Experiential learning: how students can learn more effectively

The Hindu

28-05-2025

Humans are a learning species. Our very survival depends on our ability to react and adapt to situations. To thrive, students should proactively create and shape their worlds. The sheer scale of learning is unprecedented in today's world. Children can access information at the click of a button. Bots can teach them concepts and clarify doubts. Conventional schools as information disseminators could become redundant in the near future.
Yet, schools serve a purpose beyond mere knowledge acquisition. They must learn foundational skills of literacy and numeracy, yes. But they must also develop social, emotional, and cultural skills. They must navigate interpersonal relations, understand different views, and become self-aware.
They should also learn how to contribute to society. This is all know-how that comes from the school environment. It should be a microcosm of the world the students will eventually enter.
The need for reform
At present, schools are found lacking on most counts. Children from government and private schools receive differing quality of education, with the majority struggling with crumbling infrastructure, poorly trained teachers, and an outdated curriculum. There still exists a vast urban-rural divide and therefore, unequal access to resources. Laboratories, functional toilets, potable water, and computers continue to be problem areas in the poorest of schools.
However, even when schools get many things right, they remain stuck in a loop of exams, where the value-add is minimal. There is a need to reimagine the present approach to teaching, learning, and testing. Memorisation combined with high-stakes testing has not made children competent; it has merely helped them pass examinations that test a narrow range of abilities.
Moreover, children learn and understand in different ways. They have differing aptitudes, as Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences (the idea that intelligence is not a unified ability, but more a collection of distinct and independent intelligences) explains. Some children learn visually, by watching someone and mimicking them; others learn by reading text; and others understand and learn only when they apply it practically by themselves. The brain is capable of reorganising and rewiring itself to keep learning and develop newer skills — a concept called neuroplasticity.
Here is where experiential learning becomes useful. It offers a more wholesome approach to teaching and learning. As the term suggests, experience is key. It is 'learning by doing,' focusing on the 'how ' of learning or the process rather than the outcome. Experiential learning is a continuous, lifelong process of knowledge construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction.
On experiential learning
David Kolb, an educational theorist, first developed the Experiential Learning Theory (ELT), with psychologists such as Kurt Lewin, Jean Piaget, and John Dewey laying the groundwork.
The present education system remains exam-centric. Teaching focuses on providing information, and students only cultivate lower-order thinking skills. These are recall and understanding, as per the revised Bloom's taxonomy (Bloom's taxonomy is a hierarchy or classification of cognitive levels and learning objectives constructed by Benjamin Bloom in 1956, and revised by Lorin Anderson and David Krathwohl in 2001). Students must move beyond these basic skills to critical thinking and problem-solving. They must learn to question received information and learn through peer relations. These capabilities parallel higher-order thinking skills such as analysis, evaluation, and creation. These levels could translate to the ability to compare, differentiate, and invent.
Experiential learning makes students active and involved learners rather than passive recipients of information. Hands-on experiences engage the students' senses and encourages them to think about and apply concepts to the world they've seen around them. By learning this way, children acquire skills they can apply across contexts. They learn how to learn.
Stages of experiential learning
Individual-environment interaction is at the core of experiential learning. This is the dialectical tension that creates growth. The student constructs new knowledge by interacting with the environment. These phases progress cyclically as the student learns and re-learns.
The stages of Kolb's experiential learning cycle are concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation and active experimentation. These stages are inter-linked, iterative and occurs throughout an individual's lifetime. Each spiral of learning further deepens a student's understanding.
Through a concrete experience/phenomenon, the students' sensory-motor faculties are engaged, and they grasp and assimilate information from the environment. In the next stage, that is, reflective observation, students try to understand and interpret the information received via the experience. There may be a difference between their expectations and the experience which would lead to cognitive dissonance. This essentially means that the new information does not fit into their existing mental models. In this process, beliefs do not match the behaviour expected.
Moving on to abstract conceptualisation, students rationalise the new information, adding it to their pre-existing mental models. And by doing so, concepts are changed or created with new or conflicting information. In the final stage of active experimentation, the learner acts on the knowledge received, makes decisions, and solves problems. This action leads to new experiences that, in turn, reshapes cognition once again.
Implementing the model
Experiential learning is a teaching-learning philosophy that comprises many pedagogical approaches. It can be implemented through a wide range of methods. Doing experiments related to a specific topic and facilitating student questions is a form of inquiry-based learning. Teamwork (collaborative learning) on projects and problems helps build a variety of perspectives. Interactive games, group discussions, role-playing, and arts and crafts are also promising. Real-world immersions through outdoor learning and field trips are similarly very engaging for students.
Integrating technology and having simulations is also instructive.
The 'flipped classroom' is a prime example of an experiential learning setup. Rather than have the teacher lead the class, it places the student front and centre. Students explore a topic at home through reading materials and online resources. Then the student solves the problem together with the teacher and the whole class by discussing concepts together. This kind of pedagogy makes students take responsibility for their learning and creates meaningful interactions and deeper learning.
Critiques and challenges
Experiential learning can isolate the student process from the classroom context.
Factors like peers, family background, and culture also affect learning, which are not considered.
Implementation of experiential learning can also be a logistical nightmare. It requires a battalion of resources, be it personnel, materials, or training. This is particularly true in the Indian context, given the size and diversity of students. Student readiness to learn experientially may also be overestimated. For example, are Class VIII students who struggle with grade two English comprehension ready to think critically? A one-size-fits-all solution is not advisable.
However, this does not mean that experiential learning requires a wholesale overhaul of the system; it can fit into the existing setup for a more holistic approach. Experiential learning has the potential to empower students of different learning styles.
Manaswini Vijayakumar is an intern at The Hindu.