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Assume you’ve transformed your classroom into a fake state legislature. You’ve given your pupils the duty of developing and passing new legislation governing the usage of a forest on state-owned property. While some student groups administer state government branches, others represent special interest groups, such as an environmental advocacy group, local companies, and concerned citizens. Your kids are so focused on their objectives and duties that they are unaware that they are learning a lot about how laws are made and disagreements are settled. Your kids are participating in experiential learning, which involves learning by doing. Experiential learning includes simulations, role plays, project-based learning, and any other immersive educational activity.
According to David Kolb, a typical experiential learning cycle involves four stages: action, reflection, conceptualization, and application. The experience, or deed, serves to ground pupils in a shared context, which they may then discuss. The instructor assists students in identifying and naming their observations as specific knowledge or abilities during or after the reflection process. Students apply what they’ve learned in the final phase to new situations.
Experiential exercises like the one above are crucial because they offer a particularly authentic kind of learning since they are inspired by real-world situations and demand considerable participation. They also ensure that the intellectual heavy work of deriving meaning from experience is done by students rather than the teacher.
The Importance of Experiential Learning
Experiential learning allows students to take charge of their studies, figure out what works best for them, and then assess their own success as they go through an experience. Because a student is encouraged to actively participate in the topic rather than passively consume knowledge, he is more likely to learn and remember what he has learned.
Experiential learning necessitates “intention to learn” on the part of the learner. As a result, it’s vital to persuade the student that the knowledge being taught is usable before you start teaching it. Adult learners must first understand why they need to know before they can be taught. This is even more crucial with experiential learning because most of the learning is self-directed. Students must put forth the effort by testing, pondering, analyzing, and generating new hypotheses about how things function. This takes time and effort, and no adult will do it unless they are sure that it would benefit them.
What is the process of Experiential Learning?
Field excursions for conservation, outdoor education, or job exploration, group work in and out of the classroom, open-ended discussion activities, and active and open-ended questioning direction are all examples of experiential learning activities. Students of all ages learn better when they apply ideas in practice to solve real-world issues, actively make decisions, and then reflect on the results or repercussions of their learning activities and decisions, according to research.
When it comes to developing experiential learning activities, the instructor becomes more of a facilitator. Experiential learning is not a new concept in education, and it goes by several names in different countries, including flexible learning, service learning, community involvement, community participation, and outdoor education.
The facilitator poses challenges or difficulties to the students, who are then given the freedom (with direction) to come up with solutions. The facilitator can then watch and steer the learning process as it unfolds. This implies that problems and misconceptions may be addressed right away as part of the learning process, rather than being fixed later after the project/s are finished, making it a far more active problem-solving process.
Experiential Learning Improves the Effectiveness of Instruction
Every teacher wants to know that their instruction was effective and that their pupils benefited from it. You may do the following things by combining experiential learning into your curricular learning:
- Provide a secure learning environment where students may make errors and learn from them without facing negative repercussions.
- By applying knowledge and expertise, learners are able to boost idea memory by moving beyond theory and into the domain of “first-hand” experience.
- Significant chances to practice skills such as leadership, empathy, cooperation, and communication, result in a true attitude shift.
- Increase ownership and, as a result, learner engagement.
- The demand for deep learning, as well as the focus and concentration required to actively produce their own learning, substantially accelerates the learning process.
- Individualizes the learning process according to individual strengths and areas for improvement.
Experiential Learning Comes in a Variety of Forms
Experiential learning may take numerous forms, such as experiments, field research/field excursions, gamification, internships, and group work. Service Learning is a type of experiential learning that involves immersing students in the local community and teaching via service projects in the context of the greater school community. Students get a sense of leadership and empowerment as a result of these sorts of learning activities, as they see how they can make a genuine difference in their community.
Service Learning is not a new pedagogical method to teaching and learning; it has been around for 20 years. There is a great deal of research and statistics to back up why all schools should incorporate service learning. According to John Hattie’s research on the effects of Visible Learning on learning, Service Learning has an effect size of.58, which is higher than the yearly growth of.40.
Traditional to Experiential Learning: Creating a Mindset Shift
Experiential learning may help learners develop strong attitude shifts, improve their awareness of the world around them, and increase their potential to make a positive influence now, rather than waiting until they are certified or have completed their schooling.
It’s understandable that “learning by doing” provides a rich platform for deeper learning, quicker learning, and the development of real-world skills and character. Traditional and academic learning will always have a role in experiential learning and may be used as a starting point for an engaging experience. Experiential learning reduces the number of options for ‘checking out.’
The distinction between theory and practice is something that everyone can connect to from personal experience. An academic may have a plethora of content knowledge about a topic via books, but when it comes to putting that knowledge into practice, they may have a very different experience. When it comes to practical application, traditional schooling leaves a lot to be desired. Experiential learning, such as service learning, better equips and prepares students for success beyond the classroom. It combines concepts, passions, abilities, knowledge, and dispositions in partnership with the community, making learning more meaningful.
Also read: Reading in the Virtual Classroom
FAQs
Question 1: What is the role of online learning in experiential learning?
Answer 1: In eLearning, simulations allow students to interact with settings that are similar to their real-world work contexts, opening the path for “doing and learning.” Learners may use their knowledge in a variety of contexts and circumstances by actively practising and experimenting in eLearning simulations.
Question 2: What are the benefits of using interactive learning techniques?
Answer 2: PLT (Participatory Learning Technique) is a method of classroom organization that encourages students to engage in the act of teaching, which is a peer-based learning process. It involves collaborative learning and participatory learning. Students engage with one another and learn from one another.
Question 3: Is studying abroad a form of experiential education?
Answer 3: Study abroad programmes are becoming more and more accepted as legitimate kinds of experiential learning. Study abroad programmes move students outside their comfort zones, allowing them to transform their experience into meaningful learning via reflection on what they’ve learned.
