Journal Press India^®

Author Details ( * ) denotes Corresponding author

India's higher education system is the world's third largest in terms of students, next to China and the United States. In future, India will be one of the largest education hubs. India's Higher Education sector has witnessed a tremendous increase in the number of Universities/University level Institutions & Colleges since independence. The role of colleges and universities in the higher education system in the new millennium has become more complex and challenging due to the emerging scientific research on understanding how people learn is utmost important to justify the quality of higher education. As India need well skilled and highly educated people who can drive our economy forward and also to transfer our country from a developing nation to a developed nation. For attaining this goal, higher education system should make student competencies go beyond the content knowledge, prepare them to direct their own learning, solve problems of academic significance and to move beyond controlled information containment. Ideas must be explored, developed, integrated, and resolved within the context of a particular assignment as knowledge construction at advanced levels take on new meaning. Higher education rather than being the source of content expertise, should be facilitators of knowledge and motivation of action learning preceded by a driving question. Unlike assignments of passive learning, experiential approach recognizes and values unpredictable outcomes. Experiential learning is an approach in which students decide themselves to be personally involved in the learning experience, students are actively participating in their own learning and have a personal role in the direction of learning. Experiential learning is popular with students as it is considered more enjoyable and leads to deeper learning when compared to didactic approaches. Employers prefer hiring students who have learned experientially and yet emerging research indicates that the use of experiential learning in higher education institutions remains limited. The present paper aims to highlight the concept of experiential learning, its importance & advantages, challenges and to point out the opportunities to implement experiential learning in Indian higher education system based on the review of available literature in the field of study.

Keywords

Experiential learning; Higher education; Kolb’s learning cycle; Teaching and learning

1. S Ambrose, M Bridges, M DiPietro, M Lovett, M Norman. How learning works:  research-based principles for smart teaching. San Francisco, CA, 7,  2010.


2. J Anthony, M Ewing, J Jaynes, G Perkus.   Engaging psychology and history in experiential learning. McKinney, Texas: Collin County Community College. Association for Experiential Education. What is experiential education? 1990.


3. A Bandura. Human agency: The rhetoric and the reality. American Psychologist, 46(2), 1991, 157–162.


4. D Boud, R Keogh, D Walker. Reflection: turning experience into learning. London, UK, Academic Press, 1985.


5. J Cantor. Experiential Learning in Higher education: Linking Classroom and Community (ERIC Digest. ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Rerport No. 7. Washington DC: The George Washington University, Graduate School of Education and Human Development). 1997. http://www.eric.ed.gov/ contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=ED404948.


6. L Cooper, J Orrell,  M Bowden. Work Integrated Learning: A guide to effective practice. New York, NY: Routledge, 2010.


7. P Honey, A Mumford. Manual of learning styles. Maidenhead: Peter Honey. Houle, CO, 1980.


8. Continuing learning in the professions. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1992.


9. JS Hunsaker. The experiential learning model and the learning style inventory: An assessment of current findings. Journal of Experiential Learning and Simulation, 2(3), 1981, 145–152.


10. B Jacoby. Service learning in today’s higher education. B Jacoby (Ed.), Service learning in higher education: Concepts and practices San Francisco, 1996, 3–25.


11. D Kolb. Experiential learning: experience as the source of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1984.


12. AY Kolb, DA Kolb. Learning styles and learning spaces: A review of the multidisciplinary application of experiential learning theory in higher education. In R. R. Sims, & S. J. Sims (Eds.), Learning styles and learning: A key to meeting the accountability demands in education, New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2006, 45–92.


13. A Kolb, D Kolb. The learning way: Meta-cognitive aspects of experiential learning. Simulation Gaming. 40(3), 2009, 297-327.


14. University of California Davis (UC Davis). 5-step experiential learning cycle definitions.  2011, http://www.experientiallearning.ucdavis.edu/module1/e11_40- 5stepdefinitions.pdf


15. D Kolb, R Fry. Toward an applied theory of experiential learning. in C. Cooper (Ed.), Theories of Group Process. London, UK: 1975.


16. DA Kolb. The Learning Style Inventory: Technical Manual. McBer & Co, Boston, MA, 1976.


17. DA Kolb. Learning styles and disciplinary differences. The modern American college, 1981, 232-255.


18. DA Kolb. Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development (Vol. 1). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1984.


19. DA Kolb. Learning style inventory, version 3. Boston: The Hay Group, 1999.


20. DA Kolb, RE Fry. Toward an applied theory of experiential learning. MIT Alfred P. Sloan School of Management, 1974.


21. DA Kolb, IM Rubin, JM McIntyre. Organizational psychology: readings on human behavior in organizations. Prentice Hall, 194.


22. JJ Koob,  J Funk. Kolb’s learning style inventory: Issues of reliability and validity. Research on Social Work Practice, 12(2), 2002, 293–308.


23. MG Massey, SH Kim, C Mitchell. A study of the learning styles of undergraduate social work students. Journal of Evidence-Based Social Work, 8(3), 2011, 294–303.


24. References Association for Experiential Education http://www.aee.org/ George Mason University. Center for Teaching Excellence. About teaching: Experiential learning, 2011.


25. EF Turesky, D Gallagher. Know thyself: Coaching for leadership using Kolb’s experiential learning theory. Coaching Psychologist, 7(1), 2011, 5–14.


26. JS Veres, RR Sims, TS Locklear. Improving the reliability of Kolb’s revised learning, 1991.


27. L Willcoxson, M Prosser. Kolb’s learning style inventory (1985): Review and further study of validity and reliability. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 66(2), 1996, 247–257.


28. SD Wurdinger, JA Carlson. Teaching for experiential learning: Five approaches that work. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Education, 2010.