Exploring Experiential Learning and Simulation Training

Experiential learning and effectiveness of simulation learning and training models

"Tell me, and I will forget. Show me, and I may remember. Involve me, and I will understand.”

The learning that supports students in applying their knowledge, learnt skills and conceptual understanding to real world problems or situations where the instructor just facilitates and direct learning is called as experiential learning. The concept of experiential learning explores the cyclical pattern of all learning from experience through reflection and conceptualizing to action and on to further experience. The classroom, laboratory, or studio can serve as a setting for experiential learning through embedded activities such as case and problem-based studies, guided

The public is clamoring for an education that teaches students the competencies they need for real-world success. Although we can simulate the real world in the classroom and laboratory, authentic experiential learning creates an invaluable opportunity to prepare students for a profession or career, learn the craft of a fine artist, or discover how the discipline creates evidence to contribute to its body of knowledge. Thus, Sullivan and Rosin (2008) argue that the mission for higher education should be to bridge the gap between theory and practice and Bass (2012) suggests that to do this, the educational environment needs to intentionally create rich connections between the formal and experiential curriculums. Particularly at a research university, we have a responsibility to create situations where students benefit from the abundance of research that is taking place. Experiential learning provides one approach to ameliorating this criticism and mining the richness of the research taking place at the

Through experiential learning, students are confronted with unfamiliar situations and tasks in a real-world context. To complete these tasks, students need to figure out what they know, what they do not know, and how to learn it. This requires students to: reflect on their prior knowledge and deepen it through reflection; transfer their previous learning to new contexts; master new concepts, principles, and skills; and be able to articulate how they developed this mastery (Linn, et al., 2004). Ultimately, these skills create students who become self-directed, life-long