Towards a new paradigm in experiential learning: lessons learned from kindergarten

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to compare two radically different approaches of experiential learning, enabling four usually missing dimensions in experiential learning to be revealed.

Design/methodology/approach

The data in this paper are drawn from a five‐year action research involving more than 70 students and another action research run in kindergartens for more than ten years.

Findings

To reveal the power of experiential learning – the authors name it complex experiential learning – one needs to be compliant with four principles: the conditions for the experience to emerge comes from the participants themselves; the multiplicity principle; the dual epistemological authenticity principle; and the complexity principle.

Research limitations/implications

It would be valuable to gather longitudinal data to explore how the perspective of participants on the impact of these four principles varies over time.

Practical implications

Any experiential workshop, run under the rules of the four discovered principles, reveals a higher learning outcome.

Originality/value

Limited research on experiential learning research properly addresses the question of how which type of experience will be the most likely to produce expected learning effects.

Citation

Fourcade, F. and Go, N. (2012), "Towards a new paradigm in experiential learning: lessons learned from kindergarten", Journal of Management Development, Vol. 31 No. 3, pp. 198-208. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621711211208835