What is Experiential Learning?
Experiential learning theory, based on the experience of learning, Dewey emphasizes the importance of individuals being active in the learning process, and is based on the work of Piaget, who considers intelligence not only as an innate trait but as a result of interaction between people and the environment.
These scientists have tried to develop an integrated experiential learning process and model for adult education. David A. KOLB is the one who has adopted the theory of experiential learning in the most generally accepted way. Kolb defines learning as a process in which experience is transformed into knowledge.
Experiential Learning Cycle
Experiential Learning Theory is a dynamic view of learning based on a learning cycle driven by the resolution of the dual dialectics of action/reflection and experience/abstraction. Learning is defined as “the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience. Knowledge results from the combination of grasping and transforming experience.” . Grasping experience refers to the process of taking in information, and transforming experience is how individuals interpret and act on that information. The Experiential Learning Theory Model portrays two dialectically related modes of grasping experience:
Concrete Experience and Abstract Conceptualization
Two dialectically related modes of transforming experience (Reflective Observation and Active Experimentation)
Learning arises from the resolution of creative tension among these four learning modes. This process is portrayed as an idealized learning cycle where the learner “touches all the bases”—experiencing, reflecting, thinking, and acting—in a recursive process that is sensitive to the learning situation and what is being learned. Immediate or concrete experiences are the basis for observations and reflections. These reflections are assimilated and distilled into abstract concepts from which new implications for action can be drawn. These implications can be actively tested and serve as guides in creating new experiences.
Step 1
The Concrete Experience part, which is the first step of the cycle, is the ‘here and now’ experience expressed by Lewin. This part refers to the moment we are in with our five senses and we experience internal reactions through the experiences we have gained. Just like a child who is trying to learn how to ride a bicycle falls in his first attempt. The feelings of excitement, fear, curiosity and anxiety that he/she feels during this trial are all present in him/her and what happens to him/her is a concrete experience.
Step 4
The child who has new abstract knowledge and concepts comes to the fourth stage of the cycle. He/she tests this new acquired knowledge in the fourth stage of the cycle, the Active Application step. This application naturally provides a new experience to the person and the cycle continues without stopping.
Step 2
This is followed by the second step of the cycle, the Reflective Observation stage. This is the stage where the experience is analysed and combined with the observations made about the environment. A good example would be a child who falls off his/her bicycle questioning why he/she fell and trying to understand the situation by observing other children riding bicycles.
Step 3
With all these analyses and reflections in his/her inner world, the child accesses new abstract knowledge.
This defines the third step of the cycle, Abstract Conceptualisation. For example, the child reaches the abstract knowledge that ‘it is easier to balance when going fast, it is harder to balance when going slow’. He/she can produce this information himself/herself or someone can tell him/her. However, what is important here is that the child associates this abstract knowledge with his/her concrete experience. The step of reflective observation is essential for this linking.
Experiential Learning Theory
David Kolb and Alice Kolb built the experiential learning theory on the valuable work of the following scientists.
William James
Kurt Lewin
Carl Rogers
Carl Jung
John Dewey
Jean Piaget
Lev Vygotsky
Paulo Freire
Mary Parker Follett
Kolb based his theory on six basic propositions:
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Learning is best conceived as a process, not in terms of outcomes. Although punctuated by knowledge milestones, learning does not end at an outcome, nor is it always evidenced in performance. Rather, learning occurs through the course of connected experiences in which knowledge is modified and re-formed. To improve learning in higher education, the primary focus should be on engaging students in a process that best enhances their learning – a process that includes feedback on the effectiveness of their learning efforts. “…education must be conceived as a continuing reconstruction of experience: … the process and goal of education are one and the same thing.”
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All learning is re-learning. Learning is best facilitated by a process that draws out the students’ beliefs and ideas about a topic so that they can be examined, tested and integrated with new, more refined ideas. Piaget called this proposition constructivism—individuals construct their knowledge of the world based on their experience and learn from experiences that lead them to realize how new information conflicts with their prior experience and belief.
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Learning requires the resolution of conflicts between dialectically opposed modes of adaptation to the world. Conflict, differences, and disagreement are what drive the learning process. These tensions are resolved in iterations of movement back and forth between opposing modes of reflection and action and feeling and thinking.
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Learning is a holistic process of adaptation to the world. Learning is not just the result of cognition but involves the integrated functioning of the total person— thinking, feeling, perceiving and behaving. It encompasses other specialized models of adaptation from the scientific method to problem solving, decision making and creativity.
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Learning results from synergetic transactions between the person and the environment. In Piaget’s terms, learning occurs through equilibration of the dialectic processes of assimilating new experiences into existing concepts and accommodating existing concepts to new experience. Following Lewin’s famous formula that behaviour is a function of the person and the environment, ELT holds that learning is influenced by characteristics of the learner and the learning space.
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Learning is the process of creating knowledge. In ELT, knowledge is viewed as the transaction between two forms of knowledge: social knowledge, which is co-constructed in a socio-historical context, and personal knowledge, the subjective experience of the learner. This conceptualization of knowledge stands in contrast to that of the “transmission” model of education in which pre-existing, fixed ideas are transmitted to the learner.