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Experiential Learning

Inviting students to learn through experience and reflection

At a Glance

Some key takeaways on experiential learning:

  • Experiential learning is a type of active learning in which students learn through concrete experiences, reflective observation, conceptualization, and experimentation.
  • Experiential learning enables increased knowledge acquisition and a deeper understanding of one’s community and environment.
  • Instructors can apply experiential learning by incorporating service learning, field trips, visits to special collections and galleries, clinical education, field work, and study abroad into their curricula.

What Is Experiential Learning?

Benefits

Recommendations

Examples

References

What is Experiential Learning?

Experiential learning is a type of active learning in which students learn through the experience of doing. According to the Association for Experiential Education, “Experiential learning occurs when carefully chosen experiences are supported by reflection, critical analysis and synthesis.” Common experiential learning activities include internships, field trips, and service projects.

Kolb (1984) identified four stages that are central to the experiential learning process (McLeod, 2024):

experiential learning cycle graphic

A chart that shows the cycle of experiential learning: Active Experimentation > Concrete Experience > Abstract Conceptualization > Abstract Conceptualization 

Benefits

Experiential learning helps students raise questions rather than simply find answers. Students who participate in experiential learning activities report increased knowledge acquisition and greater understanding of their communities and environments (Bossaller, 2016). Research has also found that those who participate in experiential learning are more prepared for self-directed and lifelong learning (Jiusto and DiBlasio, 2013). 

However, most instructors who employ experiential methods would agree that experience alone is not the best teacher: people have experiences every day from which they do not learn. Consequently, reflection is a necessary step to ensure students understand patterns and concepts that manifest in the real world.

Recommendations

When incorporating experiential learning into your curriculum, it is important to identify activities that will capture students’ attention and interests. Consider how potential activities connect to learning objectives and how experiential learning will advance students’ understanding of course content and its connection to the real world. 

When brainstorming potential activities, it is also important to consider the time and cost involved. If the activity requires more time than is available during regular class meetings, instructors should assess students’ availability outside of class. You should also consider whether funding is available to cover the costs of the activity and refer to resources such as the Poorvu Center’s Instructional Enhancement Fund.

Experiential learning isn’t complete without reflection. When planning an activity, consider what kinds of reflective experiences you can create to help students make sense of the activity. Invite students to share questions, observations, and connections discovered through the experiential learning activity. They may share these findings through a verbal, written, or creative format.

Example Questions:

  • What themes, patterns, or trends did you observe from this activity?
  • How did concepts discussed in class relate to what you witnessed?
  • What challenges did you encounter? How did you overcome them?
  • What did you learn from this experience that you did not know previously?
  • Have you had a similar experience before this activity?
  • Where might you encounter a similar experience in the future?

For experiential learning to be effective, students must have significant freedom to pose questions, discover solutions, and test new ideas. As such, instructors should imagine themselves as “intellectual coaches” who work with students as opposed to teachers who provide detailed instructions (Slavich and Zimbardo, 2012). You can establish activity goals, share feedback and resources, and support students as they reflect and conceptualize.

Examples of Experiential Learning

Service learning refers to community-based projects and activities that students participate in as part of a class assignment. Examples include:

  • A course on the Digital Age has students design web sites for student organizations.
  • An American history class has students do oral history interviews of participants in the Civil Rights movement.
  • A political science class had students interview recent émigrés about their views on building an expatriate community.
  • A psychology class has students observe the learning behavior of toddlers at a day-care center and report to teachers at the center.

Field trips allow students to observe how concepts they have studied in the classroom manifest in the real world. Examples include:

  • One medieval history class has a field trip to map the Gothic architectural elements of Sterling Memorial Library and then sort them into the categories of “true historical Gothic” and “anachronistic.”
  • A literature course has a scavenger hunt in the library in which students had to find items such as a sonnet written after 1950.
  • A technical theater design course attends a production of Life of Pi at the American Repertory Theater and tours backstage to understand how machines work and produce different automated effects.

Instructors who are interested in organizing field trips should review Yale’s policies and procedures for academic field trips as they begin to plan.

Yale’s museums and special collections house art, historical objects, manuscripts, and scientific paraphernalia that may be relevant to student learning. Instructors may bring their sections to one of Yale’s many libraries or galleries, including the Yale University Art Gallery, Sterling Memorial Library, and Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Staff can organize a room for your class with the objects that you request in advance. Visit the Poorvu Center’s guide on Teaching with Collections to learn more.

Clinical education refers to programs in which students practice professional and experiential skills. Credit-bearing clinical education courses are most commonly offered in the areas of law and healthcare. 

Field work refers to supervised student research that occurs in contact with communities and environments in the real world.

  • An anthropology course has students observe individuals traveling by public transport and write ethnographic accounts.
  • A botany course has students visit a tropical rainforest and identify plant families of economic and ecological importance.

Study abroad offers students the opportunity to pursue a semester at a foreign institution and experience cultural immersion.

  • Students may study at Bard College Berlin to learn about the intersection of art and society.
  • Students may explore how rainforests, coral reefs, and other environments are affected by environmental threats like climate change through the School for Field Studies Australia.

References and Resources

Association for Experiential Education. (2007-2014). Retrieved from https://www.aee.org/what-is-experiential-education/.

Bossaller, J.S. (2016). Service Learning as Innovative Pedagogy in Online Learning, Education for Information 32(1), 35 – 53.

Jiusto, S., & DiBlasio, D. (2013). Experiential Learning Environments: Do They Prepare Our Students to be Self-Directed, Life-Long Learners? Journal of Engineering Education 95(3), 195–204. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2168-9830.2006.tb00892.x.

Kolb, D. A. (1984).  Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Mcleod, S. (2024, February 2). Kolb’s Learning Styles and Experiential Learning Cycle. Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/learning-kolb.html.

Slavich, G.M., & Zimbardo, P.G. (2012). Transformational Teaching: Theoretical Underpinnings, Basic Principles, and Core Methods. Educational Psychology Review 24, 569–608. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-012-9199-6.

  1. Boston University’s Center for Teaching & Learning provides an overview of experiential learning and explains how this pedagogical approach works.
  2. Miami University’s Center for Teaching Excellence also provides an introduction to experiential learning, key principles, and details on the learning process.
  3. The Association for Experiential Education provides principles of practice as well as useful resources for instructors.
  4. The Poorvu Center’s Instructional Enhancement Fund provides Yale instructors with up to $500 in funding to support experiential learning and other activities for existing courses.
  5. The University of Wisconsin at Madison has a list of reflection questions for experiential learning activities.
  6.  Instructors may utilize this list of Yale’s museums and libraries when planning gallery visits. You may also consider taking students to the Yale Farm, where they can explore the relationships between food, farming, people, and the planet.