Experiential Learning: How We All Learn Naturally
Summary
TLDRExperiential learning, or learning through reflection on doing, is a powerful method of acquiring skills and knowledge. It involves trying, failing, and analyzing the reasons behind the failure to improve. This natural process is seen in various life experiences, from learning to walk to mastering a musical instrument. It's not just for physical skills; it's also beneficial for academic subjects and abstract concepts. The script suggests that experiential learning is universal, applicable in both personal development and professional settings, such as Silicon Valley startups using it to iterate on products based on customer feedback.
Takeaways
- 🧠 Experiential learning is a powerful form of learning that involves reflection on doing, which is crucial for skills development.
- 🩰 It is a natural process observed in various scenarios, from prima ballerinas to children learning to walk.
- 👣 Even painful experiences like falling while learning to walk contribute to learning through the brain's unconscious analysis of the event.
- 🧠 Our brain processes information from our body and environment to understand the cause of a failure, which is essential for improvement.
- 🔄 The process of experiential learning involves doing, reflecting, understanding, and then deciding on a new approach.
- 🎵 Musicians often excel in tests due to the practice of experiential learning through playing an instrument, which engages multiple brain areas.
- 🎶 Learning an instrument involves a fast feedback loop, which is crucial for recognizing and correcting mistakes quickly.
- 💡 Experiential learning is not just for physical skills; it can be applied to improve performance in various fields, including science and art.
- 🤝 It can be a collaborative process, as seen in Silicon Valley start-ups where teams reflect on customer feedback to iterate on their products.
- 🏢 Businesses and individuals can benefit from experiential learning by getting out of their comfort zones and reflecting on real-world interactions.
Q & A
What is experiential learning?
-Experiential learning is a natural and powerful form of learning that occurs through reflection on doing. It is how individuals learn from their experiences, making sense of the information available to them, and adjusting their actions based on the analysis of past events.
How does experiential learning manifest in daily life?
-Experiential learning is evident in everyday activities such as walking, talking, or even learning to dance. It is particularly noticeable in instances where one encounters failure and must analyze what went wrong to improve in subsequent attempts.
What role does experiential learning play in the development of motor skills?
-Experiential learning is crucial in the development of motor skills as it allows individuals to understand the relationship between their body movements and the outcomes, enabling them to adjust and improve their actions through practice and reflection.
How does the brain process experiential learning?
-The brain unconsciously analyzes the relationship of events within the body or the environment during experiential learning. It remembers the sequence of actions and the outcomes, allowing for the identification of what needs to change for improvement.
Why is experiential learning effective in learning new skills?
-Experiential learning is effective because it involves direct engagement with a task, followed by reflection on the experience, which leads to the formation of abstract concepts and understanding of cause-and-effect relationships.
What are the steps involved in experiential learning?
-The steps in experiential learning include getting into a situation to experience, reflecting on what happened, understanding the relationships to form an abstract concept, deciding what to do differently next time, and then repeating the process.
How does experiential learning benefit musicians?
-Experiential learning benefits musicians by engaging their brain in motor, visual, and auditory areas, and by providing a fast feedback loop that allows them to immediately recognize and correct mistakes, thus improving their skills through practice, reflection, understanding, and repetition.
Can experiential learning be applied to academic subjects like science and math?
-Yes, experiential learning can be applied to academic subjects. It can involve hands-on experiments, problem-solving, and reflective practices that help in understanding complex concepts and theories.
What is the significance of feedback in experiential learning?
-Feedback is significant in experiential learning as it provides immediate information about the outcomes of one's actions, allowing for the identification of errors and the necessary adjustments to improve performance.
How do Silicon Valley start-ups utilize experiential learning?
-Silicon Valley start-ups utilize experiential learning by encouraging their developers to interact with real potential customers. After these interactions, the team analyzes the feedback and decides on the next steps to take, incorporating learning from real-world experiences into their product development.
What is the broader implication of experiential learning in professional settings?
-In professional settings, experiential learning can lead to improved problem-solving skills, better decision-making, and enhanced innovation as teams reflect on their experiences, learn from their mistakes, and continuously adapt their strategies.
Outlines
🚶♂️ Experiential Learning: The Power of Doing and Reflecting
The paragraph introduces experiential learning as a fundamental and powerful method of acquiring knowledge through personal experiences and reflection. It uses examples ranging from prima ballerinas to children learning to walk, emphasizing the universality of this learning process. The paragraph explains how our brains unconsciously analyze the causes of our failures, such as falling while learning to walk, to improve future attempts. It outlines the steps of experiential learning: experiencing a situation, reflecting on it, understanding the relationships between actions and outcomes, and deciding how to act differently next time. The paragraph also suggests that experiential learning is not just for physical skills but can be applied to improve in any field, including music, where musicians' engagement in practice and reflection leads to better performance in various tests. It concludes by encouraging the application of experiential learning in diverse settings, such as Silicon Valley start-ups and suggests a discussion on its applicability to various disciplines.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Experiential Learning
💡Reflection
💡Abstract Concept
💡Feedback Loop
💡Practice
💡Repetition
💡Prima Ballerinas
💡National Opera
💡Silicon Valley Start-ups
💡Hippocampus
💡Ventricles
Highlights
Experiential learning is a powerful form of learning through reflection on doing.
Prima ballerinas and children learning from their mistakes exemplify experiential learning.
By age one, we've all experienced experiential learning through the process of learning to walk.
The brain unconsciously analyzes information after a fall to understand what went wrong.
Experiential learning involves remembering body positions and movements to improve future attempts.
The brain forms connections between events and responses during experiential learning.
Experiential learning is not just for physical skills but also适用于 cognitive and social skills.
The process of experiential learning involves experiencing, reflecting, understanding, and deciding on changes.
Musicians often excel in tests due to the experiential learning involved in practicing their instruments.
Practicing an instrument engages multiple brain areas and fast feedback loops.
Experiential learning teaches that progress comes through practice, reflection, understanding, and repetition.
Silicon Valley start-ups use experiential learning by having developers interact with real customers.
Teams analyze feedback and decide next steps after experiential learning interactions.
Experiential learning can be applied to acquire new hands-on skills or improve existing ones.
The transcript questions whether experiential learning is suitable for studying science, math, humanities, or abstract art.
Transcripts
Arguably the most natural and powerful form of learning
is through experience,
or more precisely through reflection on doing.
Also called experiential learning,
it’s what prima ballerinas do
after their performance at the national opera.
But it also happens to boys that are sad
because their father got angry
when they played football in the living room.
By the age of one,
we all had our own painful encounter with
experiential learning
when we tried to walk, failed,
fell and cried like, well a baby…
And even though this was an unpleasant and
discouraging exercise that lasted for months
in the end
we all made it.
How is that possible?
As soon as we fell and the first shock was over,
our brain unconsciously began to make sense
out of all of the information available
to identify how this embarrassment occurred.
It remembers that when we pushed ourselves up,
everything was fine:
our feet on the floor,
our arms in position and our head
and shoulders up right.
Ready to go!
When our upper leg muscles
pulled our left foot 12.3% to the front
at an angle of 23 degree,
our arms didn’t compliment the movement
and the ventricles in the inner ear,
responsible for static balance,
got confused for a second.
When at the same moment the cat ran by,
our eyes sent an alarming signal to the hippocampus
and we completely lost it…
Outch!
Unconsciously this is how our brain analyses
the relationship of events within our body
or in the environment.
It happens all the time as we learn to walk,
talk,
kiss,
function in a fancy office
or dance the salsa.
Once we understand the connections between
what went wrong,
we know what we need to change
when we try the next time.
Experiential Learning
can also be used explicitly to learn a new skill
or to become better at what we already love doing.
Here is how it works:
First get yourself into a situation to experience.
After, reflect on what happened.
Then try to understand the relationships
to form an abstract concept
- if I do A,
I get B.
Last, decide what to do differently next time.
Then do it again.
Experiential learning is also believed to be responsible
for the fact that musicians
generally fare better at most tests,
regardless of what they measure.
People that practice an instrument
not only engage their brain in motor,
visual and auditory areas,
but they also learn by reflecting on what they’re doing
with a fast feedback loop
– a wrong tone on the violin sounds too terrible
to remain unnoticed.
While playing they therefore not only learn to make music,
but also that progress in general comes through practice,
reflection,
understanding,
and repetition.
You can use it with your friends
or colleagues when working on a project.
Silicon Valley start-ups do it
when they tell their developers to get out of the building!
After the interaction with real potential customers,
the team gets together,
analyses the feedback
and decides what to do next.
Tell us, what do you think?
Is learning through reflecting on doing
only good when acquiring new hands-on skills
or is it also suitable to study science,
math,
the humanities
or abstract art?
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