Experiential Approach to Learning

Learners today are more active. They are more interested in doing what they have experienced in their daily life's activities. Teachers have significant advantage in dealing with experiential approach to learning. They can easily facilitate the students by having their experiences as the motivation to develop a certain competency. In Kolb experiential learning model, it focuses on the learning process for the individual. One example of experiential learning is going to the zoo and learning through observation and interaction with the zoo environment, as opposed to reading about animals from a book. Thus, one makes discoveries and experiments with knowledge firsthand, instead of hearing or reading about others' experiences. It is likewise called as “learning by doing”, as it is said that experience is a great teacher.

Moreover, in this current trend of educational setting, it is no longer a teacher-centered classroom, wherein the teacher provide all the information and do most of the talking. However, the teacher acts as facilitator who will guide the learners to unleash their experiences through the arts of questioning which will eventually lead to formulate ideas and insights that will develop the targeted competence. Experiential learning can exist without a teacher and relates solely to the meaning-making process of the individual's direct experience. However, though the gaining of knowledge is an inherent process that occurs naturally, a genuine learning experience requires certain elements. According to Kolb, knowledge is continuously gained through both personal and environmental experiences. Kolb states that in order to gain genuine knowledge from an experience, the learner must have be willing to be actively involved in the experience; he/she must be able to reflect on the experience; must possess and use analytical skills to conceptualize the experience; and must possess decision making and problem solving skills in order to use the new ideas gained from the experience. With experiential approach to learning, it is definitely a teaching approach that will give the learners a meaningful classroom/learning experience.