Theory Of Experiential Learning

INTRODUCTION

The general concept of learning through experience was discovered in around 320 B.C. Aristotle wrote in NICHOMACHAEN ETHICS “for the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them. But as an articulated approach experiential learning is of much more recent period. David A. Kolb helped to develop the modern theory of experiential learning, drawing heavily on the work of John Dewey, Kurt Lewin and Jean Piaget. In 1987 Kolb published a book entitled Experiential Learning. The reason the theory is called "experiential” is its origin is from the work of Lewin, Piaget, Dewey, Freire and James, forming a unique perspective on learning and development.

DEFINITION

Experiential learning is a process of learning through

THE PROCESS OF EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING

Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) provides a holistic model of the learning process and is a multi-linear model of adult development, both of which are concerned with what we know about how we naturally learn, grow, and develop. The theory is called "Experiential learning" to emphasize the central role played by experience in the learning process.

Experiential learning focuses on individual learning. For example, you are going to another country to interact and experience new things. What you learn through interacting and observing that country is experiential learning, oppose to reading about that country in a book. Likewise in business schools you are asked to interact with market and different successful firms, so that you could learn through experience.

Learning cycle is driven by the resolution of the dual dialectics of action/reflection and

And he will learn from his experience. He will test hypothesis in future situations and learn from every experience. Every new attempt of ride will be formed by the cyclical pattern of previous experience, thought and reflection; this is active experimentation which is the last stage of the Kolb’s learning cycle.

APPLICATION

What learner will learn, if it gives effective results the learner will apply it over and over again to get more effective results. A further phase of learning is through feedback. A process of learning can change learner’s perception or judgment for something.

Experiential learning is widely applied in schools, higher education systems for example in business education, medical universities etc. Kolb transposes four learning styles. An individual’s dominant learning style could be known by Kolb’s Learning Style Inventory (LSI). These four styles are Diverger, Assimilator, Accommodator and Converger.

ROLES:

Everything demands a particular role. Similarly in experiential learning teachers, students and bosses each of them have different roles.

ROLES OF TEACHERS IN EXPERIENTIAL