Using an example of someone learning to ride a bike:
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Concrete Experience (first attempt at riding the bike)
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Reflective Observation (how well did I go?)
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Abstract Conceptualisation (what could I do to improve?)
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Active Experimentation (further attempts, try out new ideas)
While this has a sound logic to it, I do not think it happens this way all the
time for all people. When I was learning to ride a bike for instance, I do not
recall any reflection or thought going on at all. It was more a matter of trial
and error until it ‘clicked’. However I can certainly see the benefits of reflective
practice in my career and for higher level and abstract skills/tasks.
My definition of experiential learning then, is a blend of the kind of cyclical
process outlined above and of a more everyday concept of 'hands-on' learning
or 'learning by doing.'
Learning Styles
The notion of experiential learning also connects with different learning styles. Neil Fleming’s VARK model (Fleming, 1995), proposes four principal learning styles or modalities: VIsual; Auditory; Read/write; and Kinaesthetic. Individuals have one or more preferred styles of learning. As we might expect, Kinaesthetic learners learn best with a focus on reality, demonstrations and learning from video replay (Fleming 2012). It seems to me that kinaesthetic learners prefer to learn through concrete experience. I see this in my own learning preference and the way I aim to teach. As well as being suited to kinaesthetic learners in particular, I believe an experiential approach is likely to be appropriate for students in a Polytechnic in general where many courses are practically oriented and vocational.
But it is not always practical or possible to engage the learner with concrete experience of the skill or the knowledge to be learned. For such situations, the use of pictures/images or other tangible, observable resources may be equally effective. These may appeal both to Visual and Kinaesthetic learners differently, e.g. a house plan or diagram for a Visual learner, or a photo of the finished house for a Kinaesthetic learner – the latter prefers the reality of an actual photo. According to Fleming (2012), it is the “message not the medium that is important for VARK.” The medium may be visual or photographic but if the image depicts something real, it will likely appeal more to a kinaesthetic learner.
Kolb's learning styles are relevant here too.
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Diverging: feeling and watching. Imaginative, social, sensitive.
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Assimilating: watching and thinking. Concise, logical, abstract concepts.
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Converging: doing and thinking. Practical, less-social, problem solvers
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Accommodating: doing and feeling. Hands-on, gut instincts.
Given that the Accommodating style is prevalent in the general population, it is especially important to accommodate these learners in our teaching and learning approaches by providing hands-on, practical experiences.
Evidence in my own teaching
I notice have a strong preference for using pictures and images to supplement written material, and for showing real photos where I can (e.g. for slides used in class) in preference to abstract or schematic images. Examples can found in the Keys to Leadership Success workshops (see Case Study 2), where photos, other images and diagrams are used on many pages along with group or individual practical activities that are followed by questions, reflection, discussion, and recording information in a learning log.
Theme 2: Experiential
"For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them." (Aristotle)
Having grown up in a relatively practical, outdoors-oriented family, learning by doing has always been a part of my own learning process. Practical activities were seldom a part of my own secondary and tertiary education however, the ‘chalk and talk’ approach being the predominant method. Thus I was exposed to the difference between what Gilbert Ryle (1949) calls ‘knowing how’ (or skill acquisition) and ‘knowing that’ (or information/knowledge acquisition), with the latter occurring predominantly in formal learning situations (school) and the former occurring as a result of other life experiences. However, like most of my peers, I enjoyed learning by practical experience much more than by sitting in a classroom listening and skills learned through experience mostly have been retained permanently.
David Kolb's (1984) Experiential Learning Model outlines a cyclical
process of learning through experience as shown here.
