Experiential Learning: functional attributes and effectiveness

abstract

Experiential learning has been postulated with many theoretical constructs. However, owing to the lack of comparable quantitative data, the vast number of constructs have instead meant that the concept of experiential learning has loose boundaries. This paper proposes 10 functional attributes for framing a model of experiential learning. A study was conducted with education students to test the appropriateness of the 10 attributes by measuring the attributes with a number of key indicators. This paper also investigates student respondents’ perceptions of the efficacy of experiential learning by comparing the effectiveness of experiential learning with that of study journal learning. Results show that the functional attributes are given positive to high ratings by respondents and that experiential learning is more effective than study journal learning in many functional attributes.