Experiential Learning Theory as a Guide for Experiential Educators in Higher Education

Abstract

Core concepts of Experiential Learning Theory—the learning cycle,
learning style, and learning space—have been widely used by experiential educators
in higher education for nearly half a century. We examine the latest thinking
about these three concepts and highlight some exemplary applications from the
many disciplinary applications of experiential learning in higher education.

I think that only slight acquaintance with the history of education is needed to prove
that educational reformers and innovators alone have felt the need for a philosophy
of education. Those who adhered to the established system needed merely a few fine sounding
words to justify existing practices. The real work was done by habits which
were so fixed as to be institutional. The lesson for progressive education is that it
requires in an urgent degree, a degree more pressing than was incumbent upon former
innovators, a philosophy of education based on a philosophy of experience.

John Dewey, Experience and Education