Experiential learning

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Experiential learning (ExL) is the process of learning through experience, and is more narrowly defined as "learning through reflection on doing". [1] Hands-on learning can be a form of experiential learning, but does not necessarily involve students reflecting on their product. [2] [3] [4] Experiential learning is distinct from rote or didactic learning, in which the learner plays a comparatively passive role. [5] It is related to, but not synonymous with, other forms of active learning such as action learning, adventure learning, free-choice learning, cooperative learning, service-learning, and situated learning. [6]

Contents

Experiential learning is often used synonymously with the term "experiential education", but while experiential education is a broader philosophy of education, experiential learning considers the individual learning process. [7] As such, compared to experiential education, experiential learning is concerned with more concrete issues related to the learner and the learning context. Experiences "stick out" in the mind and assist with information retention. [8]

The general concept of learning through experience is ancient. Around 350 BC, Aristotle wrote in the Nicomachean Ethics "for the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them". [9] But as an articulated educational approach, experiential learning is of much more recent origin. Beginning in the 1970s, David A. Kolb helped develop the modern theory of experiential learning, drawing heavily on the work of John Dewey, Kurt Lewin, and Jean Piaget. [10]

Experiential learning has significant teaching advantages. Peter Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline (1990), states that teaching is of utmost importance to motivate people. Learning only has good effects when learners have the desire to absorb the knowledge. Therefore, experiential learning requires the showing of directions for learners. [11]

Experiential learning entails a hands-on approach to learning that moves away from just the teacher at the front of the room imparting and transferring their knowledge to students. It makes learning an experience that moves beyond the classroom and strives to bring a more involved way of learning.

Kolb's experiential learning model

Experiential learning focuses on the learning process for the individual. One 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. Likewise, in business school, internship, and job-shadowing, opportunities in a student's field of interest can provide valuable experiential learning which contributes significantly to the student's overall understanding of the real-world environment. [12]

A third example of experiential learning involves learning how to ride a bike, [13] a process which can illustrate the four-step experiential learning model (ELM) as set forth by Kolb [14] and outlined in Figure 1 below. Following this example, in the "concrete experience" stage, the learner physically interacts with the bike in the "here and now". [15] This experience forms "the basis for observation and reflection" and the learner has the opportunity to consider what is working or failing (reflective observation), formulate a generalized theory or idea about riding a bike in general (abstract conceptualization) and to think about ways to improve on the next attempt made at riding (active experimentation). Every new attempt to ride is informed by a cyclical pattern of previous experience, thought and reflection. [15]

Figure 1 – David Kolb's Experiential Learning Model (ELM) [16]

⮣Concrete Experience⮧
Active ExperimentationReflective Observation
⮤Abstract Conceptualization⮠

Elements

Experiential learning can occur 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, a genuine learning experience requires certain elements. [6] According to Kolb, knowledge is continuously gained through both personal and environmental experiences. [17] Kolb states that in order to gain genuine knowledge from an experience, the learner must have four abilities:

Implementation

Experiential learning requires self-initiative, an "intention to learn" and an "active phase of learning". [18] Kolb's cycle of experiential learning can be used as a framework for considering the different stages involved. [19] 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". [18] This process of learning can result in "changes in judgment, feeling or skills" for the individual [20] and can provide direction for the "making of judgments as a guide to choice and action". [21]

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. [18] 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. [22] 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". [23] Jacobson and Ruddy, building on Kolb's four-stage Experiential Learning Model [15] and Pfeiffer and Jones's five stage Experiential Learning Cycle, [24] 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: [23]

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. [23] 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, or "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. [25]

In schools

Experiential learning is supported in different school organizational models and learning environments.

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 (2010) point out that "a quality university business education program must include an experiential learning component". [34] With reference to this study, employers note that graduating students need to build skills in "professionalism" – which can be taught via experiential learning. Students value this learning as much as industry.

Learning styles also impact business education in the classroom. Kolb positions 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 (LSI). More recent researchers have argued that learning styles are a neuromyth, and that categorising learners according to styles is unhelpful and inaccurate. [35]

Robert Loo (2002) undertook a meta-analysis of 8 studies which revealed that Kolb's learning styles were not equally distributed among business majors in the sample. [36] 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. [36]

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. [37] 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. [38]

In business

Experiential business learning is the process of learning and developing business skills through the medium of shared experience. The main point of difference between this and academic learning is more “real-life” experience for the recipient. [39] [40] [41]

This may include for example, learning gained from a network of business leaders sharing best practice, or individuals being mentored or coached by a person who has faced similar challenges and issues, or simply listening to an expert or thought leader in current business thinking.

Providers of this type of experiential business learning often include membership organisations who offer product offerings such as peer group learning, professional business networking, expert/speaker sessions, mentoring and/or coaching.

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. [42] Though both methods aim to instill 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.

Benefits

See also

People

Subjects

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Learning theory (education)</span> Theory that describes how students receive, process, and retain knowledge during learning

Learning theory describes how students receive, process, and retain knowledge during learning. Cognitive, emotional, and environmental influences, as well as prior experience, all play a part in how understanding, or a worldview, is acquired or changed and knowledge and skills retained.

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Situated learning is a theory that explains an individual's acquisition of professional skills and includes research on apprenticeship into how legitimate peripheral participation leads to membership in a community of practice. Situated learning "takes as its focus the relationship between learning and the social situation in which it occurs".

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pedagogy</span> Theory and practice of education

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Experiential education</span> Philosophy of education

Experiential education is a philosophy of education that describes the process that occurs between a teacher and student that infuses direct experience with the learning environment and content. This concept is distinct from experiential learning, however experiential learning is a subfield and operates under the methodologies associated with experiential education. The Association for Experiential Education regards experiential education as "a philosophy that informs many methodologies in which educators purposefully engage with learners in direct experience and focused reflection in order to increase knowledge, develop skills, clarify values, and develop people's capacity to contribute to their communities". The Journal of Experiential Education publishes peer-reviewed empirical and theoretical academic research within the field.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Constructivism (philosophy of education)</span> Philosophical viewpoint about the nature of knowledge; theory of knowledge

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A learning cycle is a concept of how people learn from experience. A learning cycle will have a number of stages or phases, the last of which can be followed by the first.

David Allen Kolb is an American educational theorist whose interests and publications focus on experiential learning, the individual and social change, career development, and executive and professional education. He is the founder and chairman of Experience Based Learning Systems, LLC (EBLS), and an Emeritus Professor of Organizational Behavior in the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. Kolb has collaborated with his daughter Alice on research related to experiential learning and has co-authored several works with him.

Reflective practice is the ability to reflect on one's actions so as to take a critical stance or attitude towards one's own practice and that of one's peers, engaging in a process of continuous adaptation and learning. According to one definition it involves "paying critical attention to the practical values and theories which inform everyday actions, by examining practice reflectively and reflexively. This leads to developmental insight". A key rationale for reflective practice is that experience alone does not necessarily lead to learning; deliberate reflection on experience is essential.

Constructivist teaching is based on constructivism. Constructivist teaching is based on the belief that learning occurs as learners are actively involved in a process of meaning and knowledge construction as opposed to passively receiving information.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Medical simulation</span> Medical training and evaluation technique

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Learning by doing is a theory that places heavy emphasis on student engagement and is a hands-on, task-oriented, process to education. The theory refers to the process in which students actively participate in more practical and imaginative ways of learning. This process distinguishes itself from other learning approaches as it provides many pedagogical advantages to more traditional learning styles, such those which privilege inert knowledge. Learning-by-doing is related to other types of learning such as adventure learning, action learning, cooperative learning, experiential learning, peer learning, service-learning, and situated learning.

David A. Kolb published his experiential learning theory (ELT) in 1984, inspired by the work of the gestalt psychologist Kurt Lewin, as well as John Dewey and Jean Piaget. The approach works on two levels: a four-stage learning cycle and four distinct learning styles. Kolb's experiential learning theory has a holistic perspective which includes experience, perception, cognition and behaviour. It is a method where a person's skills and job requirements can be assessed in the same language that its commensurability can be measured.

References

  1. ↑ Felicia, Patrick (2011). Handbook of Research on Improving Learning and Motivation. IGI Global. p. 1003. ISBN   978-1609604967.
  2. ↑ The Out of Eden Walk: An Experiential Learning Journey from the Virtual to the Real, Edutopia, January 3, 2014. Retrieved 2016-03-16
  3. ↑ Action Learning – How does it work in practice? MIT Sloan Management. Retrieved 2016-03-16 Archived 2016-03-08 at the Wayback Machine
  4. ↑ The Power of Experiential Learning, 4-H Cooperative Curriculum System. Retrieved 2016-03-16 Archived 2016-03-06 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ↑ Beard, Colin (2010). The Experiential Learning Toolkit: Blending Practice with Concepts. Kogan Page Publishers. p. 20. ISBN   9780749459345.
  6. 1 2 Itin, C. M. (1999). Reasserting the Philosophy of Experiential Education as a Vehicle for Change in the 21st Century. The Journal of Physical Education 22(2), p. 91-98.
  7. ↑ Breunig, Mary C. (2009). "Teaching Dewey's Experience and Education Experientially". In Stremba, Bob; Bisson, Christian A. (eds.). Teaching Adventure Education Theory: Best Practices. Human Kinetics. p. 122. ISBN   9780736071260.
  8. ↑ "Experiential Learning Theory". Western Governors University. 2021-08-11. Retrieved 2024-05-11.
  9. ↑ Nicomachean Ethics, Book 2, Chase translation (1911).
  10. ↑ Dixon, Nancy M.; Adams, Doris E.; Cullins, Richard (1997). "Learning Style". Assessment, Development, and Measurement. American Society for Training and Development. p. 41. ISBN   9781562860493.
  11. ↑ Hawtrey, Kim (2007). "Using Experiential Learning Techniques". Journal of Economic Education. 38 (2): 143–152. doi:10.3200/JECE.38.2.143-152. S2CID   144914124. ProQuest   235244213.
  12. ↑ McCarthy, P. R., & McCarthy, H. M. (2006). When Case Studies Are Not Enough: Integrating Experiential Learning Into Business Curricula. Journal of Education for Business, 81(4), pp. 201–204.
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  14. ↑ Loo, R. (2002). A Meta-Analytic Examination of Kolb's Learning Style Preferences Among Business Majors. Journal of Education for Business, 77:5, 252–256
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  18. 1 2 3 Moon, J. (2004). A Handbook of Reflective and Experiential Learning:Theory and Practice. London: Routledge Falmer. p. 126.
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  20. ↑ Chickering, A (1977). Experience and Learning. New York: Change Magazine Press. p. 63.
  21. ↑ Hutton, M. (1980). Learning from action: a conceptual framework, in S. Warner Weil and M. McGill (eds) Making Sense of Experiential Learning. Milton Keynes: SRHE/Open University Press. pp. 50–9, p. 51.
  22. ↑ Kompf, M., & Bond, R. (2001). Critical reflection in adult education. In T. Barer-Stein & M. Kompf (Eds.), The craft of teaching adults (p. 55). Toronto, ON: Irwin.
  23. 1 2 3 Jacobson, M. & Ruddy, M. (2004) Open to outcome (p. 2). Oklahoma City, OK: Wood 'N' Barnes.
  24. ↑ Pfeiffer, W. & Jones, J. E. (1975). A Handbook of Structured Experiences for Human Relations Training. La Jolla, California: University Associates.
  25. ↑ Rodrigues, C. A. (2004). The importance level of ten teaching/learning techniques as rated by university business students and instructors. Journal of Management Development, 23(2), pp. 169–182.
  26. ↑ ELENA project leader
  27. ↑ CertificationPoint
  28. ↑ Staff, Noodle. "41 Choose Your Future: Early College STEM Schools" . Retrieved 2019-09-19.
  29. ↑ Out Teach
  30. ↑ Life Lab
  31. ↑ Nature Explore
  32. ↑ National Wildlife Federation
  33. ↑ The European Youth Parliament
  34. ↑ Clark, J., & White, G. (2010). "Experiential Learning: A Definitive Edge In The Job Market". American Journal of Business Education, 3(2), pp. 115–118.
  35. ↑ "Learning Styles: A Misguided Attempt to Highlight Individual Differences in Learners". 25 May 2017.
  36. 1 2 Loo, R. (2002). "A Meta-Analytic Examination of Kolb's Learning Style Preferences Among Business Majors". Journal of Education for Business, 77:5, 252–256
  37. ↑ "Experiential Learning". 8 July 2014.
  38. ↑ Faria, Anthony J. (December 1990). "4" (PDF). Business Simulation Games after Thirty Years: Current Usage Levels in the United States in Gentry (ed.) Guide to Business Gaming and Experiential Learning. The University of Michigan: Nichols/GP Pub., 1990. pp. 36–47. ISBN   978-0893973698. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 May 2014. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
  39. ↑ "David A. Kolb on experiential learning". infed.org. 2013-04-26. Retrieved 2018-10-15.
  40. ↑ Greenaway, Tim Pickles and Roger. "Experiential learning articles + critiques of David Kolb's theory". www.reviewing.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-10-15.
  41. ↑ Council, Young Entrepreneur. "Seven Mentorship Methods And Opportunities Entrepreneurs Should Remember". Forbes. Retrieved 2018-10-15.
  42. ↑ Stavenga de Jong, J. A., Wierstra, R. F. A. and Hermanussen, J. (2006) "An exploration of the relationship between academic and experiential learning approaches in vocational education", British Journal of Educational Psychology. 76;1. pp. 155–169.
  43. ↑ "Bus Driver Simulation Training". FAAC. Retrieved 13 January 2020.
  44. ↑ "The Benefits of Experiential Learning".
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