, abstract: This study used the theory of experiential learning to evaluate the business practicum program. Previous research emphasized on the importance of practicum course in the business curriculum; however, the literature was devoid of studies that focus on evaluating the practicum based on the experiential learning of students. One hundred forty five (145) students participated in the study and rated that their practicum program enabled and provided experiential learning. The factor analysis using the principal component analysis, orthogonal rotation with suppressed factor loading of 0.60 used to evaluate the practicum program. Analysis revealed only three factors, which explained 69.39 percent of the variance for the entire set of variables. The KMO and Bartlett's test of Sphericity (2255; p = 0) both indicated that the set of variables were least adequately related to factor analysis. The first factor identified as the concrete experience (DO); second factor identified as reflective observation (OBSERVE); third factor identified as the abstract concept (THINK); which explained 59.62, 7.38 and 5.09 percent of the variances respectively. This implied that the business practicum program fell short in completing the cycle through the last phase; testing new situation (PLAN). The study recommended measures for coordinators to complete the experiential learning.