There are so many buzz words we get to here in NEP 2020; experiential learning is one among those. Let us deep dive into the concept of experiential learning.
John Keats says “Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced”.
We need to understand the connotation of the pair of words.
What is experience and learning?
Experience is the process of getting knowledge or skill from doing, seeing, or feeling things.
Learning is any relative permanent change in behaviour brought about by experience or practice.
If we examine both the words Experience and Learning they go hand in hand. They are complementary to each other. Learning is incomplete without the element of experience, as it defeats the purpose of education.
Then the question arises…..Why Experiential learning?
Experiential Learning is vital
- To ensure two way teaching learning process.
- To provide firsthand experience.
- To involve the child in the process of learning.
- To correlate what chid has learnt in the past.
- To apply the present experience to the future.
- To receive the instructions through his or her sense organs in the form of Auditory, Visual and Kinaesthetic.
- To develop problem solving, innovative and discovery bent of mind.
- To improve the attention span of the students.
The Next Question … what are the elements of Experiential Learning?
We feel the experiential learning can be better understood by David A Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle.
The Experiential Learning cycle encompasses four components:
1. Concrete experience 2. Reflective observation 3. Abstract conceptualization 4. Active Experimentation
Let us discuss the aforesaid components briefly.
- Concrete experience
Concrete experience refers to the everyday experience or familiar experiences the child is undergoing in day today life. It can also be told that cognition through sense organs, what children touch and feel and experience. Based on the concrete experience provided the learner is classified into 3 broad categories Auditory, Visual and Kinaesthetic.
- Reflective observation
The Second component of the Experiential learning cycle is reflective observation. The reflective observation follows the new experience the child has accumulated. The reflective observations may be impacted by earlier learned behaviour and ideologies of the child.
- Abstract conceptualization
Abstract Conceptualisation is the process of making sense of what has occurred and involves interpreting the events and understanding the relationships between them. At this stage the learner makes comparisons between what they have done, reflect upon and what they already know.
- Active Experimentation
The fourth component of experiential learning deals with the process of testing existing thoughts by creating new experiences. Learning in this stage takes an active form experimenting with changing conditions. The learner would take a practical approach and be concerned with what really works.
Experiencing is Learning and Learning is Experiencing.
To conclude, Experience would expel the obstacles and Leads to an Effective learning.
Albert Eisenstein says “Learning is experiencing, everything else is information”.
I hope all of us are on the same page.
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