What is experiential learning and why is it so powerful?

Experiential learning is just that… learning by doing, learning from action rather than by simply reading or listening or watching.

Think back to when you first learned to ride a bike.  It’s likely someone gave you a bike and you got excited about riding it.  They showed you how to ride it.  They described to you what to do.  They might have put training wheels on at first to help you learn balance.  They probably held onto you during the first few rides.  You learned by doing, right?  This is the essence of experiential learning.

All of the research on learning indicates that we integrate information and remember it better when we process it actively vs. passively.  The more all of our senses are involved, the more powerful the learning.  While some people have a preferred mode, some are more visual, some are more auditory and some are more kinesthetic, we all integrate information best when more senses are involved. 

Tell me something I might forget.  Show me something I might remember.  Involve me in something and I will understand and personalize the experience making it unforgettable and useful.  This makes sense, right?

Did you know that memory is not just a mental process?  Our bodies and our emotions are integral to storage, categorization and recall.  In fact, much of recall and categorization is state dependent.  This means that the stronger the emotions we experience when the memory is created, the easier to recall when in that emotional state, and the easier to cross reference with other similarly categorized memories.

An additional powerful factor is that when we feel great, and we are physically engaged, we unconsciously integrate information that is missed by the passive learner or requires multiple repetitions by the passive learner to integrate.

The bottom line is that when training or teaching your people, a program designed to be engaging, exciting, fun, physical and involving can increase retention and understanding of material by 12 times or more as compared to conventional learning.

Experiential learning is a powerful and often underutilized way to maximize your training dollars and unleash productivity in your people.

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