Literature Review - Will Kerch

William Kerch

EDAC 635

9/22/16

Literature Review: Experiential Learning

Have you ever noticed how tasks that you are trying to complete become easier the more time you devote to completing them? Or have you ever discovered a different and more effective way of driving to a certain location which leads you to abandon your past driving route? These examples are simple yet they provide insight into one of the most important forms of learning, experiential learning. Learning through experience, as described by Yardley, Teunissen and Dornan (2012) is simply “constructing knowledge and meaning from real-life experience” (p. 161); this definition alludes to the idea where any and all experiences in life can lead to a change in an individual's learning. The implications of learning through experience are astounding but at the same time researchers, who will be discussed later in this paper, have found that there are many different factors that go into actual retention of information that is learned through experience. Through this literature review I will discuss the basic history of experiential learning followed by an analysis of current popular theories on the topic in adult education and finally I will add my own insight as to how I was influenced through my research into experiential learning.

Experiential learning has been a known construct for thousands of years but popular research into this idea of learning through experience has only been around for a little over a century. One of the first researchers in experiential learning, though he may not have strictly researched experiential learning, was Jean Piaget. Piaget was one of the leading psychologists of his time in regards to cognition; according to Yardley, Teunissen and Dornan (2012), Piaget  “focused his work on cognitive development processes and the nature of intelligence, including how it develops”. During the time that Piaget was popular it was widely believed that “cognitive processes were key to understanding quantitative and qualitative differences in intelligence” (Yardley, Teunissen and Dornan, 2012, p. 104). In order to target the development of the human mind, Piaget focused on children from a very young age until they were classified as adults. Piaget broke his theory into 4 different stages of human development: the sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational, and formal operational stages (Brown & Desforges, 2006, p. 23). The sensorimotor stage is described as the time from 0 to 2 years old where the child discovers the basic extent of their senses over the course of their first 2 years (Brown & Desforges, 2006, p. 24-27). In the pre-operational stage the child develops recognition of symbols and objects of importance as well as informal logical reasoning; this stage lasts roughly from 2 to 7 years of age (Brown & Desforges, 2006, p. 27-30). Next there is the concrete operational stage where logical reasoning is further developed to the point where the children are able to classify objects and relate to others; this stage lasts from 7-11 years of age (Brown & Desforges, 2006, p. 30-37). The final stage which lasts from 11-on and into adulthood is the formal operational stage; in this stage all functions become formalized and the child is able to finally grasp ideas formed by adults (Brown & Desforges, 2006, p. 37-40). Though Piaget does not formally address experience as a direct factor in his theory all of the stages revolve around the child learning through their direct experience in the world.

While Piaget and his theories on the development of cognition were a good stepping tool for researchers to start looking at experiential learning they were ultimately more focused on the cognition of the human mind rather than focusing on learning through experience. John Dewey, an american academic who was influential in the fields of psychology, education and philosophy (Yardley, Teunissen and Dornan, 2012, p. 103) was able to more directly assess the relationship between experience and learning. In his book Experience and Education (1938), Dewey was able to construct his own theory of why experience and learning were so strongly related. To Dewey, experience was the means to establish and facilitate learning over the lifetime; further than this he believed that “active engagement and interaction with their surroundings
helped learners gain applied rather than abstract knowledge” (Yardley, Teunissen and Dornan, 2012, p. 103). Dewey believed that in order to learn from experience the learner needed to have a sound philosophy of education and a concrete definition for what experience is in terms of education. In his 1938 book Experience and Education, Dewey states “The belief that all genuine education comes through experience does not mean that all experiences are genuinely or equally educative. Experience and education cannot be directly equated to each other.” (Dewey, 1938,  p. 13). To Dewey the experience must constitute growth in the learner; this growth can be educational, moral, physical, or any type of learning that furthers that individual (Dewey, 1938, p. 28). Dewey was a revolutionary in the world of experiential learning by redefining the idea of a valuable experience.

Dewey’s research and literature was the inspiration for the individual who I will use as my final source for outlining experiential learning, David Kolb. Kolb is currently one of the leading researchers for experiential learning and has created a model based off of inspiration from not just Dewey but also “Kurt Lewin, Jean Piaget, William James, Carl Jung, Paulo Freire, Carl Rogers and others” (Kolb & Kolb, 2005, p. 194). Kolb’s theory takes the form of a four stage model with each stage representing a different aspect of learning through experience. The starting point for Kolb’s theory is the concrete experience, where the learner is in the act of experiencing something; next is the reflective observation stage where the learner reflects on the experience that they just had; the third stage is the abstract conceptualization stage which is marked by the learner trying to actively conceptualize what is to be observed; and finally comes the active experimentation stage where the learner tries to plan out a future experience based on the information gathered from prior experiences  (Healey & Jenkins, 2000, p. 187). According to Kolb & Kolb “Learning is a holistic process of adaptation to the world. Not just the result of cognition, learning involves the integrated functioning of the total person—thinking, feeling, perceiving, and behaving” (p. 194). Through the interaction of the these four stages a learner is able to have an experience and learn from that experience in a way that leads to the gathering of knowledge.

Experiential Learning has many general themes that run through the overall idea of what classifies as learning through experience; but all of the theories that I have discussed in this paper and other theories that I have not discussed have some similarities that can be agreed upon. The first and probably most important theme that I have discovered through my own research is that not all experiences result in valuable learning that can change the way that an individual looks at a situation. This point is best substantiated by Dewey (1938) and the same above quote that “The belief that all genuine education comes through experience does not mean that all experiences are genuinely or equally educative” (p. 13) as well as Kolb & Kolb (2005) “Learning is best conceived as a process, not in terms of outcomes. To improve learning in higher
education, the primary focus should be on engaging students in a process that best enhances their learning” (p. 194); learning seems to be a process that needs to be a critical experience to the learner and not just random experiences in everyday life.

A second major theme that occurs during valuable experiential learning is the active participation of the learner in the learning process. As Dewey states in his 1938 book “experience is a moving force. Its value can be judged only on the ground of what it moves towards an into” (p. 31). Without active participation the learner is unable to gather knowledge from experience. The way that I look at this theme is that unless you try something you will never know what the experience will be like; you might be able to have an idea of what it is but you will not know for sure. To Piaget through the years of development, children were able to learn through direct interaction with their environment; they were able to use their senses to learn about their likes and dislikes to better understand the world around them (Brown & Desforges, 2006, p. 24-27). While Piaget’s theory borders the line of valuable experience the theme of direct experience has been found in all future research on the topic of experiential learning.

The third major theme that I will discuss in this paper, though it is not the last theme overall, is the idea that successful experiential learning happens through reflection on the experience. Reflection is the basis of categorizing what has been experienced; “He [Kolb] theorised that learners extract from their experiences an essence of learning; they identify what principles can be learnt, form an opinion on what that means to them, and then assimilate this into their existing knowledge” (Yardley, Teunissen and Dornan, 2012, p. 105). Reflection leads the learner to realize that an experience was something that could be learned from and future experiences can be changed by.

Putting all of this research together can lead to many different implications of the research. Though there are many different implications that can be drawn I believe that there are a few important implications that are important to note for experiential learning. The first of these implications would be that people who are older and more mature have greater experiences to ue. This means that when you look at the age of a learner just being older can mean that you have a greater amount of knowledge to draw upon and use when having new experiences. Age is a huge determinant of experiential learning but one also needs to look at the amount of experiences had. In order to be able to learn from experiences a learner needs to create opportunities for themselves to have experiences. By having more experiences one is able to gather more information to use in further experiences. These experiences, like stated above, must be valuable experiences that the learner was able to infer some sort of knowledge from. The final implication that I will discuss in this paper is the idea that once something has been experienced and the knowledge has been used it can be taught to new learners for them to have the same experiences. While experiential learning a mainly an individual practice, those who have had experiences are able to share this knowledge with others. Sharing this knowledge can lead others to seek out the same experience and have it for themselves and thus perpetuate the experiential learning cycle.

Experiential learning, in my opinion, can be an extremely valuable way for people to learn. For me, I am always up for new experiences and I usually actively seek them out so I am able to have more. I believe that active seeking of experiences is the larges downfall to experiential learning because everyone will have a different idea or comfort zone for experiencing new things. I can say that I will try anything but someone else might have difficult just trying a new food. The willingness of the participant to actively engage in a new experience can lead to people experiencing many different things or hardly anything. I am not saying that everyone needs to experience everything they can but I am saying that when someone is unwilling to have new experiences they will be less likely to learn from experiential learning.

Experiential learning is an invaluable means of gaining knowledge but in order for the experience to be deemed as valuable a person needs to have meaningful experiences. Experiential learning can be a way for many to gain new knowledge or it can be a hinderance for others who are unwilling to participate. Overall it seems that everyone has some sort of learning through the use of experience and with this fact I would say that experiential learning may be the most influential form of learning.

Theme	Implication
Not all experiences result in learning.	Only valuable experiences result in learning. Learners need to be able to have valuable experiences.
Active participation is needed for learning.	Without active participation the learner is not able to experience a stimulus in order to learn.
Reflection on an experience is needed in order to learn.	Without reflection a learner may not know they had an experience that they could learn from.

References:

Brown, G., & Desforges, C. (2002). Piaget's Theory. Florence, GB: Routledge. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com.proxy.bsu.edu

Dewey, J. (1938). Experience and education. New York: Touchstone. Retrieved from: https://books.google.com/books?id=JhjPK4FKpCcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=john+dewey&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiOwv-2lKvPAhVF0oMKHYmGDbIQ6AEIJDAB#v=onepage&q=john%20dewey&f=false.

Healey, M., & Jenkins, A. (2000). Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory and Its Application in Geography in Higher Education. Journal of Geography, 99(5), 185–195. http://doi.org/10.1080/00221340008978967

Kolb, A. Y., & Kolb, D. A. (2005). Learning Styles and Learning Spaces: Enhancing Experiential Learning in Higher Education. Academy Of Management Learning & Education, 4(2), 193-212. doi:10.5465/AMLE.2005.17268566

Yardley, S., Teunissen, P. W., & Dornan, T. (2012). Experiential learning: AMEE Guide No. 63. Medical Teacher, 34(2), e102-e115. doi:10.3109/0142159X.2012.650741

Yardley, S., Teunissen, P. W., & Dornan, T. (2012). Experiential learning: Transforming theory into practice. Medical Teacher, 34(2), 161-164.