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Pedagogical Approach

Experiential Learning

Also Known As Experiential Education
Active and Experiential Learning Strategies

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
Experiential Learning
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Connections

Associated With

John Dewey, Thinkers

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

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

Developed By

Source Wikipedia: David A. Kolb

Includes

Source Challenge-based learning (Wikipedia)
Source Contemplative education (Wikipedia)
Source Wikipedia: David A. Kolb
Source David Manson (Wikipedia)
Source Kolb's experiential learning (Wikipedia)
Source Kolb's experiential learning (Wikipedia)
Source Learning cycle (Wikipedia)

Policies Informed

Source Challenge-based learning (Wikipedia)

Service-Learning's own live entity-description: it grew from experiential-education roots through the 1970s and 1980s.

Sources
1. Wikipedia
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Experiential learning, Introduction and Kolb's experiential learning model sections
    learning through reflection on doing
  • Experiential learning, Kolb's experiential learning model section
    Every new attempt to ride is informed by a cyclical pattern of previous experience, thought and reflection.
  • Experiential learning, Implementation section
    Reflection is a crucial part of the experiential learning process, and like experiential learning itself, it can be facilitated or independent.
View the Source
Wikipedia: David A. Kolb
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Developed By: David A. Kolb
  • Includes: David A. Kolb, David A. Kolb Wikipedia article lead section
    is an American educational theorist whose interests and publications focus on experiential learning
View the Source
Challenge-based learning (Wikipedia)
  • Policies Informed: Challenge-Based Learning, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challenge-based_learning, second paragraph, foundation sentence
    Challenge-based learning builds on the foundation of experiential learning, leans heavily on the wisdom of a long history of progressive education, shares many of the goals of service learning, and the activism of critical pedagogy.
  • Includes: Challenge-Based Learning, Lead section
    Challenge-based learning builds on the foundation of experiential learning, leans heavily on the wisdom of a long history of progressive education, shares many of the goals of service learning, and the activism of critical pedagogy.
View the Source
Learning cycle (Wikipedia)
Includes: Learning Cycle, Kolb and Fry section, learning styles
Quote, Includes: Learning Cycle, Kolb and Fry section, learning styles
Kolb integrated this learning cycle with a theory of learning styles, wherein each style prefers two of the four parts of the cycle.
David Manson (Wikipedia)
Includes: David Manson (schoolmaster), Lead section
Quote, Includes: David Manson (schoolmaster), Lead section
David Manson (1726-1792) was an Irish schoolmaster who in teaching children basic literacy sought to exclude "drudgery and fear" by pioneering forms of experiential learning including play and peer tutoring.
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Contemplative education (Wikipedia)
Includes: Contemplative Education, Lead section
Quote, Includes: Contemplative Education, Lead section
Contemplative education is a philosophy of higher education that integrates introspection and experiential learning into academic study in order to support academic and social engagement, develop self-understanding as well as analytical and critical capacities, and cultivate skills for engaging constructively with others.
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Kolb's experiential learning (Wikipedia)
  • Includes: Kolb's Experiential Learning, Lead section
    Kolb published his experiential learning theory (ELT) in 1984, inspired by the work of the gestalt psychologist Kurt Lewin, as well as John Dewey and Jean Piaget.
  • Includes: Experiential Learning Theory, Lead section
    Kolb published his experiential learning theory (ELT) in 1984, inspired by the work of the gestalt psychologist Kurt Lewin, as well as John Dewey and Jean Piaget.
View the Source
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