Give Us This Day ...

Experiential Learning

Although for a long time it has been assumed that we learn by experience, we now know that this is only part of the learning process. Rather, we learn from disciplined reflection on experience. In our everyday lives, when we make a mistake, or perform a task poorly, or break a relationship, and also when we do a job well or respond helpfully to another person, we learn from these experiences only insofar as we reflect on them and gain insights that enable us to grow. 

• Experience = Do

• Identify = Look

• Analyze = Think

• Generalize = Grow

Experience is to engage in (whether as participant or observer) any event or activity.

The discipline of reflection involves three steps:

• Identify. is to recall exactly what has happened in the experience.

•  Analyze what was helpful or unhelpful in terms of the purpose.

•  Generalize is to draw conclusions, to find a principle that might help in future situations to apply what we learn to our total lives.

     Everything we do, every experience we have in a training or seminar group, can enable us to learn and to grow, but only if the experience is followed by disciplined reflection. 

    In the training or seminar group this process of experience and reflection is further enriched by being shared by a community of persons who gain insight and understanding from one another.

 A person retains

• 15% of what she hears

• 50% of what she hears and sees

• 90% of what she hears, sees, and does