Pedagogical Approaches

Experiential Learning

Also Known As Experiential Education

Citation Formats

General Reference

Education Atlas. "Experiential Learning." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://education.interactiveatlas.org/approaches/experiential-learning.

APA Style

Education Atlas. (n.d.). Experiential Learning. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://education.interactiveatlas.org/approaches/experiential-learning

BibTeX

@misc{educationatlas-experiential-learning,
  author = {Education Atlas},
  title = {Experiential Learning},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://education.interactiveatlas.org/approaches/experiential-learning},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Experiential learning is the process of acquiring knowledge and skill through direct experience and reflection on that experience, most formally built into David Kolb's four-stage Experiential Learning Model, developed from 1971 onward: a concrete experience, reflective observation on what worked or failed, abstract conceptualization into a general principle, and active experimentation testing that principle in a new situation, a cycle a learner can enter at any stage. Kolb's model draws directly on John Dewey, Kurt Lewin and Jean Piaget, and the underlying idea reaches back to Aristotle, who wrote around 350 BC that people learn the things they must do by actually doing them.

Facts

Central Question

Does a learner build durable understanding by cycling through concrete experience, reflection, abstract conceptualization and active experimentation, rather than by receiving the concept first? 1

Most Effective For

Skills and understanding that benefit from a full concrete-experience-to-application cycle, such as internships, labs, service learning and simulations, where a learner can revisit the same cycle repeatedly. 1

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

John Dewey

Dewey's account of learning by experience is one of the direct foundations Kolb built his experiential learning model on, alongside Kurt Lewin and Jean Piaget.

Source Wikipedia

Held Differently

Learning by Doing

Distinct from Dewey's own philosophical account of learning by doing, held on this atlas as its own theory entity: Kolb's experiential learning model is the four-stage applied pedagogical cycle built from it, not a restatement of it.

Source Wikipedia