Hands-On Learning: Exploring Alternative Terms and Approaches

Hands-on learning, a dynamic and engaging educational approach, emphasizes direct experience and focused reflection to deepen students’ knowledge, skills, and values. Often referred to as "learning by doing," this method resonates particularly well with kinesthetic learners who thrive through active engagement. This article delves into the nuances of hands-on learning, exploring its alternative terms, core principles, practical applications, and benefits for diverse learners.

Defining Hands-On Learning

Hands-on learning, also known as experiential learning, involves immersing oneself in a subject to facilitate understanding. Instead of passively absorbing information through textbooks or lectures, students actively participate in activities that bring the subject matter to life. This approach fosters a deeper, more meaningful connection to the material, promoting better retention and comprehension.

The Association for Experiential Education defines experiential learning as "a philosophy and methodology in which educators purposefully engage with students in direct experience and focused reflection in order to increase knowledge, develop skills, and clarify values." This definition underscores the importance of both the active experience and the subsequent reflection on that experience.

The Roots of Experiential Learning

The concept of learning through experience is not new. Notable educational psychologists such as John Dewey (1859-1952), Carl Rogers (1902-1987), and David Kolb (b. 1939) have laid the groundwork for learning theories that emphasize "learning through experience" or "learning by doing."

John Dewey: Dewey popularized the concept of Experiential Education, which focuses on problem-solving and critical thinking rather than memorization and rote learning.
Carl Rogers: Rogers considered experiential learning "significant" compared to "meaningless" cognitive learning.
David Kolb: Kolb emphasized that concrete learning experiences are critical for meaningful learning and is renowned for his Learning Style Inventory (LSI), widely used across disciplines to identify preferred learning styles.

Contrasting Experiential Learning with Traditional Methods

Unlike traditional classroom settings where students may compete, remain uninvolved, or unmotivated, experiential learning environments encourage cooperation and peer learning in a semi-structured setting. The instruction is designed to involve students in direct experiences related to real-world problems and situations. In this model, the instructor acts as a facilitator rather than a director of student progress.

Read also: The Power of Hands-On Education

A key distinction is that "the focus of EL is placed on the process of learning and not the product of learning." Proponents of experiential learning believe that students are more motivated to learn when they have a personal stake in the subject matter.

The Experiential Learning Process

Essential to experiential learning are the phases of experiencing (doing), reflection, and application. Students are engaged intellectually, emotionally, socially, and physically. Instructors and students may encounter success, failure, adventure, risk-taking, and uncertainty because the outcomes of the experience cannot be entirely predicted. Experiential learning comprises several steps that offer students a hands-on, collaborative, and reflective learning experience, helping them to "fully learn new skills and knowledge."

While learning content is important, the heart of experiential learning lies in learning from the process. The steps include:

Experience: Students perform a hands-on activity with minimal instructor assistance. Examples include making products or models, role-playing, giving presentations, or problem-solving.
Sharing: Students share their results, reactions, and observations with peers, discussing their experiences and feelings.
Analyzing: Students discuss, analyze, and reflect upon the experience, relating it to future learning experiences. They identify recurring themes and issues.
Inferring: Students draw inferences from the experience, identifying general principles or new insights.
Applying: Students apply what they learned to similar or different situations, discussing how the newly learned process can be applied elsewhere.

The Instructor's Role in Experiential Learning

In experiential learning, the instructor guides rather than directs the learning process, fostering students' natural interest in learning. The instructor assumes the role of facilitator, guided by steps crucial to experiential learning. Qualities of experiential learning include students deciding to be personally involved in the learning experience, actively participating in their own learning, and having a personal role in the direction of learning. While students are not entirely self-taught, the instructor guides and facilitates the learning process.

A primary role for instructors is to identify a situation that challenges students through problem-solving, cooperation, collaboration, self-discovery, and self-reflection, while also determining what students should learn or gain from the experience. Once the experiential learning experience has been decided upon, the instructor should plan the experience by tying it to the course learning objectives and determining what students will need to successfully complete the exercise (resources such as readings, worksheets, research, rubrics, supplies, and directions to off-campus locations). Instructors should also determine the logistics: how much time will be allotted for the students to complete the experience (a complete class session, one week, or more)? Will students need to work outside of class? How will the experience end? What forms of assessment will be employed?

Read also: Engaging Minds and Building Skills

As with most instructional strategies, the instructor should commence the experience and then refrain from providing students with all of the content and information and complete answers to their questions. The success of an experiential learning activity can be determined during discussions, reflections, and a debriefing session, which can help reinforce and extend the learning process.

Experiential Learning Opportunities in Higher Education

Numerous experiential learning opportunities exist in higher education across various disciplines:

Apprenticeship Experiences: Provide students with the chance to try out a job, usually with an experienced professional in the field acting as a mentor. Apprenticeships are a type of on-the-job training that may lead to certification.
Cooperative Education Experiences: More extensive than internships, co-ops usually span two or more semesters of work. These are paid professional work experiences closely tied to the student's academic work. Students receive ongoing advising, and the co-op is structured to meet the student's academic and/or career goals.
Fellowship Experiences: Provide tuition or aid to support the training of students for a period of time, usually between 6 months to one year. They are typically offered by educational institutions, corporations, or foundations to assist individuals pursuing a course of study or research.
Field Work Experiences: Allow students to explore and apply content learned in the classroom in a specified field experience away from the classroom.
Internship Experiences: Job-related opportunities that allow students and job changers to test the waters in a career field and gain valuable work experience.
Practicum Experiences: Often a required component of a course of study, placing students in a supervised and often paid situation. Students develop competencies and apply previously studied theory and content.
Service Learning Experiences: Distinguished by being mutually beneficial for both student and community, service learning involves solving societal issues such as homelessness, poverty, lack of quality education, and pollution.
Student Teaching Experiences: Provide student candidates with an opportunity to put into practice the knowledge and skills they have been developing in the preparation program.
Study Abroad Experiences: Offer students a unique opportunity to learn in another culture, within the security of a host family and a host institution carefully chosen to allow the transfer of credit to a student’s degree program.
Volunteer Experiences: Allow students to serve in a community primarily because they choose to do so, often through a non-profit organization.

The VARK Model and Learning Styles

The VARK model explains the different ways that students learn. Understanding individual learning styles is important for both parents and teachers to consider. The four core learning styles in the VARK model include:

Visual: Visual learners retain information better when it’s presented in a graphic depiction, such as arrows, charts, diagrams, and symbols.
Auditory: Auditory learners prefer listening to information that is presented to them vocally.
Reading & Writing: Reading and writing learners succeed with written information on worksheets, presentations, and other text-heavy resources.
Kinesthetic: Kinesthetic learners are hands-on and thrive when engaging all of their senses during coursework.

Kinesthetic Learning: A Deeper Dive

Kinesthetic learning, also known as tactile learning, is a learning style in which individuals learn best through physical activities such as touching, moving, or performing hands-on tasks. Kinesthetic learners are often described as hands-on learners who require active participation and physical engagement to understand and retain new information fully. They enjoy hands-on activities such as building, crafting, and creating things. They also tend to doodle a lot while listening. Unlike other learning styles, such as auditory and reading/writing, where learners prefer to listen or read, kinesthetic learners prefer to learn by doing and experiencing.

Studies show that approximately 15-20% of learners identify as kinesthetic, meaning they learn best by engaging in hands-on activities, physical movement, or real-world experiences.

Read also: Learn by Doing

For kinesthetic learners, doing things and engaging in physical activity is critical for effective learning. By doing things, they can physically connect with the concept, which helps with memory retention. They also get to receive immediate feedback on their actions, helping them adjust their actions where needed, leading to better learning outcomes.

Common characteristics of kinesthetic learners include:

Very active and often prefer activities that involve movement, such as sports or dance.
Good at visualizing how objects fit together and may excel in activities that require physical coordination, such as sports or dance.
Good at multitasking and can perform physical tasks while simultaneously processing information.

Benefits of Kinesthetic Learning

Kinesthetic learning offers several benefits for students:

Improved Comprehension: When kinesthetic learners are being taught in a way tailored to their learning method, the comprehension process can be very effective, leading to better academic performance and greater engagement with the learning process.
Supports Cognitive Development: Pairing cognitive activity with movement is an effective way to help kinesthetic learners stay focused and interested in the material they are learning.
Better Social Skills: Kinesthetic learning often involves group work and collaboration, which helps students develop teamwork and communication skills.
Boosts Creative Thinking: By engaging in physical activities, learners approach problems from different angles and explore multiple solutions.
Improves Muscle Memory: Kinesthetic learning helps improve muscle memory by engaging the learner's body in the learning process.

Examples of Kinesthetic Activities

Building a Model to Learn Anatomy: Using materials such as clay, pipe cleaners, or a pre-packaged skeleton model kit to build a model of the human skeletal system.
Role-Playing Historical Events: Creating scripts or summaries for key historical events and assigning roles to students to act out the scene.
Conducting a Science Experiment: Gathering materials such as toy cars, ramps, measuring tapes, stopwatches, and weights to study Newton’s laws of motion.

Kinesthetic Teaching Tools and Methods

There are many tools or activities that teachers can use to help kinesthetic learners understand and retain information:

Animations: Visual representations of movement and change created through a series of sequential images or frames.

Diverse Learning Styles Beyond VARK

While the VARK model is widely recognized, it's important to acknowledge other learning styles that cater to different cognitive preferences. Recent studies suggest a broader spectrum of learning styles, ranging from 3 to 170 distinct types.

Logical/Analytical Learners: These learners depend on logic and analytical skills to understand a particular subject, searching for connections, causes, patterns, and results in their learning.
Social/Linguistic Learners: These learners thrive in educational lessons that include peer work or participation, benefiting from both socializing and a better understanding of the subject.
Solitary Learners: Also known as solo learners, these students prefer to study alone without having to interact with other learners.
Nature Learners: These learners excel when in contact with nature, benefiting from a calm and relaxing environment.

The Importance of Multimodal Learning

While individuals may have preferred learning styles, effective learning often involves drawing on multiple modes depending on the situation. Visual aids, auditory explanations, hands-on activities, and written materials can all contribute to a more comprehensive and memorable learning experience.

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