Teachers’ Guidelines

3. Comparisons and Benefits

When we talk about experiential learning, “involving” is the key word. The student learns by doing, by cooperating but, most of all, he learns through his own experience.

In classical learning, the student is a passive receiver of the information. In experiential learning, he becomes an active part of the process, accumulating knowledge and directly contributing to own personal development.

In classical learning, most often, the teacher transmits the information to all group, but he doesn’t have an immediate feed-back, while in experiential learning, each person is important. Experiential learning creates a dialogue between teacher and student - questions are meant to improve the educational act.

Classical learning is based on theory, while the experiential one is based on perception. Experiential learning involves emotions and feelings, these two components being a decisive factor in obtaining an optimum in learning process.

In classical learning, the teacher is a simple information transmitter. In experiential learning, the skilful teacher transforms the educational act in an interactive and challenging one.

For example, at Science, Spring Flowers theme:

• In classical learning, the teacher will tell the students about flowers that grow in spring. He will talk to students about the meteorological phenomena, life environments and life conditions.
• Experiential learning will determine the teacher to organize a forest trip, in a spring day, for picking up spring flowers. Direct observation, students actively involving, fresh air activity will offer these ones a better comprehension lesson, better than the theory exposed in the classroom.

Traditionally, the evaluation is done in relation to the other students, the items being established by theoretical criteria, meant to rank the group of students. In experiential learning the students are evaluated in relation to themselves. It’s important to see their progress achieved as a result of the experiential activities.

Moreover, experiential learning emphasizes soft skills and hard skills at the same time: active listening, negotiation skills, public speaking, critical thinking, etc.

There is no doubt that traditional learning has its own advantages, as the elements of acquiring and consolidating knowledge are extremely important, but it is also essential that theory should be put into practice, to ensure that know and do turn into know how to do.

Online Resources

• Comparing Behaviourist and Experiential Learning TheoriesPerspective, definition and the learning process. The role of the teacher in the experiential approach.
• The Benefits of Experiential LearningThe benefits of using the experiential learning process in the classroom.