The Importance Of Experiential Learning

Students engage in experiential learning and co-curricular activities that take abstract ideas and anchor them in real-life problems. (Coye 20 [9])

[3] Infed - (2010) David A. Kolb on experiential learning [Online] Available from: http://infed.org/mobi/david-a-kolb-on-experiential-learning/ [12/01/15]

When you picture a classroom, what do you think of? You more than likely picture a chalkboard, desks for all the students and teacher. A new way of teaching has developed that removes students from the stereotypical environment and places they in a new and engaging environment. This is experiential education.

Experiential learning however is closely related to vocational education in that it relies on learner’s ability to apply knowledge to situations that they have a personal interest in. In doing this, it creates opportunity for valuable learner involvement and significant learning (Beard and Wilson, 2006)

Another of my teaching methods delivered is by way of ‘on the job’ training which allows me to assess their progress, explore their knowledge and skill by observing and questioning their processes. This method of teaching falls in with Kolbs (1984) four stage experiential learning cycle.

As an experiential cognitivist I delineate the process of learning through experience, and learning through

To do this, you always find other ways of doing things based on our must think of a particular moment in time, ponder over it, learning from previous experiences. We will go back through it and only then will you gain new insights into different aspects of that situation. According to Kolb Building up experience is a gradual process. The student (1984) reflecting is an essential element of learning. This is will develop reflective abilities during the course of their shown through an experiential learning cycle illustrated learning on placement.

David Kolb developed a learning theory that involves concrete concepts which learners process experience. Kolb’s theory is based on intentions that learning takes place through four linear cycles based on experience and the personal changes that occur throughout that experience. As Kolb (1984) states, “learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience” (p. 38). Similar to other scholarly theories of learning, Kolb has many critics. I will discuss Kolb’s theory and summarize some of the critics to this theory. Also I will use Kolb’s theory and the critic’s comments to improve my approach to teaching.

Kolb states that learning is best conceived as a process, not in terms of outcomes but rather all learning is actually re-learning requiring the resolution of conflicts along with a holistic process of adaptation to the world. Learning results from synergetic transactions between the person and the environment, this is the process of creating knowledge (Kozak

The world is filled with different sorts of people who can learn information in particular ways. Numerous people can learn simply through being taught in a traditional classroom with the use of textbooks. Of course, countless other ways to learn new material are available for people. One approach I strongly feel is accurately observing tasks and inspecting all the angles of work being performed can contribute extra benefits to a person. Internships can help people or students analyze and learn what they could not in a traditional class setting. They can also provide students an enhanced understanding of what their future profession might involve. It is certainly challenging to learn concepts until a person is able to observe or experience them for his or herself. I chose to undergo an internship at a chiropractic clinic since my career goal is to become a chiropractor.

As a learner, I connect best as an experiential cognitivist, therefore I am able to delineate the process of learning through experience and learning through reflection of doing. The experiential learning provides me focus so I may reflect on such hands on experience so I may gain conceptual insight with pragmatic expertise (Bates, 2015, p.1, para. 3.6.2).

This inadvertently forced me to examine how being exposed to experience learning from kindergarten through high school made me the type of unique learner and individual that I am today. I have realized that I can largely attribute my ability to think creatively, passion for learning and strong critical thinking skills to the way I was socialized to learn. To this day, nearly ten years after graduating from the school that had such a profound impact on my life, I am still just as exited to learn now as I was then. I know that the school molded me into a lifelong learner that will always aim to seek the truth and stand up for what I believe in with the hope of making a positive impact on the world. It is my desire that through education reform, more schools will embrace the experiential education as a model for teaching and learning so that students can truly connect and apply the knowledge learned in school to real life situations that will not only transform the

Although this limitation can become a barrier for the experiential learning theory Rogers’ developed, it is possible for this to overcome this with patience. As the main purpose of this theory is to allow personal growth within the student, we must note that personal growth appears differently for each individual learner. The role of the facilitator is to help engage all types of students in self-motivated learning to help them improve their overall growth from significant information.

Kolb’s experiential learning cycle is a theory that argues that we learn from our experiences of life on a daily basis. Cognitive ability is the way people learn and Kolb believed from an early age we begin to develop a sort of instinctive preference as to the way we process information and use it. Kolb (1984) believes that the process of learning follows a pattern or cycle. Kolb’s cycle is made up of 4 stages; the first stage is concrete experience and Kolb believes that life is full of loads of different experiences that everyone can learn from and whether you are at home, work, school or even out shopping that there was experiences everywhere within those sectors and that it was a way for us to start the learning cycle. The concrete experience is the doing stage, the stage where you have the experience. We then have stage two which is reflective observation, this stage involved looking back at our experiences and reflecting on them. Stage three is the abstract conceptualisation which is

In the reading Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development by David Kolb (1984), he proposed that learning is a cycle process in which individuals learn through their own experiences in life. This notion of the learning cycle in which he was influenced by the ideas of three other theorists (Piaget, Dewey, and Lewinian) called it Experiential Learning Theory. Kolb’s theory was based on how people learned by imputing information and processing the information. Within this two abilities, there are four steps in which Kolb’s believe the learning process occurs. The first one he calls “concrete experience”, in which one actually does the learning right then and now. The second one is “reflective observation” when the learner thinks about what they did as a reflection of the experience. The next step is the “abstract conceptualization”, where the learner makes a generalization of the experience. The last step is “active experimentation”, where the learner puts to practice his/her understanding and adapts to it. The learner does this by taking all the first three steps of the learning cycle and seeing the results (pg. 30). Learning is a process in which individuals learn through trial and error. This process can then be reused with our prior experience to strengthen the outcome of our first experience. It is shaped as a cycle in the way we process information cognitively. This is how I understood of the reading on Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory.