The modern learner will always be distracted and overwhelmed with responsibilities. People born in the late stages of the 20th century or after it will have around five different careers in their lifetime. Workshops and online classes are a dime a dozen these days and are the easiest ways for anyone to learn new skills to succeed in the workplace. Due to such a thing, employers search for various skills in employees nowadays. And it has become crucial for schools to integrate new and improved teaching techniques to prepare students for changing market dynamics. In recent years, active and collaborative learning techniques are taking the education world by storm. Amidst these is the popularity of experiential learning.
Experiential learning, as the name suggests, is all about learning through experiences and practical exposure. Created by psychologist David Kolb, he defined it as the process of creating knowledge through experience transformation. According to him, experience is the basis for reflection. We gather information through experience and then develop theories about the universe and our role in it. Nowadays, experiential learning is common practice in various educational institutes worldwide. These institutes impart education to their students through museum tours, cultural exchanges, international travel, or project-based learning techniques. Experiential learning has countless benefits; let’s discuss some of them below.
Shrinks the Gap between Practice and Theory
Undeniably, everyone can read about performing brain surgery from a medical book, but it is different when performing it physically. Experiential learning provides teachers with the opportunity to bridge the gap between theoretical and physically learning. The best schools know how to balance lecture delivery with project-based learning for their students to understand a particular topic better. For instance, engineering students cannot fully digest their course material until they possess the experience and practical knowledge. It explains why many are pursuing MSEE online that provides them with both knowledge and practical learning simultaneously. Furthermore, not only science fields but management and humanities also require students to gain experience instead of solely focusing on written material.
Provides Students with a Safe Space for Trial and Error
Failure can become a doomsday scenario for many students, whether failing on a test or dropping out of a course. And yet, no one will ever put a pilot with no flying experience inside the cockpit of a jumbo jet. Experiential learning allows students the opportunity to learn from trial and error. The example of a pilot is perfect for this scenario. Many flying schools send out their pilot on simulator training sessions to put their flying skills to the test.
Whenever they fail or crash their plane on the simulator, they can be at peace that they are not crashing an actual airplane. It allows the pilots to learn from trial and error before flying a real plane.
Perfect For Distracted Learners
You might be viewing this article through your mobile phone, which means that you can close it any second and start working on something else. We open text messages, social media accounts with great dedication and fall behind with our education. We respond to friend requests, reply to countless comments, and wonder where the last hour went. Anytime learners log into a virtual classroom, they are fighting against a plethora of distractions. With an active education technique such as experiential learning, distracted learning can ward off these distractions vying for their attention. As students engage themselves more through it, they will most likely put their devices aside and focus on the project learning activity.
Allows Accurate Skills Assessment
It turns out that gathering statistics about learning is exceptionally challenging. Sure, you can quickly analyze whether a cardiac patient survives or a plane lands safely on the ground. But how about assessing the training that goes into the process before that happens. Analyzing information from experiential learning tools will be a plus point. Gamification and simulation programs provide great insight into students’ choices whenever they undergo hands-on training.
It will, in turn, help teachers figure out which skills their students need to work on and where their talents lie. Teachers can then use such assessments to create personalized experiential training programs that cater to every student’s specific educational requirement in the classroom.
Provides a More Personalized Learning Experience
Nothing screams personalized education more than experiential learning. Every student has varying educational needs, requirements, and learning styles, and pace. With experiential learning, students can enjoy the freedom to test their skills practically.
According to neuroscience experts, personalized experiential learning allows students to grasp new ideas and concepts more quickly. Students who undergo personalized experiential learning remember what they learned for a more extended time.
Promotes Communication Skills and Teamwork
Most businesses face difficulty succeeding and realizing goals due to a lack of teamwork and effective communication between their departments. For example, this is prominent in the healthcare field. Professionals need to work as teams and communicate to improve patient outcomes. As a patient receives care from a group of doctors, nurses, and others, every healthcare professionals must focus on collaboration. Flipping through books or listening to a lecture does not allow you to work in teams.
With practice-based or experiential learning, students can come together and come up with solutions as a team. Learning in groups allows everyone to hear out what others have to say. Other’s answers to a problem can be far more effective than yours, allowing you to learn from various perspectives. Furthermore, learning in teams enables you to learn from other students and gain better expertise in a particular subject.
Conclusion;
With all the ways that experiential learning techniques enhance students’ knowledge, it is not a surprise that every school and college are opting for it. Additionally, when students see their hard work pay off, they experience a sense of accomplishment, pride, and gratitude. It enhances their enthusiasm and instills inside them the willingness to learn their entire life. At first, they might hesitate to take part in practice-based learning. However, once they do, they will not want to go back to the old methods.
