Experiential learning is the process of making meaning from direct experience, i.e., "learning
from experience". The experience can be staged or left open.
Aristotle once said, "For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by
doing them". David A. Kolb helped to popularize the idea of experiential learning drawing
heavily on the work of John Dewey, Kurt Lewin, and Jean Piaget. His work on experiential
learning has contributed greatly to expanding the philosophy of experiential education.
Overview Experiential learning is learning through
reflection on doing, which is often contrasted with rote or didactic learning. Experiential
learning is related to, but not synonymous with, experiential education, action learning,
adventure learning, free choice learning, cooperative learning, and service learning.
While there are relationships and connections between all these theories of education, importantly
they are also separate terms with separate meanings.
Experiential learning focuses on the learning process for the individual. It is often used
synonymously with the phrase "experiential education", however, while experiential learning
considers the individual learning process, experiential education should be considered
a broader philosophy of education. As such, it is concerned with issues such as the relationship
of teacher and student, as well as broader issues of educational structure and objectives.
An example of experiential learning is going to the zoo and learning through observation
and interaction with the zoo environment, as opposed to reading about animals from a
book. Thus, one makes discoveries and experiments with knowledge firsthand, instead of hearing
or reading about others' experiences. In business school, internship, and job-shadowing, opportunities
in a student’s field of interest are elevated as examples of valuable experiential learning
which contribute significantly to the student’s overall understanding of the real-time environment.
A third example of experiential learning involves learning how to ride a bike, a process which
can illustrate the widely known four-step experiential learning model as purported by
Kolb and outlined in Figure 1 below. Following this example, in the "concrete experience"
stage, the learner physically experiences the bike in the "here-and-now". This experience
forms "the basis for observation and reflection" and the learner has the opportunity to consider
what is working or failing, and to think about ways to improve on the next attempt made at
riding. Every new attempt to ride is informed by a cyclical pattern of previous experience,
thought and reflection. Figure 1 – David Kolb’s Experiential Learning
Model Experiential learning can exist without a
teacher and relates solely to the meaning-making process of the individual's direct experience.
However, though the gaining of knowledge is an inherent process that occurs naturally,
for a genuine learning experience to occur, there must exist certain elements. According
to David A. Kolb, an American educational theorist, knowledge is continuously gained
through both personal and environmental experiences. Kolb states that in order to gain genuine
knowledge from an experience, certain abilities are required:
The learner must be willing to be actively involved in the experience;
The learner must be able to reflect on the experience;
The learner must possess and use analytical skills to conceptualize the experience; and
The learner must possess decision making and problem solving skills in order to use the
new ideas gained from the experience. Implementation
Experiential activities are among the most powerful teaching and learning tools available.
Experiential learning requires self-initiative, an "intention to learn" and an "active phase
of learning". Kolb's cycle of experiential learning can be used as a framework for considering
the different stages involved. Jennifer A. Moon has elaborated on this cycle to argue
that experiential learning is most effective when it involves: 1) a "reflective learning
phase" 2) a phase of learning resulting from the actions inherent to experiential learning,
and 3) "a further phase of learning from feedback". This process of learning can result in "changes
in judgment, feeling or skills" for the individual and can provide direction for the "making
of judgments as a guide to choice and action". Most educators understand the important role
experience plays in the learning process. The role of emotion and feelings in learning
from experience has been recognised as an important part of experiential learning. While
those factors may improve the likelihood of experiential learning occurring, it can occur
without them. Rather, what is vital in experiential learning is that the individual is encouraged
to directly involve themselves in the experience, and then to reflect on their experiences using
analytic skills, in order that they gain a better understanding of the new knowledge
and retain the information for a longer time. Reflection is a crucial part of the experiential
learning process, and like experiential learning itself, it can be facilitated or independent.
Dewey wrote that "successive portions of reflective thought grow out of one another and support
one another", creating a scaffold for further learning, and allowing for further experiences
and reflection. This reinforces the fact that experiential learning and reflective learning
are iterative processes, and the learning builds and develops with further reflection
and experience. Facilitation of experiential learning and reflection is challenging, but
"a skilled facilitator, asking the right questions and guiding reflective conversation before,
during, and after an experience, can help open a gateway to powerful new thinking and
learning". Jacobson and Ruddy, building on Kolb's four-stage Experiential Learning Model
and Pfeiffer and Jones's five stage Experiential Learning Cycle, took these theoretical frameworks
and created a simple, practical questioning model for facilitators to use in promoting
critical reflection in experiential learning. Their "5 Questions" model is as follows:
Did you notice...? Why did that happen?
Does that happen in life? Why does that happen?
How can you use that? These questions are posed by the facilitator
after an experience, and gradually lead the group towards a critical reflection on their
experience, and an understanding of how they can apply the learning to their own life.
Although the questions are simple, they allow a relatively inexperienced facilitator to
apply the theories of Kolb, Pfeiffer, and Jones, and deepen the learning of the group.
While it is the learner's experience that is most important to the learning process,
it is also important not to forget the wealth of experience a good facilitator also brings
to the situation. However, while a "facilitator", traditionally called a "teacher", may improve
the likelihood of experiential learning occurring, a "facilitator" is not essential to experiential
learning. Rather, the mechanism of experiential learning is the learner's reflection on experiences
using analytic skills. This can occur without the presence of a facilitator, meaning that
experiential learning is not defined by the presence of a facilitator. Yet, by considering
experiential learning in developing course or program content, it provides an opportunity
to develop a framework for adapting varying teaching/learning techniques into the classroom.
Experiential learning in schools Think Global School is a four-year traveling
high school that holds classes in a new country each term. Students engage in experiential
learning through activities such as workshops, cultural exchanges, museum tours, and nature
expeditions. The Dawson School in Boulder, Colorado, devotes
two weeks of each school year to experiential learning, with students visiting surrounding
states to engage in community service, visit museums and scientific institutions, and engage
in activities such as mountain biking, backpacking, and canoeing.
Experiential learning in business education As higher education continues to adapt to
new expectations from students, experiential learning in business and accounting programs
has become more important. For example, Clark & White point out that "a quality university
business education program must include an experiential learning component". With reference
to this study, employers note that graduating students need to build skills in “professionalism”
– which can be taught via experiential learning. Students also value this learning as much
as industry. Learning styles also impact business education
in the classroom. Kolb transposes four learning styles, Diverger, Assimilator, Accommodator
and Converger, atop the Experiential Learning Model, using the four experiential learning
stages to carve out "four quadrants", one for each learning style. An individual’s
dominant learning style can be identified by taking Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory.
Robert Loo undertook a meta-analysis of 8 studies which revealed that Kolb’s learning
styles were not equally distributed among business majors in the sample. More specifically,
results indicated that there appears to be a high proportion of assimilators and a lower
proportion of accommodators than expected for business majors. Not surprisingly, within
the accounting sub-sample there was a higher proportion of convergers and a lower proportion
of accommodators. Similarly, in the finance sub-sample, a higher proportion of assimilators
and lower proportion of divergers was apparent. Within the marketing sub-sample there was
an equal distribution of styles. This would provide some evidence to suggest that while
it is useful for educators to be aware of common learning styles within business and
accounting programs, they should be encouraging students to use all four learning styles appropriately
and students should use a wide range of learning methods.
Professional education applications, also known as management training or organizational
development, apply experiential learning techniques in training employees at all levels within
the business and professional environment. Interactive, role-play based customer service
training is often used in large retail chains. Training board games simulating business and
professional situations such as the Beer Distribution Game used to teach supply chain management,
and the Friday Night at the ER game used to teach systems thinking, are used in business
training efforts. Comparisons
Experiential learning is most easily compared with academic learning, the process of acquiring
information through the study of a subject without the necessity for direct experience.
While the dimensions of experiential learning are analysis, initiative, and immersion, the
dimensions of academic learning are constructive learning and reproductive learning. Though
both methods aim at instilling new knowledge in the learner, academic learning does so
through more abstract, classroom-based techniques, whereas experiential learning actively involves
the learner in a concrete experience. See also
People John Dewey
Paulo Freire David A. Kolb
Carl Rogers Jean Piaget
Maria Montessori Rudolf Steiner
Kurt Hahn See also
References