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Unit 38, 1.1 explain what is meant by experiential learning
The words of Lewis and Williams:
“In its simplest form, experiential learning means learning from experience or learning by doing.
Experiential education first immerses learners in an experience and then encourages reflection about the experience to develop new skills, new attitudes, or new ways of thinking.”
Experiential learning is a way of learning through hands on experience, it is often known as "learning through reflection on doing". Learning through play is a form of experiential learning, but it does not necessarily involve a child reflecting on their product. Experiential learning is distinct from rote or didactic learning, in which the learner plays a comparatively passive role. It is linked to other forms of active learning such as:
*Action learning.
*Adventure learning.
*Free-choice learning.
*Co-operative learning.
*Service-learning.
*Situated learning.
Experiential learning is linked in with the term "experiential education". Experiential education offers a wider philosophy of education. Experiential learning considers each person’s/child’s individual learning process, when this is compared to experiential education, we can see that experiential learning concentrates more on concrete issues related to the learner and the learning context.
The concept of learning through experience is an ancient one. Aristotle wrote in the Nichomachean Ethics "for the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them", however, an articulated educational approach sees experiential learning as more recent. Starting in the 1970's, Kolb played a big part in developing the modern theory of experiential learning, he concentrated on the work of John Dewey, Kurt Lewin, and Jean Piaget.
Experiential learning was first explored by John Dewey and Jean Piaget. David A. Kolb made it popular by developing the experiential learning theory. It is based on four main elements in the learning experience:
*Concrete experience.
*Reflective observation.
*Abstract conceptualization.
*Active experimentation.
Children learn through play, they cannot simply learn what we tell them. Their naturally inquisitive minds will always win over for them to get their hands-on experience. For instance, if we tell a child "the grass is lovely and cool under our bare feet" they can't just believe it, they will need to
their shoes and socks to know how it feels.