Models of Experiential Learning
Move From Theory To Practice
When I want to know how to do something, I look it up on Youtube. I get to hear someone talk through the experience, demonstrate how to do it, address issues encountered, and see what the finished product looks like. When I don’t catch part of the instructions, I rewind the video until I have it down.
What I don’t do is read a manual that is 200 pages long and absent of graphics to display what I should do. Heck, if it is 20 pages long, I’m out. It just doesn’t work as well. I want to observe, practice, and then polish. This is actionable learning to me.
When working to build a better professional development system, it’s good practice to make things actionable. Here are a few ways to incorporate this into your training.
Scenario-based learning: This is all about problem-based or case-based learning. These put the learner through a storyline that is complex and involves them wrestling with high-level cognitive models for how to solve an issue. In a perfect world, the learner also gets to see how their choices affect the outcome.
Experiential Learning: David Kolb is the theorist on this one. The general idea is that the learner gets to learn specifics of a topic while also getting to know about themselves. There are four main phases. Interestingly enough, these phases focus on the learner’s journey, not the trainer or presenter’s journey.
Transformational Learning: This is all about moving past simple knowledge acquisition and focuses on how people make meaning. You will have to do more than just get your feet wet in the world of psychology to build experiences like this intentionally. If you claim to build impactful learning experiences, be sure to brush up on this approach to learning design.
Building learning experiences that involve each of these methods above are worth your time. They are the heart of behavior change performance training.
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