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