Experiential learning: how students can learn more effectively Premium

Meta Description: Experiential learning is key to transforming education, empowering students to learn actively and adapt to the world around them.

Humans are a learning species. Our very survival depends on our ability to react and adapt to situations. To thrive, students should proactively create and shape their worlds. The sheer scale of learning is unprecedented in today’s world. Children can access information at the click of a button. Bots can teach them concepts and clarify doubts. Conventional schools as information disseminators could become redundant in the near future.

Yet, schools serve a purpose beyond mere knowledge acquisition. They must learn foundational skills of literacy and numeracy, yes. But they must also develop social, emotional, and cultural skills. They must navigate interpersonal relations, understand different views, and become self-aware.

They should also learn how to contribute to society. This is all know-how that comes from the school environment. It should be a microcosm of the world the students will eventually enter.

At present, schools are found lacking on most counts. Children from government and private schools receive differing quality of education, with the majority struggling with crumbling infrastructure, poorly trained teachers, and an outdated curriculum. There still exists a vast urban-rural divide and therefore, unequal access to resources. Laboratories, functional toilets, potable water, and computers continue to be problem areas in the poorest of schools.

However, even when schools get many things right, they remain stuck in a loop of exams, where the value-add is minimal. There is a need to reimagine the present approach to teaching, learning, and testing. Memorisation combined with high-stakes testing has not made children competent; it has merely helped them pass examinations that test a narrow range of abilities.

Moreover, children learn and understand in different ways. They have differing aptitudes, as Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences (the idea that intelligence is not a unified ability, but more a collection of distinct and independent intelligences) explains. Some children learn visually, by watching someone and mimicking them; others learn by reading text; and others understand and learn only when they apply it practically by themselves. The brain is capable of reorganising and rewiring itself to keep learning and develop newer skills — a concept called neuroplasticity. 

Here is where experiential learning becomes useful. It offers a more wholesome approach to teaching and learning. As the term suggests, experience is key. It is “learning by doing,” focusing on the “how “ of learning or the process rather than the outcome. Experiential learning is a continuous, lifelong process of knowledge construction, deconstruction, and reconstruction.