Difference between revisions of "Experiential Learning"

Difference between revisions of "Experiential Learning"

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{{Term|EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING|Process by which participants learn through personal experience and involvement. Experience is translated into concepts then used to guide choices in new situations, building new experiences. The theory of experiential learning has been developed by the psychologist David Kolb who sees immediate and concrete experiences as the basis for observation and reflection. <ref>[http://www.businessballs.com www.businessballs.com](22 May 2009), [http://www.odi.org.uk/alnap www.odi.org.uk/alnap] (30 June 2008), [http://www.reliefweb.int www.reliefweb.int] (30 June 2008) </ref>  
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{{Term|EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING |Experiential learning emphasizes the central role that experience plays in the learning process. Its intellectual origins is rooted to the argument that all learning is grounded in experience – hearing a lecture, reading a book, painting a picture, campaigning for a cause, and that there can be no learning without experience.<ref>[Dewey, J. (1859-1952). An American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer.</ref>  
  
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Notably, much learning, perhaps the most important learning, is acquired through daily life, without planning.
  
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Kolb’s experiential learning model consists of four learning styles:}}
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There can be activity without learning, but for experience to be educational, the focus has to be centred on the conditions of the learning activity. These give concrete form to abstract ideas – it may even make abstract knowledge more useable. In contrast to information assimilation, experiential learning begins with action and moves through the generalisation of a principle derived from that action and its application in another situation.<ref>[Coleman (1977) « Differences Between Experiential and Classroom Learning ». In Experiential Learning: Rationale, Characteristics, and Assessment by M.T. Keeton and Associates. San Fransisco: Jossy-Bass Inc.</ref>
  
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{| style="border:1px solid #8c96d4;background:#8c96d4;color:white;" 
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One of the attractions of experiential learning is the possibility of improving the learners’ ability to apply their learning focused on their intrinsic motivation. Learners learn experientially by reflecting on experiences, developing personal insights and understanding through involvement in intellectual, emotional and physical activity.
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Experiential learning has the capacity to elicit a wider range of learner responses than conventional classroom learning, ethical and emotional reactions are called forth along with physical activity and social engagement.<ref>[Experiential Learning Programs for Youth, Stephen F. Hamilton in American Journal of Education , Vol. 88, No. 2 (Feb., 1980) 179-215, The University of Chicago Press. URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1085305.</ref>
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! width= "825pt" | <font color= white> Learning Style </font>
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! width= "825pt" | <font color= white> Examples </font>
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|- style="border:1px solid #D87A35;background:white;color:black;" 
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| Concrete Experience    (''Feeling'')
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|    Attending training workshops
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|- style="border:1px solid #8c96d4;background:white;color:black;" 
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| Reflective Observation    (''Watching'') ||    Self-reflection, peer observation and assessment
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|- style="border:1px solid #8c96d4;background:white;color:black;" 
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| Abstract Conceptualization    (''Thinking'') ||    Readings and personal development
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|- style="border:1px solid #8c96d4;background:white;color:black;" 
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| Active Experimentation    (''Doing'') ||    Put lessons learned into practice
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|}{{Termaddition|Experiential learning enables each individual to learn according to the learning style which is more comfortable for him/her. While conventional learning is focused on the organization's needs and aims to transfer some pre-determined skills to participants, from outside and for an external purpose; experiential learning is meant to encourage people to develop as individuals, from the inside out and for internal growth. In experiential learning participants are supposed to feel positive emotions and, therefore, to develop a positive attitude toward future learning.}}
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Experiential Learning encourages each individual to learn according to their preferred learning style(s), whilst conventional learning is focused on organizational needs and aims in transferring per-determined skills to learners' - from the outside in and for an external purpose. Experiential learning encourages people to develop as individuals, from the inside out and for internal growth.
  
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In Experiential Learning participants are motivated to affect positive emotions and therefore develop a positive attitude towards learning.}}
  
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{{Tool|Conducting an Experiential Learning Process|
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{{Tool|Guidelines for Facilitators
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__NOTOC__
 
__NOTOC__
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=='''Step by Step'''==
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*1. Ensure all planned activities are centred on the learner without facilitated instruction or proffered opinion; like the principles of life coaching and those of facilitative decision-making methodology, the other person is at the centre.
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*2. The facilitator creates an appropriate learning environment, provides an activity that will initiate the learning process, create an atmosphere and framework conducive to constructive critical review, ensures that any conceptual thinking is progressed to meaningful conclusions, and opportunities for improvement identified.
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*3. The activity must engage, stimulate and challenge, motivating the learner to become absorbed in the task themselves. It must not involve role play in a conventional artificial sense. All activities must be designed, managed and facilitated carefully so that the activity has impact.
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*4. Learning review: this needs to involve the learner in personal thought, challenge and discussion before coming to some form of conclusion. Encourage a period of individual reflection guided by open-ended or tick-box questionnaires, followed by a facilitated discussion. Concentrate the review (and learning) on positive aspects; too much emphasis on negatives can seriously undermine confidence in the whole area of learning and development.
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*5. The role of the facilitator in the review is to enable others to learn by drawing out the issues and developing the learning that is relevant to the individual. The facilitator should ask questions that will stimulate thought about relevant issues and enable the group to use answers to develop further thought and learning.
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*6. If you observe a point that isn’t raised during a review it is legitimate to raise it, but only through questioning. If, despite questioning, individuals don't relate to the point, there is no benefit in pursuing as any 'learning' will not be theirs. A better option is for you to run another activity designed to focus more attention on this specific point. Whatever happens, don't be tempted to provide 'professional analysis' as this approach takes the ownership of the learning away from the individual.
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*7. Learners can and will make experiential learning opportunities work for them. To be an effective facilitator your role is to provide opportunities for others to learn and progress.
  
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#Assess: facilitators have to know what they want the group to learn and take away from each activity.
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'''Summary'''
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#Plan: make sure you have all of the supplies you need and understand how the activity works. It is important to know how much time you will need and how you will end the activity.
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*1. Learner is central to the learning without instruction or opinion of the facilitator.
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#Prepare: assemble any materials you will need. Confer with your co-leaders to ensure the plan is understood.
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*2. Provide a good learning environment and framework for activities.
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#Lead: make sure everyone know the rules. Observe the groups and remember things they do and say. Make use of these observations in your debrief.
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*3. Activities must engage, stimulate and challenge.
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#Evaluate: look back on your performance as the facilitator and the group’s reaction to the activity (learn from them both).
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*4. Encourage individual reflection guided by open ended or tick box questionnaires.
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#Debriefing: it occurs after the experiential learning activity and it is a time during which the experiential activities can be explained in their focus and intent.
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*5. Ask questions that will stimulate thought.
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#Processing: it is closely associated with debriefing and represents the final stage which involves assisting the participants to comprehend and internalize their experiences, and the lessons learned from them. The purpose of these sessions is to generate discussion that in some way enlightens each participant.  
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*6. Ownership of the learning is for the learner.
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*7. Provide opportunities for others to learn. <ref>[The guidelines below are based on Martin Thompson’s 'Experiential Learning in Action: Beyond the Ropes' first published in the New Zealand Human Resources Institute Magazine, January 2008 and cited in . http://www.businessballs.com/experiential_learning.htm, accessed 28.vi.MMXII.</ref>
  
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=='''Example of one-day Experiential Learning workshop'''==
 
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The warm-up exercise can be crucial to establishing the right kind of openness to experience. A simple and safe exercise is to ask participants, in pairs, to spend five minutes each telling each other about a rich and rewarding learning experience they have had, and how that felt.
 
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#Introduction (about 10min)
 
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#:*Explain the programme.
 
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#:*Hand out copies of the guide.
 
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#:*Appoint an announcer and timekeeper.
 
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#Warm-up exercise (about 10min): it is crucial to establish the right kind of openness to experience. A simple and safe exercise is to ask participants, in pairs, to spend five minutes each telling each other about a rich and rewarding learning experience they have had, and how that felt.
 
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#Workshop 1 (about 1 hour): learning sequences and experiential learning
 
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#:*Introduce yourself within your group.
 
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#:*Discuss the four stages of the experiential learning cycle (concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation and active experimentation) with the aim of clarifying what they mean and clearing up misunderstandings.
 
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#:*Take a section from a course, or a teaching or training session, for which you are responsible, and analyse the sequence of learning activities involved in terms of the stages of the experiential learning cycle.
 
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#:*Take it in turn to explain your analyses of your courses or sessions to your group. Try to keep to the terminology of experiential learning theory. Ask yourself whether the sequences you use follow the experiential learning cycle.
 
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#:*Raise issues which emerge with the whole group.
 
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#Break (about 30 min)
 
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#Workshop 2 (about 1 hour): experiential learning styles
 
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#Break (about 10 min)
 
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#Workshop 3 (about 1 hour): case studies in experiential learning
 
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#Break (about 1 hour)
 
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#Workshop 4 (about 1 hour): course design for experiential learning
 
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#Debriefing and processing (about 1,5 hour)
 
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=='''Facilitator’s Role'''==
 
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*'''Learner is central.''' The facilitator provides the learner with a service, but only the learner can make best use of his opportunities if he’s ready, willing and able to become personally involved in the learning process.
 
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*'''Accentuate the positives.''' Concentrate learning and reviews on the positives more than the negatives.
 
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*'''Ask questions only.''' If you observe a point that isn’t raised during a review it is legitimate to raise it, but only through questioning – don’t tell people what they should learn!
 
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*'''Believe in the learners.''' You have to believe that learners have the potential to make progress and be committed to the fact that your role is to provide opportunities for others to learn and progress. <ref> Consalvo, C., Experiential Training Activities for Outside and In. 1993. HRD Press.,
 
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[http://www2.glos.ac.uk/GDN/gibbs/ch6.htm www2.glos.ac.uk] (9 September 2009), [http://www.businessballs.com/experiential_learning.htm www.businessballs.com] (9 September 2009) </ref>}}
 
  
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'''Examples of Experiential Learning Models'''
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*David Kolb: Experiential Learning Theory
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*David Kolb: Learning Style Inventory
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*Honey and Mumford: Learning Style Questionnaire}}
  
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=='''Job Aid'''==
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[[Image:pdf.png]] [[Media:Toolkit_Experiential_Learning.pdf‎|Experiential Learning: Guidelines for Facilitators]]
 
{{Addtitle}}
 
{{Addtitle}}
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{|border=1; width= 100%
 
{|border=1; width= 100%
 
|-
 
|-
 
!Link
 
!Link
 
!Content
 
!Content
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|-
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|[http://www.jstor.org/stable/1085305 Experiential Learning Programs for Youth]
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|Programs for Youth.
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|-
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|[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experiential_learning Experiential learning]
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|Definition: Experiential learning.
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|-
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|[http://youtu.be/aHSzDYWw0Hk Video: Experiential Learning]
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|Practice: Experiential Learning.
 
|-
 
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|[http://www.businessballs.com/experiential_learning.htm Guide to facilitating effective experiential learning activities]
 
|[http://www.businessballs.com/experiential_learning.htm Guide to facilitating effective experiential learning activities]
 
|Sample experiential learning activities, concepts and principles.
 
|Sample experiential learning activities, concepts and principles.
 
|}
 
|}
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== References ==
 
== References ==
 
<references/>
 
<references/>

Latest revision as of 15:24, 30 June 2014

Term2.png EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
Experiential learning emphasizes the central role that experience plays in the learning process. Its intellectual origins is rooted to the argument that all learning is grounded in experience – hearing a lecture, reading a book, painting a picture, campaigning for a cause, and that there can be no learning without experience.[1]

Notably, much learning, perhaps the most important learning, is acquired through daily life, without planning.

There can be activity without learning, but for experience to be educational, the focus has to be centred on the conditions of the learning activity. These give concrete form to abstract ideas – it may even make abstract knowledge more useable. In contrast to information assimilation, experiential learning begins with action and moves through the generalisation of a principle derived from that action and its application in another situation.[2]

One of the attractions of experiential learning is the possibility of improving the learners’ ability to apply their learning focused on their intrinsic motivation. Learners learn experientially by reflecting on experiences, developing personal insights and understanding through involvement in intellectual, emotional and physical activity. Experiential learning has the capacity to elicit a wider range of learner responses than conventional classroom learning, ethical and emotional reactions are called forth along with physical activity and social engagement.[3]

Experiential Learning encourages each individual to learn according to their preferred learning style(s), whilst conventional learning is focused on organizational needs and aims in transferring per-determined skills to learners' - from the outside in and for an external purpose. Experiential learning encourages people to develop as individuals, from the inside out and for internal growth.

In Experiential Learning participants are motivated to affect positive emotions and therefore develop a positive attitude towards learning.


Toolkit.png Guidelines for Facilitators
  • 1. Ensure all planned activities are centred on the learner without facilitated instruction or proffered opinion; like the principles of life coaching and those of facilitative decision-making methodology, the other person is at the centre.
  • 2. The facilitator creates an appropriate learning environment, provides an activity that will initiate the learning process, create an atmosphere and framework conducive to constructive critical review, ensures that any conceptual thinking is progressed to meaningful conclusions, and opportunities for improvement identified.
  • 3. The activity must engage, stimulate and challenge, motivating the learner to become absorbed in the task themselves. It must not involve role play in a conventional artificial sense. All activities must be designed, managed and facilitated carefully so that the activity has impact.
  • 4. Learning review: this needs to involve the learner in personal thought, challenge and discussion before coming to some form of conclusion. Encourage a period of individual reflection guided by open-ended or tick-box questionnaires, followed by a facilitated discussion. Concentrate the review (and learning) on positive aspects; too much emphasis on negatives can seriously undermine confidence in the whole area of learning and development.
  • 5. The role of the facilitator in the review is to enable others to learn by drawing out the issues and developing the learning that is relevant to the individual. The facilitator should ask questions that will stimulate thought about relevant issues and enable the group to use answers to develop further thought and learning.
  • 6. If you observe a point that isn’t raised during a review it is legitimate to raise it, but only through questioning. If, despite questioning, individuals don't relate to the point, there is no benefit in pursuing as any 'learning' will not be theirs. A better option is for you to run another activity designed to focus more attention on this specific point. Whatever happens, don't be tempted to provide 'professional analysis' as this approach takes the ownership of the learning away from the individual.
  • 7. Learners can and will make experiential learning opportunities work for them. To be an effective facilitator your role is to provide opportunities for others to learn and progress.

Summary

  • 1. Learner is central to the learning without instruction or opinion of the facilitator.
  • 2. Provide a good learning environment and framework for activities.
  • 3. Activities must engage, stimulate and challenge.
  • 4. Encourage individual reflection guided by open ended or tick box questionnaires.
  • 5. Ask questions that will stimulate thought.
  • 6. Ownership of the learning is for the learner.
  • 7. Provide opportunities for others to learn. [4]


Examples of Experiential Learning Models

  • David Kolb: Experiential Learning Theory
  • David Kolb: Learning Style Inventory
  • Honey and Mumford: Learning Style Questionnaire

Job Aid

Pdf.png Experiential Learning: Guidelines for Facilitators

Link icon.png Web Resources
Link Content
Experiential Learning Programs for Youth Programs for Youth.
Experiential learning Definition: Experiential learning.
Video: Experiential Learning Practice: Experiential Learning.
Guide to facilitating effective experiential learning activities Sample experiential learning activities, concepts and principles.

References

  1. ↑ [Dewey, J. (1859-1952). An American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer.
  2. ↑ [Coleman (1977) « Differences Between Experiential and Classroom Learning ». In Experiential Learning: Rationale, Characteristics, and Assessment by M.T. Keeton and Associates. San Fransisco: Jossy-Bass Inc.
  3. ↑ [Experiential Learning Programs for Youth, Stephen F. Hamilton in American Journal of Education , Vol. 88, No. 2 (Feb., 1980) 179-215, The University of Chicago Press. URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1085305.
  4. ↑ [The guidelines below are based on Martin Thompson’s 'Experiential Learning in Action: Beyond the Ropes' first published in the New Zealand Human Resources Institute Magazine, January 2008 and cited in . http://www.businessballs.com/experiential_learning.htm, accessed 28.vi.MMXII.
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