Experiential Learning is when someone learns, “about a topic by actually doing something rather than passively reading, thinking and viewing something about the topic” Experiential Learning Explained - Definition and Theory. YouTube, uploaded by Adventure Associates, 26 Feb 2016,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJN9QKukfPc It is based on the work of David Kolb in his research in Geography but has been widely applied in education and in corporate settings.

Experiential Learning is an active knowledge making practice because it provides genuine, hands-on opportunities for students to engage with the world around them. This can be as simple as having students examine their outdoor or indoor space and generate a genuine need within it. Do they need shade? Do they need a space to sit that is not grass? Do they need something more for recreation that will create collaboration and socialization? Do they need something to store materials? Experiential Learning is a student-centered, inquiry based pedagogy that promotes active learning.

In its early application and theory, Kolb described two different ways of grasping experience:

-abstract conceptualization

-concrete experience

As well as two ways of transforming experience:

-Active Experimentation

-Reflective Observation

Recently, in education it has been broken down into 3 basic components known as the Experiential Learning Cycle:

Participation: Students are immersed in an experience, acknowledging what they are doing, what they are thinking, and what they are feeling during the experience.

Reflection: Students think about their experience, guided by reflective questions and prompts, and identify what they learned as a result of the experience – about themselves, other people, the world, their opportunities, or the subject of study.

Application: Students describe how their learning stimulates further inquiry; how it has influenced – or may influence – their decisions, opinions, goals, and plans; and what they might do differently if they have a similar experience in future.

In the above example of students identifying a need in their outdoor learning space, some decided they needed more structured recreation activities and planned, designed and raised the funds for an outdoor disc golf course. Others decided they needed more shade and planned, designed and raised funds for an outdoor gazebo. Some thought more places to sit and socialize and learn were needed so they planned, designed and raised funds to build picnic tables. The teacher facilitates the reflection and connection to the curriculum content as well as helping students to apply this learning to future goals and experiences. In this way, students are being innovative (making a change to an existing technology), being creative (redesigning their outdoor space based) and solving a problem (what are our needs from our outdoor space?). All of this means that Experiential Learning is Active Knowledge Making.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJN9QKukfPc

VeryWellMind. 2021, “The Experiential Learning Theory of David Kolb”. May 15 2020. https://www.verywellmind.com/experiential-learning-2795154