Foundations of Experiential Learning

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3. Experiential Learning

Experiential learning is the process of making meaning from direct experience Itin, 1999: 91-98. According to Kohonen 2001: 22, experiential learming is a wide range of educational approaches in which formal learning in institutional contexts is integrated with practical work and informal learning. Experiential Learning is usually described in more everyday language as ‘learning from experience’ or ‘learning through experience.’ The basic role in experiential learning is that experience plays a significant role in learning. Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience Kolb, 1984: 38. In experiential learning, learning involves the whole person, including the emotional, social, physical, cognitive and spritual aspects of personality.

a. Foundations of Experiential Learning

The roots of experiential learning can be traced back to John Dewey’s progressive pedagogy, Kurt Lewin’s social psychology, and Jean Piaget’s work on developmental cognitive psychology. In his well-known progressive pedagogy, Dewey 1938 as cited by Kohonen 2001: 24 emphasized the importance of learning by doing: experience acts as an organizing focus for learning. Dewey described his approach as cultivation of individuality, learning through personal experience, and as a dynamic, here and now view of learning for current relevance. Dewey as summarized by Kolb 1984: 22 also described learning as a dialectic process integrating experience and concepts, observations, and action. The impulse of experience gives ideas their moving force, and ideas give direction to impulse. Postponement of immediate action is essential 19 for observation and judgment to intervene, and action is essential for achievement of purpose. Lewin’s work 1951 on group dynamics and the methodology of action research has been very influential. Lewin as summarized by Kohonen 2001: 24, made the important discovery that learning is best facilitated in an environment where there is a tension between immediate, concrete experience and analytic detachment and reflection. In the basic model of experiential learning advanced by Lewin, immediate personal experience is the focal point for learning. In his model, 1 immediate concrete experience is the basis for observation and reflection. It is accompanied by 2 reflective observation that leads to the 3 formation of abstract concepts and further to 4 testing the implications in new situations. In his classical work on developmental psychology, Piaget identified four major stages growth that emerge from birth to about the age of 14-16. Piaget as summarized by Kohonen 2001: 24 discovered age-related regularities in children’s reasoning processes, and how intelligence is gradually shaped by experience. Intelligence is a product of the interaction between the child and his environment. Thus the powers of abstract reasoning and symbol manipulation can be traced back to the infant’s action in exploring and coping with his immediate environment, whereby experience is translated into a model of the world.

b. The Role of Experiential Learning