What is experiential learning?

The definition of experiential learning is a change in behavior brought about by an experience. This is a profound statement, because it really means that in order for learning to take place, we need to provide students with an experience that will ultimately change their behavior. Experiential learning takes us on this journey. It provides us with the opportunity to learn through experience.

How does this translate into an actual classroom experience?

Experiential learning is the process of actively engaging students in an experience. Learning can be achieved through a real situation, such as the workplace, or through role play. Either way, students make discoveries and experiment with knowledge themselves instead of hearing or reading about the experiences of others. What is critical is that students reflect on their experiences, thus developing new skills, new attitudes and new ways of thinking.

What are some of the advantages of experiential learning over standard lectures?

Standard lectures typically convey content, which is knowledge. It’s usually information overload – “death by PowerPoint,” if you will. Students rarely get the opportunity to practice the skills they are learning, especially during the training. 

Experiential learning encourages participation and, more importantly, having an “experience,” thus providing students with an opportunity to practice the new skill gained before going back to the workplace. There are many other factors that contribute to how experiential learning outweighs standard lectures, but the keys are group work, practice and a lot of support from the trainer to guide the learners through the learning, instead of the trainer merely imparting information and hoping that the students learn something.

The true effectiveness of experiential learning can be seen once the students have changed their behavior. In other words, they are doing something different than what they were doing before. Experiential learning offers learners this opportunity, and almost “forces” them to experience the change in behavior. After all, true learning only happens when you change your behavior. We can all gain knowledge, but whether we use it to improve our
skills or our job is the difference between merely gaining knowledge and actual learning.

Can experiential learning be used in every training situation? Or are there some subjects that lend themselves to the format better than others?

In my experience, experiential training can be used in every situation. If you think about what you want to achieve from your training, it’s usually a skill that needs to be learned or improved. If this is so, experiential learning supports this wholeheartedly. If it’s only knowledge you want to impart, there will be less practice, but still the same experiential methodology coming through by understanding learner’s styles, and during the curriculum development process.  [Editor’s Note – For more information about learning styles, see Learning about Ants with Smarty Pants in this month’s newsletter.]

Can one quantitatively demonstrate the advantages of experiential learning?

I believe so. If you were to take two different groups, train on the same content but in different ways – standard lecture versus experiential learning –
I can almost guarantee that the results will speak for themselves. 

When an organization takes training seriously, it identifies and highlights training gaps in line with the organization’s vision, mission and goals. It identifies the skills and knowledge that need to be learned to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the staff. If the organization does this correctly, once the training and assessment have been completed, it is able to see an increase in efficiency and effectiveness of the tasks or jobs, and then ultimately an increase in the bottom line.

Measurement at this level is not an easy task, and organizations need to spend some time working through proper assessment methods in order to get the results they set out to achieve. Training doesn’t stop at the classroom, it follows through into assessment to eventually see the results that align to organizational goals.

The purpose of adult education is to help them to learn,
not to teach them all they know
and thus stop them from carrying on learning.

- Carl Ransom Rogers, Psychologist

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Ginty Chalk, a Specialty Intstructor for BMG Africa, has more than 13 years experience in adult education, including experiential learning and outcomes-based curriculum design.

She can be reached at Ginty.Chalk@BMGI.com.