An Excellent Article on Experiential Learning

Everyone is different. This is not a new idea. However, it is a fact of life often neglected by those who think and teach in a linear one-size-fits-all format. It amounts to teaching with blinders on--neglecting the individual learner and compromising their unique learning experiences in the name of efficiency and standardization. Today, I found an article that brings to light this quiet dilemma:

Different types of learning and development are required for different purposes.

Conventional teaching and training are based mainly on knowledge/skills transfer, but this does not address individual growth and potential particularly well.

This is because conventional skills/knowledge transfer usually assumes (wrongly) what the individual needs to learn, and the best way in which they can learn it. In addition, the subject matter tends to be focused on organisational needs, or the need to pass an exam, which are usually a little different (sometimes a lot different) from an individual's natural strengths and preferred personal direction.

http://www.businessballs.com/experiential_learning.htm 


Here is another excerpt from the article that rings true:

Experiential learning is a way to break out of the received conditioned training and teaching practices which so constrain people's development in schools and work. It does this because it is centred on the individual - not the training or the surrounding system. It works on the basis that people can and should be developed from the inside out, not the other way around. In merely transferring and conveying knowledge to a person we do very little to help them grow as individuals, and when we starve this need most people quickly begin to lose confidence and hopes of becoming someone special in life.

Show me an institution of higher education that cares about its students, and I will show you students that would forever be loyal to that school in heart and mind.