This approach has been around for quite a while and is incredibly effective, thanks to the various advantages that come with it. We'll review some information about learning by doing, also called experiential learning, and explain why it's such a powerful educational tool.
What Is Learning By Doing?
The basic tenet of learning by doing is that we can learn more by doing things.
Let's say you want to learn to play a musical instrument, and you're curious about how the instruments sound and what happens when you blend different sounds. Learning by doing gives you the core concept of playing the instrument and puts you on stage to jam out an improvisational composition with other musicians. In contrast, most other approaches might have you practising alone in a studio.
Approaching something more actively than just passively learning about it is another way to look at it. The takeaway is that learning occurs on a deeper level when there is active participation and that mistakes are OK as long as they are addressed. This mindset has coined a new name for this method: experiential learning.
What Are The Benefits Of Learning By Doing?
Experiential learning is still important today and has been for a very long time. Aristotle once said, "For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them."
This mindset changed over time; it briefly lost ground when computers were introduced into classrooms, and schools have recently reintroduced it. Teachers encourage this method for good reasons: it offers five significant benefits:
1. Fun and Memorable Approach
First of all, it's more enjoyable and memorable. There's no room for performance decline since it requires action, which is crucial because you'll learn from lectures, books, or articles. However, learners might easily read a text without understanding anything at all.
It's easier to recall information when you're forced to apply it in a situation that calls for understanding it. Your actions build personalised learning opportunities, fueling your motivation—motivation connected to your experiences and knowledge, showing you that learning has meaning and purpose.
Plus, learners can refine their strategies by engaging in a cycle of learning that involves effort, error, reflection, and refinement.
2. More Personalized Approach
Building on the above reason, experiential learning offers a more personalised experience. Referring to the effort-error-reflection-refinement cycle, this cycle is only possible when one's emotions are involved. Motivation and knowledge acquisition about a specific topic are tied to your values and principles.
This powerful connection offers a richer experience than reading from a book or article. Moreover, this personal connection is more valuable because it encourages learners to explore and be curious.
For instance, you could read up on it, watch a video, or buy the supplies and start experimenting if you wanted to make a cake or prepare a special meal. You've prepared the dish intending to eat it, so even if you make mistakes now, you'll know better when you try again and will put in more time and effort.
3. Community-Connected Approach
Unlike reading a book by yourself at home or at the library, experiential learning takes you into the real world. The city is practically your school, so use everything around you. You can compile issues and relate local issues to more general global ones.
This leans more towards the personal side that this method encourages; you're part of a community, and this type of learning allows you to engage with it more and build relationships—not necessarily with its members but with the surrounding environment, too.
4. A More Integrated Approach to People's Lives
This type of learning has been deeply woven into our daily lives, and deep learning occurs most effectively when learners can use what they have learned in the classroom to address issues that are important to them in their own lives.
Despite the abundance of information, people always wonder about its relevance to them. When it comes to learning, people are more engaged if they know that what they're learning is vital to their lifestyle in some way.
It's easy to forget if they can't link knowledge to personal aspects of their lives. Therefore, experiential learning makes applying knowledge easy.
5. Builds Success Skills
The ultimate benefit of experiential learning is that it builds your skills for success. It pushes you out of your comfort zone to explore new things and experience them for the first time. You're bound to make a mistake or two, but with this approach, you won't look back on your mistakes.
It fosters initiative for new things and perseverance for growth and development in a particular field. This can also lead to team management and the growth of collaboration skills, all of which are important for personal growth as we move forward into the future.
How to Start Learning by Doing?
All these perks are good for you, but how do you get started? You can use a number of approaches when it comes to experiential learning. These are a few:
1. Low-Risk Testing
One way to introduce this approach in classroom settings is through many low-risk tests. Instead of assessing individual performance, these tests encourage learners to engage with the material and do independent research on the knowledge they have learned.
Studies highlight the success of this approach in enhancing learner comprehension, improving retention, and promoting the application of acquired knowledge in different contexts.
2. A Type of Mental Practice
Another approach, as psychologist Rich Mayer advocates, is that learning is generative (generative learning is the intentional integration of new concepts with the learner's pre-existing schemas.). Repeated experiments in his Santa Barbara lab have demonstrated how expertise is acquired by doing, but that doing depends on prior knowledge.
To learn more about a historical figure, for example, you have to make a connection between what you already know about the figure and what you want to learn and remember. Even the most basic memory tasks can benefit from this approach since it allows our brains to relearn.
3. Other Mental Activities
The hands-on, literal approach is the last approach we will discuss. It is about doing the hard physical work in your own way. You could try reading an article and applying it immediately, just as you're doing with this one. Alternatively, you might be able to engage more by solving riddles or turning the task you're performing into a game.
If you'd like to learn about animal behaviour patterns, for instance, you could study them and then go watch animals to see if they display the particular behaviours you've read about.
Parting Thoughts
Learning by doing encourages active engagement with available materials and forces you to work harder to remember those materials. This approach works well since it helps you retain the information. However, you'll also feel a strong personal connection to this information, which will pique your interest in using it later on.
In light of this, we strongly advise you to apply what you have learned from this article in real life, as it will help you grow.
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