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.

For example

if you want to learn how to ride a bicycle,

the following might happen:

You get onto the bike and start kicking the pedals.

As you are afraid of speed,

you ride too slowly and you fall to the side.

Afterward

you remember that you fell at the exact moment

when your speed was the slowest

Then you form the abstract and slightly dangerous idea:

speed equals stability

Next time, you decide, you’ll speed up

Lets try that again:

This time you ride fast.

In fact, so fast that you crash straight into the next fruit stall.

Your head hurts

and you realize that speeding like that is really dangerous.

You create the next abstract thought:

speed is danger and danger needs protection

You then decide to wear a helmet next time

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.

If you are all by yourself learning something

where feedback doesn’t come fast and painfully,

get going

and look for someone

who can give you a second opinion along the way

for students that can be a friend or the teacher,

for entrepreneurs that’s the mentor

and for journalists a blog where readers can comment.

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?