“The experiential learning model pursues a framework for examining and strengthening the critical linkages among education, work, and personal development.” (David 2015) The experiential approach is experiencing within our environment, for example, making connections to the new knowledge and discoveries. When I use this approach, I can find more meaning in what I learn through the links I create.
For example, I took a course and studied about rocks. It was hard for me to fully understand how we could identify the numerous amounts of rock. Then, I had the opportunity to part take in a field study and get the experience of identifying the rock. For example, we could locate mineralized calcite rocks if we had any hydrochloric acid with us, the put it on a rock and see if there’s a reaction. Or if the rock was softer than a fingernail, then it could be considered a gypsum rock. When it came to the exam of identifying rocks, instead of the professor giving us a sheet of paper and describing the rock and having the students remember its name, he would have a table of rocks and have us identify it and define a reason as to why. To this day, because of my experience of identifying rocks, I can remember what it could possibly be when I see a new rock. I like to use my studies of geology as an example of an experiential approach because there a million different rocks in the world that have many other characteristics. For example, some are bumpy, smooth, translucent, soft, hard, etc. With stones having so many factors, it would be hard to truly understand and identify one through paper. So that with experience comes exposure with our 5 senses that can help recollect knowledge.
Another way I use the experiential approach that is pretty common to everyone is the experience of eating! Trying new food is an experience that can teach us about our own bodies, such as what we like, don’t like, what we are allergic to, etc. But, again, eating is an experience that pretty much everyone has done. Have you ever walked past Macdonald’s and smelled the greasy fries? That is our memory recollecting the time you tasted the delicious fries, again using that experiential approach of how we identify what our senses are experiencing.
This is why I connect deeply with the experiential approach, due to the vast connections through my education and personal life.
Resource:
Kolb, David 2014 Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development, Second Addition