learning by doing essay

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Learning by Doing, Essay Example

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Methodology

When conducting experiential design, learners usually conduct experimental work in the laboratory. It is common for instructors to design the experiments for the students to perform, occasionally allowing students little to do but follow directives. It is essential that learners become more involved in these experiments to have a better understanding.

The guiding principle of establishing educational chances for learners need to reflect on the “learning by doing” philosophy and pay attention to content that entails proven facts. Usually, “learning by doing” focuses on engaging and offering hands-on experience to students. The objective of this technique is for students to construct a mental model, which permits for high-order performance (Hackathorn et al., 2011). Basically, building lesson plans must pay attention to “making, practicing producing and observing” exercises instead of instructors’ directed learning. Educators can establish such an approach through several guidelines, which include:

• Permitting students to collaborate: Collaborative learning is a technique where students create a meaningful project together (Mekonnen, 2020). For instance, the instructor may require a small group of students to develop a list of skills necessary for a successful leader. The approach has several benefits for learners. To start with, collaborative environments permit learners to share their experiences, which in turn, become teachable moments to others. Besides, the collaborative practices often permit learners to learn how to benefit from the strengths of fellow students. Secondly, learners start to master the skill of collaboration. Communication, listening, teamwork and compromise are all improved by the experience.
• Self-Directed Group Exploration: In the current internet and multi-media tools world, acquiring fast and bulk information is accessible. With help from educators, the challenge for learners is with the information overload to differentiate between facts and fiction. Encouraging self-directed research and investigation urge learners to focus on the evidence rather than authority for educators (Gibbs, 1988). Many learners live in an authoritarian world with no or little chance to make personal decisions since almost everyone tells them what and when to do things. Knowing the way to navigate through information will improve students’ learning and competencies. For instance, the educator may call upon students in a small group to explore the pet that is best suited in a particular climate. In this case, students will utilize different research tools independently.
• Sharing outcomes of activity-based experience: A vital element to an effective “learning by doing” approach is offering the chance for learners to share their results of the self-evaluation and experience their performance as a team. After permitting learners to recap their experience or sharing the knowledge they gathered from the activity, it is essential to ask them ‘if they could have repeated the activity, what would they have done differently?” or “what improvements would they have made?” These reflective questions permit learners to self-identify areas of improvement and improve their visionary thinking. Teachers may also utilize this sharing period to assist learners with what they have learned to life experiences. For instance, instructors may ask ‘what were some of the ways you interacted with the group that may be utilized when serving on student council?” Finally, the sharing period is essential since it communicates the experience of the small group to the larger learning group.

Gibbs, G. (1988). Learning by doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods.  Further Education Unit .

Hackathorn, J., Solomon, E. D., Blankmeyer, K. L., Tennial, R. E., & Garczynski, A. M. (2011). Learning by Doing: An Empirical Study of Active Teaching Techniques. Journal of Effective Teaching ,  11 (2), 40-54.

Mekonnen, F. D. (2020). Evaluating the Effectiveness of’Learning by Doing’Teaching Strategy in a Research Methodology Course, Hargeisa, Somaliland.  African Educational Research Journal ,  8 (1), 13-19.

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Education, teaching and discipline are lifelong social phenomena and conditions for democracy, according to acclaimed American philosopher John Dewey.

Education is life itself

One of Dewey’s ideas about teaching and learning is that practical problem solving and theoretical teaching should go hand in hand. This idea has had a huge impact, especially among teachers in the USA. In Denmark, his way of thinking inspired the school system to such a degree that Denmark has been called Dewey’s second home country.

Furthermore, Dewey was sought after in countries like China and Soviet where he was used as a pedagogical consultant.

However, Dewey’s pedagogical philosophy is not just about learning by doing. According to Dewey teaching and learning, education and discipline are closely connected to community – the social life. Education is a lifelong process on which our democracy is built. As he put it: “ Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.”

Children are not listeners

Dewey was pragmatic and in no way did he agree with the romantic Rousseau that “the untainted nature of the child should be protected from the depraving influence of culture.” Not only did this position make him contradict the traditional concept of learning – it was also going against progressive anti-authoritarian pedagogy.

Traditional schools with practical learning by passive reception he described as “medieval”. Partly because it submitted pure intellectual, detached knowledge that belonged to the past – and partly because it was based on the inaccurate assumption that children are listening creatures. “But they are not,” Dewey emphasised. “Children are first and foremost interested in moving, communicating, exploring the world, constructing and expressing themselves artistically.”

The teacher is the master

Furthermore, he criticized the school for counteracting the children’s ability to corporate, because it was considered “cheating” and “copying”, if the children helped each other. On the other hand, he wasn’t a follower of the anti-authoritarian pedagogy, which in his opinion tended to see any form of pedagogical leadership and guidance as an intervention in the individual’s freedom.

On the contrary he declared that authority is a pedagogical condition for the individual’s development. Of course, he didn’t mean the outer authority of the traditional school, but the one of the “modern human knowledge and skill.”

Learning life skills

In 1896 Dewey founded an experimental school at the University of Chicago. It was shaped by “what the best and wisest parents want for their children.” In Dewey’s opinion that had to be what the community would want for all their children.

Dewey’s own children attended the school and in 1902 – when the number of pupils was at its highest – it had 140 students and 23 teachers, who were occupied with the core of the school’s teaching: Chores.

Good judgement

In a Dewey school the stereotypical gender roles are discarded. Girls participate in crafting equally to the boys, who have as many cooking classes as girls.

However, the children are divided by age, where the youngest do what they know from their home. The six-year-olds build a farm of blocks and plant crops they process.

The seven-year-olds study prehistorical life. The eight-year-olds are occupied by exploring, the nine-year-olds geography, and the older ones by scientific experiments within anatomy, physics, political economics and photography.

Dewey thought that this type of practical learning combines more learning recourses than any other method. Partly because you do something, partly because you do it together and thereby acquire social interest and moral knowledge.

The goal is to make the children want more teaching. That is the only way democracy can function as a lifeform, Dewey thought. And the ultimate goal is to create human beings with good judgement, who can participate in the community to discover the common good.

Still controversial!

What is Pedagogy for Change?

The Pedagogy for Change programme offers 12 months of training and experiencing the power of pedagogy – while you put your skills and solidarity into action.

Studies and hands-on training takes place in Denmark, where you will work with children and youth at specialised social education facilities or schools with a non-traditional approach to teaching and learning.

In short: • 10 months’ studies and hands-on training in Denmark, working with children and youth at specialised social education facilities or schools. At the same time yo will study the world of pedagogy with your team – a group of like-minded people. You will meet up for study days every month.

• 2 months of exploring the reality of communities in Scandinavia / Europe, depending on what is possible – pandemic conditions permitting. You will travel by bike, bus or perhaps on foot or sailing.

• Possibility to earn a B-certificate in Pedagogy.

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What Is Learning by Doing And Why Is It Effective?

The list of teaching techniques is ever-expanding as there are multiple ways for us to gain knowledge. As a result, there are multiple techniques out there that leverage those particular skills. One such technique I want to share with you is learning by doing.

This technique has been around for a long time, and it’s a surprisingly effective one thanks to the various perks that come with it. Also called experiential learning, I’ll be sharing with you my knowledge on the subject, what it is deep down, and why it’s such an effective learning tool.

Table of Contents

What is learning by doing, what are its benefits, how to get started, final thoughts, more articles about learning by doing.

Learning by doing is the simple idea that we are capable of learning more about something when we perform the action.

For example, say you’re looking to play a musical instrument and were wondering how all of them sound and mix. In most other techniques, you’d be playing the instrument all by yourself in a studio. Learning by doing instead gives you a basic understanding of how to play the instrument and puts you up on a stage to play an improvised piece with other musicians.

Another way to think about this is by taking a more active approach to something as opposed to you passively learning about it. The argument is that active engagement provides deeper learning and that it’s okay if you make mistakes as you learn from those as well. This mentality brought forth a new name for this technique: experiential learning.

Experimental learning has been around for eons now. It was Aristotle who wrote that “for the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.”

Over the years, that way of thinking changed and developed and for a time was lost once computers were integrated into schools. It’s only been in recent years where schools have adopted this technique again. It’s clear why teachers are encouraging this as it offers five big benefits.

1. It’s More Engaging and More Memorable

The first benefit is that it’s more engaging and memorable. Since this requires action on your part, you’re not going to be able to weaken your performance. This is big since, traditionally, you’d learn from lectures, books, or articles, and learners could easily read—or not read—the text and walk away with no knowledge at all from it.

When you are forced into a situation where you have to do what you need to learn, it’s easier to remember those things. Every action provides personalized learning experiences, and it’s where motivation is built. That motivation connects to what is learned and felt. It teaches that learning is relevant and meaningful.

Beyond that, this experience allows the opportunity for learners to go through the learning cycle that involves extended effort, mistakes, and reflection, followed by refinement of strategies.

2. It Is More Personal

Stemming from the reason mentioned above, learning by doing offers a personal experience. Referring back to the cycle of effort, mistakes, reflection, and refinement, this cycle is only possible through personal emotions—the motivation and realization of knowledge of a particular topic tying into your values and ideals.

This connection is powerful and thus, offers a richer experience than reading from a book or articles such as this one. That personal connection is more important as it encourages exploration and curiosity from learners.

If you’ve always wanted to bake a cake or cook a unique dish, you could read up on it or watch a video. Or you could get the ingredients and start going through it all yourself. Even if you make mistakes now, you have a better grasp of what to do for the next time you try it out. You’re also more invested in that since that’s food that you made with the intention of you having it.

3. It Is Community-Connected

Learning by doing involves the world at large rather than sitting alone in your room or a library stuck in a book. Since the whole city is your classroom technically, you’re able to leverage all kinds of things. You’re able to gather local assets and partners and connect local issues to larger global themes.

This leans more into the personal aspect that this technique encourages. You are part of a community, and this form of learning allows you to interact more and make a connection with it—not necessarily with the residents but certainly the environment around it.

4. It’s More Integrated Into People’s Lives

This form of learning is deeply integrated into our lives as well. Deep learning occurs best when learners can apply what they’ve learned in a classroom setting to answer questions around them that they care about.

Even though there is a lot of information out there, people are still always asking “what’s in it for me?” Even when it comes to learning, people will be more interested if they know that what they are learning is vital to their very way of life in some fashion. It’s forgettable if they’re unable to tie knowledge in with personal aspects of their lives. Thus, experiential learning makes the application of knowledge simpler.

5. It Builds Success Skills

The final benefit of learning by doing is that it builds up your skills for success . Learning by doing encourages you to step out of your comfort zone, discover something new, and try things out for the first time. You’re bound to make a mistake or two, but this technique doesn’t shame you for it.

As a result, learning by doing can build your initiative for new things as well as persistence towards growth and development in a field. This could also lead to team management and collaboration skill growth. These are all vital things in personal growth as we move towards the future.

While all these perks are helpful for you, how are you going to start? Well, there are several different approaches that you can take with this. Here are some of them that come to mind.

1. Low-Stakes Quizzes

In classroom settings, one way to introduce this technique is to have many low-stakes quizzes. These quizzes aren’t based on assessing one’s performance. Instead, these quizzes are designed to have learners engage with the content and to generate the learned information themselves.

Research shows that this method is an effective learning technique. [1] It allows students to improve their understanding and recall and promotes the “transfer” of knowledge to other settings.

2. Type of Mental Doing

Another approach is one that Psychologist Rich Mayer put together. According to him, learning is a generative activity. [2] His knowledge and the research done in his lab at Santa Barbara have repeatedly shown that we gain expertise by doing an action, but the action is based on what we already know.

For example, say you want to learn more about the Soviet dictator Stalin. All you need to do is link what you do know—that Stalin was a dictator—and link it to what you want to learn and retain. Stalin grew up in Georgia, killed millions of people, centralized power in Russia, and assisted in the victory of World War 2. This technique even applies to the most simple of memory tasks as our brain learns and relearns.

3. Other Mental Activities

The final method I’ll share with you is taking the literal approach—getting out there and getting your hands dirty so to speak. But how you go about that is up to you. You could try reading an article and then going out and applying it immediately—like you could with this article. Or maybe you could find further engagement through puzzles or making a game out of the activity that you’re doing.

For example, if you wanted to learn about animal behavior patterns, you can read about them, go out to watch animals, and see if they perform the specific behaviors that you read about.

Learning by doing encourages active engagement with available materials and forces you to work harder to remember the material. It’s an effective technique because it helps ingrain knowledge into your memory. After all, you have a deeper personal connection to that knowledge, and you’ll be more motivated to use it in the future.

With that in mind, I encourage you to take what you’ve learned from reading this article and apply that in the real world. It’s only going to benefit you as you grow.

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Featured photo credit: Van Tay Media via unsplash.com

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John Dewey on Education: Impact & Theory

Charlotte Nickerson

Research Assistant at Harvard University

Undergraduate at Harvard University

Charlotte Nickerson is a student at Harvard University obsessed with the intersection of mental health, productivity, and design.

Learn about our Editorial Process

Saul Mcleod, PhD

Editor-in-Chief for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MRes, PhD, University of Manchester

Saul Mcleod, PhD., is a qualified psychology teacher with over 18 years of experience in further and higher education. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology.

Olivia Guy-Evans, MSc

Associate Editor for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MSc Psychology of Education

Olivia Guy-Evans is a writer and associate editor for Simply Psychology. She has previously worked in healthcare and educational sectors.

On This Page:

Key Takeaways

• John Dewey (1859—1952) was a psychologist, philosopher, and educator who made contributions to numerous topics in philosophy and psychology. His work continues to inform modern philosophy and educational practice today.
• Dewey was an influential pragmatist, a movement that rejected most philosophy at the time in favor of the belief that things that work in a practical situation are true, while those that do not are false. This view would go on to influence his educational philosophy.
• Dewey was also a functionalist. Inspired by the ideas of Charles Darwin, he believed that humans develop behaviors as an adaptation to their environment.
• Dewey’s influential education is marked by an emphasis on the belief that people learn and grow as a result of their experiences and interactions with the world. He aimed to shape educational environments so that they would promote active inquiry but did not do away with traditional instruction altogether.
• Outside of education and philosophy, Dewey also devised a theory of emotions in response to Darwin’s ideas. In this theory, he argued that the behaviors that arise from emotions were, at some point, beneficial to the survival of organisms.

John Dewey was an American psychologist, philosopher, educator, social critic, and political activist. He made contributions to numerous fields and topics in philosophy and psychology.

Besides being a primary originator of both functionalism and behaviorism psychology , Dewey was a major inspiration for several movements that shaped 20th-century thought, including empiricism, humanism, naturalism, contextualism, and process philosophy (Simpson, 2006).

Dewey was born in Burlington, Vermont, in 1859 and began his career at the University of Michigan before becoming the chairman of the department of philosophy, psychology, and pedagogy at the University of Chicago.

In 1899, Dewey was elected president of the American Psychological Association and became president of the American Philosophical Association five years later.

Dewey traveled as a philosopher, social and political theorist, and educational consultant and remained outspoken on education, domestic and international politics, and numerous social movements.

Dewey’s views and writings on educational theory and practice were widely read and accepted. He held that philosophy, pedagogy, and psychology were closely interrelated.

Dewey also believed in an “instrumentalist” theory of knowledge, in which ideas are seen to exist mainly as instruments for creating solutions to problems encountered in the environment (Simpson, 2006).

Contributions to Philosophy and Psychology

Dewey is one of the central figures and founders of pragmatism in America despite not identifying himself as a pragmatist.

Pragmatism teaches that things that are useful — meaning that they work in a practical situation — are true, and what does not work is false (Hildebrand, 2018).

This rejected the threads of epistemology and metaphysics that ran through modern philosophy in favor of a naturalistic approach that viewed knowledge as an active adaptation of humans to their environment (Hildebrand, 2018).

Dewey held that value was not a function of purely social construction but a quality inherent to events. Dewey also believed that experimentation was a reliable enough way to determine the truth of a concept.

Functionalism

Dewey is considered a founder of the Chicago School of Functional Psychology, inspired by Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, as well as the ideas of William James and Dewey’s own instrumental philosophy.

As chair of philosophy, psychology, and education at the University of Chicago from 1894-1904, Dewey was highly influential in establishing the functional orientation amongst psychology faculty like Angell and Addison Moore.

Scholars widely consider Dewey’s 1896 paper, The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology , to be the first major work in the functionalist school.

In this work, Dewey attacked the methods of psychologists such as Wilhelm Wundt and Edward Titchener, who used stimulus-response analysis as the basis of psychological theories.

Psychologists such as Wund and Titchener believed that all human behaviors could be broken down into a series of fundamental laws and that all human behavior originates as a learned adaptation to the presence of certain stimuli in one’s environment (Backe, 2001).

Dewey considered Wundt and Titchener’s approach to be flawed because it ignored both the continuity of human behavior and the role that adaptation plays in creating it.

In contrast, Dewey’s functionalism sought to consider organisms in total as they functioned in their environment. Rather than being passive receivers of stimuli, Dewey perceived organisms as active perceivers (Backe, 2001).

Chicago School

The Chicago school refers to the functionalist approach to psychology that emerged at the University of Chicago in the late 19th century. Key tenets of functional psychology included:

• Studying the adaptive functions of consciousness and how mental processes help organisms adjust to their environment
• Explaining psychological phenomena in terms of their biological utility
• Focusing on the practical operations of the mind rather than contents of consciousness

Educational Philosophy

John Dewey was a notable educational reformer and established the path for decades of subsequent research in the field of educational psychology.

Influenced by his philosophical and psychological theories, Dewey’s concept of instrumentalism in education stressed learning by doing, which was opposed to authoritarian teaching methods and rote learning.

These ideas have remained central to educational philosophy in the United States. At the University of Chicago, Dewey founded an experimental school to develop and study new educational methods.

He experimented with educational curricula and methods and advocated for parental participation in the educational process (Dewey, 1974).

Dewey’s educational philosophy highlights “pragmatism,” and he saw the purpose of education as the cultivation of thoughtful, critically reflective, and socially engaged individuals rather than passive recipients of established knowledge.

Dewey rejected the rote-learning approach driven by a predetermined curriculum, the standard teaching method at the time (Dewey, 1974).

Dewey also rejected so-called child-centered approaches to education that followed children’s interests and impulses uncritically. Dewey did not propose an entirely hands-off approach to learning.

Dewey believed that traditional subjects were important but should be integrated with the strengths and interests of the learner.

In response, Dewey developed a concept of inquiry, which was prompted by a sense of need and was followed by intellectual work such as defining problems, testing hypotheses, and finding satisfactory solutions.

Dewey believed that learning was an organic cycle of doubt, inquiry, reflection, and the reestablishment of one’s sense of understanding.

In contrast, the reflexive arc model of learning popular in his time thought of learning as a mechanical process that could be measured by standardized tests without reference to the role of emotion or experience in learning.

Rejecting the assumption that all of the big questions and ideas in education are already answered, Dewey believed that all concepts and meanings could be open to reinvention and improvement and that all disciplines could be expanded with new knowledge, concepts, and understandings (Dewey, 1974).

Philosophy of Education

Dewey believed that people learn and grow as a result of their experiences and interactions with the world. These compel people to continually develop new concepts, ideas, practices, and understandings.

These, in turn, are refined through and continue to mediate the learner’s life experiences and social interactions. Dewey believed that (Hargraves, 2021):

Empirical Validity and Criticism

Despite its wide application in modern theories of education, many scholars have noted the lack of empirical evidence in favor of Dewey’s theories of education directly.

Nonetheless, Dewey’s theory of how students learn aligns with empirical studies that examine the positive impact of interactions with peers and adults on learning (Göncü & Rogoff, 1998).

Researchers have also found a link between heightened engagement and learning outcomes.

This has resulted in the development of educational strategies such as making meaningful connections to students” home lives and encouraging student ownership of their learning (Turner, 2014).

Theory of Emotions

Dewey vs. darwin.

Another influential piece of philosophy that Dewey created was his theory of emotion (Cunningham, 1995).

Dewey reconstructed Darwin’s theory of emotions, which he believed was flawed for assuming that the expression of emotion is separate from and subsequent to the emotion itself.

Darwin also argued that behavior that expresses emotion serves the individual in some way when the individual is in a particular state of mind. These can also cause behaviors that are not useful.

Dewey, however, claimed that the function of emotional behaviors is not to express emotion but to be acts that value someone’s survival. Dewey believed that emotion is separate from other behaviors because it involves an attitude toward an object. The intention of the emotion informs the behaviors that result (Cunningham, 1995).

Dewey also rejected Darwin’s principle that some expressions of emotions can be explained as cases where one emotion can be expressed by actions that are the exact opposite of another.

Dewey again believed that even these opposite behaviors have purposes in themselves (Cunningham, 1995).

Dewey vs. James

Dewey argued against James’s serial theory of emotions, seeing emotion and stimuli as one simultaneous coordinated act.

William James proposed a serial theory of emotion , in which an emotional experience progresses through several sequential stages:

• An object or idea functions as a stimulus
• This stimulus leads to a behavioral response
• The response is then followed by an emotional excitation or affect

An example would be seeing a bear (stimulus), running away (response), and then feeling afraid (emotion).

Dewey, however, argued that emotion and stimulus form a unified, simultaneous act that cannot be separated in this way.

He uses the example of a frightened reaction to a bear to illustrate his point:

• The “bear” itself is constituted by the coordinated sensory excitations of the eyes, touch, etc.
• The feeling of “terror” is constituted by disturbances across glandular, muscular systems.
• Rather than stimulus → response → emotion, these are partial activities within the one act of perceiving the frightening bear and running away in fear.
• The bear object and the fear emotion are two aspects of the total coordinated activity, happening at once.

So, where James treated stimulus, response, and emotion as sequential stages in an emotional episode, Dewey saw them as “minor acts” coming together in a unified conscious experience.

He maintained James was artificially separating elements that occur as part of one ongoing activity of coordination.

The key difference is that Dewey did not believe it was possible to isolate stimulus, response, and affect as self-sufficient events. They exist meaningfully only within the total act – hence why he emphasizes their simultaneity.

Backe, A. (2001). John Dewey and early Chicago functionalism. History of Psychology, 4 (4), 323.

Cunningham, S. (1995). Dewey on emotions: recent experimental evidence. Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society, 31(4), 865-874.

Dewey, J. (1974). John Dewey on education: Selected writings .

Göncü, A., & Rogoff, B. (1998). Children’s categorization with varying adult support. American Educational Research Journal, 35 (2), 333-349.

Hargraves, V. (2021). Dewey’s educational philosophy .

Hildebrand, D. (2018). John Dewey.

Simpson, D. J. (2006). John Dewey (Vol. 10). Peter Lang.

Turner, J. C. (2014). Theory-based interventions with middle-school teachers to support student motivation and engagement. In Motivational interventions . Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

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Chapter 3: Methods of teaching: campus-focused

3.6 Experiential learning: learning by doing (2)

In fact, there are a number of different approaches or terms within this broad heading, such as experiential learning, co-operative learning, adventure learning and apprenticeship.  I will use the term ‘experiential learning’ as a broad umbrella term to cover this wide variety of approaches to learning by doing.

 3.6.1. What is experiential learning?

There are many different theorists in this area, such as John Dewey (1938) and more recently David Kolb (1984).

Simon Fraser University defines experiential learning as:

“ the strategic, active engagement of students in opportunities to learn through doing, and reflection on those activities, which empowers them to apply their theoretical knowledge to practical endeavours in a multitude of settings inside and outside of the classroom.” 

There is a wide range of design models that aim to embed learning within real world contexts, including:

• laboratory, workshop or studio work;
• apprenticeship;
• problem-based learning;
• case-based learning;
• project-based learning;
• inquiry-based learning;
• cooperative (work- or community-based) learning.

The focus here is on some of the main ways in which experiential learning can be designed and delivered, with particular respect to the use of technology, and in ways that help develop the knowledge and skills needed in a digital age. (For a more detailed analysis of experiential learning, see Moon, 2004).

3.6.2 Core design principles

Experiential learning focuses on learners reflecting on their experience of doing something, so as to gain conceptual insight as well as practical expertise. Kolb’s experiential learning model suggest four stages in this process:

• active experimentation;
• concrete experience;
• reflective observation;
• abstract conceptualization.

Experiential learning is a major form of teaching at the University of Waterloo. Its web site lists the conditions needed to ensure that experiential learning is effective, as identified by the  Association for Experiential Education.

Ryerson University in Toronto is another institution with extensive use of experiential learning, and also has an extensive web site on the topic, also directed at instructors. The next section examines different ways in which these principles have been applied.

 3.6.3 Experiential design models

There are many different design models for experiential learning, but they also have many features in common.

 3.6.3.1 Laboratory, workshop or studio work

Today, we take almost for granted that laboratory classes are an essential part of teaching science and engineering. Workshops and studios are considered critical for many forms of trades training or the development of creative arts. Labs, workshops and studios serve a number of important functions or goals, which include:

• to give students hands-on experience in choosing and using common scientific, engineering or trades equipment appropriately;
• to develop motor skills in using scientific, engineering or industrial tools or creative media;
• to give students an understanding of the advantages and limitations of laboratory experiments;
• to enable students to see science, engineering or trade work ‘in action’;
• to enable students to test hypotheses or to see how well concepts, theories, procedures actually work when tested under laboratory conditions;
• to teach students how to design and/or conduct experiments;
• to enable students to design and create objects or equipment in different physical media.

An important pedagogical value of laboratory classes is that they enable students to move from the concrete (observing phenomena) to the abstract (understanding the principles or theories that are derived from the observation of phenomena). Another is that the laboratory introduces students to a critical cultural aspect of science and engineering, that all ideas need to be tested in a rigorous and particular manner for them to be considered ‘true’.

One major criticism of traditional educational labs or workshops is that they are limited in the kinds of equipment and experiences that scientists, engineers and trades people need today. As scientific, engineering and trades equipment becomes more sophisticated and expensive, it becomes increasingly difficult to provide students in schools especially but increasingly now in colleges and universities direct access to such equipment. Furthermore traditional teaching labs or workshops are capital and labour intensive and hence do not scale easily, a critical disadvantage in rapidly expanding educational opportunities.

Because laboratory work is such an accepted part of science teaching, it is worth remembering that teaching science through laboratory work is in historical terms a fairly recent development. In the 1860s neither Oxford nor Cambridge University were willing to teach empirical science. Thomas Huxley therefore developed a program at the Royal School of Mines (a constituent college of what is now Imperial College, of the University of London) to teach school-teachers how to teach science, including how to design laboratories for teaching experimental science to school children, a method that is still the most commonly used today, both in schools and universities.

At the same time, scientific and engineering progress since the nineteenth century has resulted in other forms of scientific testing and validation that take place outside at least the kind of ‘wet labs’ so common in schools and universities. Examples are nuclear accelerators, nanotechnology, quantum mechanics and space exploration. Often the only way to observe or record phenomena in such contexts is remotely or digitally. It is also important to be clear about the objectives of lab, workshop and studio work. There may now be other, more practical, more economic, or more powerful ways of achieving these objectives through the use of new technology, such as remote labs, simulations, and experiential learning. These will be examined in more detail later in this book.

3.6.3.2 Problem-based learning

The earliest form of systematised problem-based learning (PBL) was developed in 1969 by Howard Barrows and colleagues in the School of Medicine at McMaster University in Canada, from where it has spread to many other universities, colleges and schools. This approach is increasingly used in subject domains where the knowledge base is rapidly expanding and where it is impossible for students to master all the knowledge in the domain within a limited period of study.  Working in groups, students identify what they already know, what they need to know, and how and where to access new information that may lead to resolution of the problem. The role of the instructor (usually called a tutor in classic PBL) is critical in facilitating and guiding the learning process. 

Usually PBL follows a strongly systematised approach to solving problems, although the detailed steps and sequence tend to vary to some extent, depending on the subject domain. The following is a typical example:

Traditionally, the first five steps would be done in a small face-to-face class tutorial of 20-25 students, with the sixth step requiring either individual or small group (four or five students) private study, with a the seventh step being accomplished in a full group meeting with the tutor. However, this approach also lends itself to blended learning in particular, where the research solution is done mainly online, although some instructors have managed the whole process online, using a combination of synchronous web conferencing and asynchronous online discussion.

Developing a complete problem-based learning curriculum is challenging, as problems must be carefully chosen, increasing in complexity and difficulty over the course of study, and problems must be chosen so as to cover all the required components of the curriculum. Students often find the problem-based learning approach challenging, particularly in the early stages, where their foundational knowledge base may not be sufficient to solve some of the problems. (The term ‘cognitive overload’ has been used to describe this situation.) Others argue that lectures provide a quicker and more condensed way to cover the same topics. Assessment also has to be carefully designed, especially if a final exam carries heavy weight in grading, to ensure that problem-solving skills as well as content coverage are measured.

However, research (see for instance, Strobel and van Barneveld, 2009 ) has found that problem-based learning is better for  long-term retention of material and developing ‘replicable’ skills, as well as for improving students’ attitudes towards learning. T here are now many variations on the ‘pure’ PBL approach, with problems being set after initial content has been covered in more traditional ways, such as lectures or prior reading, for instance.

3.6.3.3 Case-based learning

With case-based teaching, students develop skills in analytical thinking and reflective judgment by reading and discussing complex, real-life scenarios.

University of Michigan Centre for Research on Teaching and Learning

Case-based learning is sometimes considered a variation of PBL, while others see it as a design model in its own right. As with PBL, case-based learning uses a guided inquiry method, but usually requires the students to have a degree of prior knowledge that can assist in analysing the case. There is usually more flexibility in the approach to case-based learning compared to PBL. Case-based learning is particularly popular in business education, law schools and clinical practice in medicine, but can be used in many other subject domains.

Herreid (2004) provides eleven basic rules for case-based learning.

• Tells a story.
• Focuses on an interest-arousing issue.
• Set in the past five years
• Creates empathy with the central characters.
• Includes direct quotations from the characters.
• Relevant to the reader.
• Must have pedagogic utility.
• Conflict provoking.
• Decision forcing.
• Has generality.

Using examples from clinical practice in medicine, Irby (1994) recommends five steps in case-based learning:

• anchor teaching in a (carefully chosen) case;
• actively involve learners in discussing, analysing and making recommendations regarding the case;
• model professional thinking and action as an instructor when discussing the case with learners;
• provide direction and feedback to learners in their discussions;
• create a collaborative learning environment where all views are respected.

Case-based learning can be particularly valuable for dealing with complex, interdisciplinary topics or issues which have no obvious ‘right or wrong’ solutions, or where learners need to evaluate and decide on competing, alternative explanations. Case-based learning can also work well in both blended and fully online environments. Marcus, Taylor and Ellis (2004) used the following design model for a case-based blended learning project in veterinary science:

Other configurations are of course also possible, depending on the requirements of the subject.

3.6.3.4 Project-based learning

Project-based learning is similar to case-based learning, but tends to be longer and broader in scope, and with even more student autonomy/responsibility in the sense of choosing sub-topics, organising their work, and deciding on what methods to use to conduct the project. Projects are usually based around real world problems, which give students a sense of responsibility and ownership in their learning activities.

Once again, there are several best practices or guidelines for successful project work. For instance, Larmer and Mergendoller (2010) argue that every good project should meet two criteria:

• students must perceive the work as personally meaningful, as a task that matters and that they want to do well;
• a meaningful project fulfills an educational purpose. 

The main danger with project-based learning is that the project can take on a life of its own, with not only students but the instructor losing focus on the key, essential learning objectives, or important content areas may not get covered. Thus project-based learning needs careful design and monitoring by the instructor.

3.6.3.5 Inquiry-based learning

Inquiry-based learning (IBL) is similar to project-based learning, but the role of the teacher/instructor is somewhat different. In project-based learning, the instructor decides the ‘driving question’ and plays a more active role in guiding the students through the process. In inquiry-based learning, the learner explores a theme and chooses a topic for research, develops a plan of research and comes to conclusions, although an instructor is usually available to provide help and guidance when needed.

Banchi and Bell (2008) suggest that there are different levels of inquiry, and students need to begin at the first level and work through the other levels to get to ‘true’ or ‘open’ inquiry as follows:

It can be seen that the fourth level of inquiry describes the graduate thesis process, although proponents of inquiry-based learning have advocated its value at all levels of education.

3.6.4 Experiential learning in online learning environments

Advocates of experiential learning are often highly critical of online learning, because, they argue, it is impossible to embed learning in real world examples. However, this is an oversimplification, and there are contexts in which online learning can be used very effectively to support or develop experiential learning, in all its variations:

• blended or flipped learning: although group sessions to start off the process, and to bring a problem or project to a conclusion, are usually done in a classroom or lab setting, students can increasingly conduct the research and information gathering by accessing resources online, by using online multimedia resources to create reports or presentations, and by collaborating online through group project work or through critique and evaluation of each other’s work;
• fully online: increasingly, instructors are finding that experiential learning can be applied fully online, through a combination of synchronous tools such as web conferencing, asynchronous tools such as discussion forums and/or social media for group work, e-portfolios and multimedia for reporting, and remote labs for experimental work.

Indeed, there are circumstances where it is impractical, too dangerous, or too expensive to use real world experiential learning. Online learning can be used to simulate real conditions and to reduce the time to master a skill. Flight simulators have long been used to train commercial pilots, enabling trainee pilots to spend less time mastering fundamentals on real aircraft. Commercial flight simulators are still extremely expensive to build and operate, but in recent years the costs of creating realistic simulations has dropped dramatically.

Instructors at Loyalist College have created a ‘virtual’ fully functioning border crossing and a virtual car in Second Life to train Canadian Border Services Agents. Each student takes on the role of an agent, with his/her avatar interviewing the avatars of the travellers wishing to enter Canada. All communication is done by voice communications in Second Life, with the people playing the travellers in a separate room from the students.  Each student interviews three or four travellers and the entire class observes the interactions and discusses the situations and the responses. A  secondary site for auto searches features a virtual car that can be completely dismantled so students learn all possible places where contraband may be concealed. This learning is then reinforced with a visit to the auto shop at Loyalist College and the search of an actual car.  The students in the customs and immigration track are assessed on their interviewing techniques as part of their final grades. Students participating in the first year of the Second Life border simulation achieved a grade standing that was 28 per cent higher than the previous class who did not utilize a virtual world. The next class, using Second Life, scored a further 9 per cent higher. More details can be found  here.

Staff in the Emergency Management Division at the Justice Institute of British Columbia have developed a simulation tool called Praxis  that  helps to bring critical incidents to life by introducing real-world simulations into training and exercise programs. Because participants can access Praxis via the web, it provides the flexibility to deliver immersive, interactive and scenario-based training exercises anytime, anywhere. A typical emergency might be a major fire in a warehouse containing dangerous chemicals. ‘Trainee’ first responders, who will include fire, police and paramedical personnel, as well as city engineers and local government officials, are ‘alerted’ on their mobile phones or tablets, and have to respond in real time to a fast developing scenario, ‘managed’ by a skilled facilitator, following procedures previously taught and also available on their mobile equipment. The whole process is recorded and followed later by a face-to-face debriefing session.

Once again, design models are not in most cases dependent on any particular medium. The pedagogy transfers easily across different delivery methods. Learning by doing is an important method for developing many of the skills needed in a digital age.

3.6.5 Strengths and weaknesses of experiential learning models

How one evaluates experiential learning designs depends partly on one’s epistemological position. Constructivists strongly support experiential learning models, whereas those with a strong objectivist position are usually highly skeptical of the effectiveness of this approach. Nevertheless, problem-based learning in particular has proved to be very popular in many institutions teaching science or medicine, and project-based learning is used across many subject domains and levels of education. There is evidence that experiential learning, when properly designed, is highly engaging for students and leads to better long-term memory. Proponents also claim that it leads to deeper understanding, and develops skills for a digital age such as problem-solving, critical thinking, improved communications skills, and knowledge management. In particular, it enables learners to manage better highly complex situations that cross disciplinary boundaries, and subject domains where the boundaries of knowledge are difficult to manage.

Critics though such as Kirschner, Sweller and Clark (2006) argue that instruction in experiential learning is often ‘unguided’, and pointed to several ‘meta-analyses’ of the effectiveness of problem-based learning that indicated no difference in problem-solving abilities, lower basic science exam scores, longer study hours for PBL students, and that PBL is more costly. They conclude:

In so far as there is any evidence from controlled studies, it almost uniformly supports direct, strong instructional guidance rather than constructivist-based minimal guidance during the instruction of novice to intermediate learners. Even with students with considerable prior knowledge, strong guidance when learning is most often found to be equally effective as unguided approaches.

Certainly, experiential learning approaches require considerable re-structuring of teaching and a great deal of detailed planning if the curriculum is to be fully covered. It usually means extensive re-training of faculty, and careful orientation and preparation of students. I would also agree with Kirschner et al. that just giving students tasks to do in real world situations without guidance and support is likely to be ineffective.

However, many forms of experiential learning can and do have strong guidance from instructors, and one has to be very careful when comparing matched groups that the tests of knowledge include measurement of the skills that are claimed to be developed by experiential learning, and are not just based on the same assessments as for traditional methods, which often have a heavy bias towards memorisation and comprehension.

On balance then, I would support the use of experiential learning for developing the knowledge and skills needed in a digital age, but as always, it needs to be done well, following best practices associated with the design models.

Activity 3.6 Assessing experiential design models

1. If you have experiences with experiential learning, what worked well and what didn’t?

2. Are the differences between problem-based learning, case-based learning, project-based learning and inquiry-based learning significant, or are they really just minor variations on the same design model?

3. Do you have a preference for any one of the models? If so, why?

4. Do you agree that experiential learning can be done just as well online as in classrooms or in the field? If not, what is the ‘uniqueness’ of doing it face-to-face that cannot be replicated online? Can you give an example?

5. Kirschner, Sweller and Clark’s paper is a powerful condemnation of PBL. Read it in full, then decide whether or not you share their conclusion, and if not, why not.

Banchi, H., and Bell, R. (2008). The Many Levels of Inquiry  Science and Children , Vol. 46, No. 2

Dewey, J. (1938). Experience & Education . New York, NY: Kappa Delta Pi

Gijselaers, W., (1995) ‘Perspectives on problem-based learning’ in Gijselaers, W, Tempelaar, D, Keizer, P, Blommaert, J, Bernard, E & Kapser, H (eds) Educational Innovation in Economics and Business Administration: The Case of Problem-Based Learning. Dordrecht, Kluwer.

Herreid, C. F. (2007). Start with a story: The case study method of teaching college science . Arlington VA: NSTA Press.

Irby, D. (1994) Three exemplary models of case-based teaching Academic Medicine , Vol. 69, No. 12

Kirshner, P., Sweller, J. amd Clark, R. (2006) Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work: An Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-Based, Experiential, and Inquiry-Based Teaching  Educational Psychologist , Vo. 41, No.2

Kolb. D. (1984) Experiential Learning: Experience as the source of learning and development Englewood Cliffs NJ: Prentice Hall

Larmer, J. and Mergendoller, J. (2010) Seven essentials for project-based learning Educational Leadership , Vol. 68, No. 1

Marcus, G. Taylor, R. and Ellis, R. (2004) Implications for the design of online case-based learning activities based on the student blended learning experience : Perth, Australia: Proceedings of the ACSCILITE conference, 2004

Moon, J.A. (2004) A Handbook of Reflective and Experiential Learning: Theory and Practice New York: Routledge

Strobel, J. , & van Barneveld, A. (2009). When is PBL More Effective? A Meta-synthesis of Meta-analyses Comparing PBL to Conventional Classrooms. Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning , Vol. 3 , No. 1

Teaching in a Digital Age Copyright © 2015 by Anthony William (Tony) Bates is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Learning by Doing: The Case for Experiential Education

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“I learned more because I did it instead of just talking about it.”

This analysis came from a student on an outdoor “winter survival” trip that a colleague and I lead a few weeks ago, called Harvest Survivor*. It was clear from this feedback that the student got the essence of what I call “experiential education.”

Experiential education is when learners actively engage in activities or experiences. I’ve written before about the fact that I was an experiential educator, leading backpacking and other outdoor trips in North Carolina, before I was a classroom teacher. I brought the teaching skills I’d learned in the outdoor environment into my math class on my first day as a teacher, so my practice has always leaned towards the idea of “learning” as inherently tied to “doing.”

But are these two necessarily related? Isn’t all this “doing” just a waste of time when students could learn so much more content if I just told it to them?

Students learn better when they are actively engaged in the learning process. This is a lesson that I have learned time and time again on outdoor trips, and one that was reinforced on the survival skills course from which we just returned.

Here are three takeaways from my reflections on the Harvest Survivor trip that make the case for the value of experiential education as a model for all teaching and learning:

1. Students will want to know more when they need to know more

One of the performance tasks for students on Harvest Survivor is to cook dinner on a fire that they build. They know this from day one of the course. Every time we talk about one of the parts of fire making (collecting fuel, constructing a fire structure that allows for enough air, tending the fire) they know that their ability to effectively execute the skills being taught will determine whether or not they get to eat a hot meal that night (it bears noting here that we do have a stove available so we would not actually make anyone go hungry).

In the planning of Harvest Survivor, we created an authentic need for students to learn a new set of skills and understandings. Teachers should structure classroom learning in a similar way. Presentations of learning and oral defense activities create a need for students to show academic knowledge that they have gained. Contexts like using mathematics to solve science or engineering problems or having students in a health class write a letter to an imaginary peer with a health question can accomplish something similar.

Experiential learning occurs in a context and the wonderfully messy thing about life is that it doesn’t make things easy on you. This year we had a big snow storm right before Harvest Survivor and then a warm sunny streak while we were on the expedition. Melting snow created mud and slippery conditions while waterlogging some of the would-be kindling of our students’ fires.

The changing conditions meant that we literally could not prepare the students for all the obstacles they would face. Knowing this forced us as instructors to lead from alongside our crew, and gave them an opportunity to use the base line knowledge they had gained in new and creative ways. This is part of what David Perkins writes about in Making Learning Whole , when he encourages us to “Play Out of Town.”

When we give students actual problems to grapple with (such as non-routine math and science situations that have no “method” for finding a solution, or role plays of historical dilemmas with no right answer) we require students to engage in the kind of messiness that makes them genuine thinkers.

3. Give students the space and they will find the learning

While the major learning objectives of Harvest Survivor relate to learning how to use resources to create safety and comfort, our students’ main takeaways often have little to do with shelter or fire building.

In this year’s closing circle, students talked about the value of spending time away from technology and the value of a quiet space on their mood and ability to reflect.

When we see our role as facilitators who provide experiences, rather than purveyors of knowledge, we give students the chance to make meaning of the situation in a ways that they need. This doesn’t mean that we abdicate our responsibility to expose students to new and important ideas. It does mean that we take care to expose ourselves to the power of the students’ ideas as well.

Think back to a time when you learned something. Something that you know deeply and can apply with flexibility, ease, and grace. Whether it’s a favorite recipe, sport, mathematical tool, or song, I’m willing to bet that you came to that knowledge through a series of experiences that brought meaning to the skill or understanding. How are you creating a context for students to gain this kind of knowledge in your classroom?

We would not have been able to run this expedition without the generous support of the Appalachian Mountain Club Youth Opportunities Program which is a fabulous organization that you should all learn more about, support, and like on Facebook .

Photo 1: A group’s cook fire. By John McCrann

Photo 2: Top of the ridge. By Kevin Burns

The opinions expressed in Prove It: Math and Education Policy are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.

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Essay on Learning By Doing

Students are often asked to write an essay on Learning By Doing in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Learning By Doing

What is learning by doing.

Learning by doing means gaining knowledge and skills through direct experiences. It’s like riding a bike. You can’t learn it just by reading or listening. You have to get on the bike, fall a few times, and keep trying until you can ride smoothly.

Why It Works

Examples in school.

In school, learning by doing can happen in science labs, art projects, or drama plays. When you do experiments, create artwork, or act in a play, you’re learning new things in a fun way that sticks in your mind.

Learning By Doing at Home

At home, you can learn by doing too. Help with cooking, fix a bike, or plant a garden. These activities teach you life skills that books alone can’t give. Plus, they can be enjoyable and give you a sense of achievement.

250 Words Essay on Learning By Doing

Why is it important.

This way of learning is important because it helps you remember things better. When you do something, you make mistakes, and those mistakes help you understand what not to do next time. It’s like a game where every time you play, you get a little better.

In school, learning by doing can happen in many ways. In science class, you might do experiments. In math, you might use blocks to understand numbers. By doing these activities, the lessons become clearer and stick in your mind.

Benefits Outside School

Outside of school, learning by doing is everywhere. If you want to bake a cake, you learn by measuring ingredients and following steps. If you’re learning a new sport, you learn by practicing the moves. Each action teaches you something new.

In conclusion, learning by doing is a powerful way to understand new things. It makes learning fun and active, and it helps you remember better. It’s not just for school but for life. Whenever you want to learn something new, just start doing it, and you’ll be surprised at how much you can learn.

500 Words Essay on Learning By Doing

Learning by doing is a simple idea. It means that we learn better when we actually carry out a task rather than just reading about it or listening to someone else talk about it. It’s like riding a bike. You can’t learn to balance just by watching videos or hearing someone explain it. You need to get on the bike, try, fall a little, and then finally, you learn how to do it. This method can be used in schools, at work, and in everyday life.

Hands-On Experience

Mistakes are good.

A big part of learning by doing is making mistakes. Yes, that’s right, mistakes are a good thing here. When you try something and it doesn’t work, you learn what not to do next time. This is how inventors like Thomas Edison found out how to make a light bulb. He tried over a thousand different ways until he found one that worked. Every mistake taught him something new.

Remembering Better

When you learn by doing, you remember the lesson better. This is because you are more involved. It’s not just your eyes reading or your ears listening, but your whole body and mind are working together. This kind of learning sticks in your memory for a long time. It’s like if you bake a cake yourself, you will probably remember the recipe better than if you just read it from a book.

Skills for the Future

Confidence grows.

In summary, learning by doing is a powerful way to understand new things. It involves hands-on experience, learning from mistakes, better memory, gaining future skills, and growing confidence. Whether it’s in school or outside, this method can help anyone learn better and faster. So next time you want to learn something, don’t just read about it; try to do it. You might be surprised at how much you can learn by simply getting involved and giving it a go.

Apart from these, you can look at all the essays by clicking here .

Happy studying!

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Meet John Dewey. The man behind learning by doing

John Dewey explored this question and examined how we can promote these actions in his book How We Think (1910). Widely recognized as one the great leaders in educational theory, Dewey's philosophy of education forms the foundation for constructivist learning theory’s “learning by doing”, or experiential learning. Dewey removes the assumption that we understand all that is entailed and explores those two verbs. He proposes that thinking which leads to education must be trained and can only be achieved through reflection. He describes thinking and reflection as follows:

Thinking: “that operation in which present facts suggest other facts (or truths) in such a way as to induce belief in the latter upon the ground or warrant of the former” (pp. 8-9). Reflection: “a state of perplexity, hesitation, doubt” and “An act of search of investigation directed toward bringing to light further facts which serve to corroborate or to nullify the suggested belief” (p. 9).

For Dewey, learning was active, relevant, and practical. To that end, teachers must support and guide their students. They must teach, or train, their students to think by:

Planning well-sequenced instruction with subject matter that stimulates curiosity.

Presenting real-world situations

Asking students to note what seems “to be”, what is puzzling or different in a particular environment or situation

Encouraging the questioning of that which is presented as knowledge.

Creating space to allow for reflection.

Designing work that is authentic and practical.

How We Think has had an enormous influence across multiple disciplines. Training our students to think is what we do, and Dewey provides a starting point.

Dewey, J. (1910), How we think . Boston: D.C. Heath

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John Dewey Theory of Learning By Doing explained

John Dewey Theory: this article provides a practical explanation of the John Dewey theory . Next to what it is, this article also highlights the importance of learning by doing, the reformation of the educational system, this theory applied in the classroom and the vision of Democracy and Society. After reading, you’ll have a basic understanding of this change management theory. Enjoy reading!

What is the John Dewey Theory?

John Dewey is one of the big names in the history of educational theories. John Dewey was influential in countless fields and had lots of ideas concerning educational reform. His collection of views, philosophies and radically different ideas on education have been combined in the John Dewey theory.

In many countries, the modern educational system looks the way it does thanks to John Dewey . His approach to schooling was revolutionary for his time and proves to be fundamentally important for modern education to this day. John Dewey probably gained the most publicity thanks to his role in the studies into progressive education.

Progressive education in essence is a vision of education that emphasises the necessity of learning by doing. According to the John Dewey theory, people learn best through a hands-on approach.

As a result, the philosophies and views of John Dewey are placed in the educational philosophy of pragmatism.

John Dewey Theory of learning by doing

John Dewey and other pragmatists are convinced that students or other persons who are learning must experience reality as it is. From John Dewey’s educational point of view, this means that students must adapt to their environment in order to learn.

The John Dewey Education Theory shows that the great thinker had the same ideas about teachers. His view of the ideal classroom had many similarities with democratic ideals. Dewey posits that it isn’t just the student who learns, but rather the experience of students and teachers together that yields extra value for both.

Reformation of the Educational System

Children learn better when they interact with their environment and are involved in the school’s learning plan, according to John Dewey .

He rejected most of the theories that were popular at the time, such as behaviourism , and dismissed these as being too simplistic and insufficiently complex to describe learning processes.

In those days, at the end of the 20th century, it was assumed by many people that children were passive recipients of knowledge. The John Dewey theory, however, directly opposes this.

John Dewey argued that education can only truly be effective when children have learning opportunities that enable them to link current knowledge to prior experiences and knowledge.

This was a ground-breaking idea in those days. Particularly the part related to experience learning, where children come into contact with their environment, was revolutionary.

Educational Experiment John Dewey

The above shows that John Dewey was a great advocate of progressive educational reform. He was convinced that the educational system was flawed and that it should focus on learning by doing.

He and his wife Harriet therefore started their own experimental primary school: the University Elementary School. It was part of the University of Chicago , and the goal was to test his own theories. His wife was fired however, as a result of which Dewey resigned.

Over 25 years later, in 1919, Dewey founded The New School for Social Research in collaboration with his colleagues Charles Beard, James Harvey Robinson and Wesley Slair Mitchell. This too was a progressive, experimental school that encouraged the free exchange of ideas in the field of arts and social sciences.

His revolutionary ideas soon bore fruit. In the twenties of the previous century, Dewey gave a lecture on educational reform in schools all over the world. He was very impressed by experiments in the Russian school system.

This taught him that students particularly had to focus on interactions with the present. The John Dewey theory, however, doesn’t reject the value of learning about the past.

John Dewey Theory Applied in the Classroom

Particularly in those days, between the two world wars, it was common that desks were set up in rows in the classroom and the students wouldn’t leave their chair all day. This was what John Dewey meant with the fact that children were viewed as passive recipients of knowledge.

They really had no say in the learning process whatsoever and they certainly couldn’t indicate whether they liked to learn more on a specific subject. John Dewey was also very clear about how things could be improved. These ideas are no longer radical today, but at the beginning of the previous century, his view of education clashed with the policy and view of most schools.

Interdisciplinary Curriculum

The John Dewey theory recommends an interdisciplinary curriculum, or a curriculum that focuses on connecting multiple subjects where students can freely walk in and out of classrooms.

In this way, they pursue their own interests, and build their own method for acquiring and applying specific knowledge. In this setting, the teacher has a facilitating role. According to John Dewey, the teacher should observe the student’s interests, follow the directions, and help them develop problem-solving skills.

As stated, it was common in those days that the teacher stood in front of the group of students and provided information all day long.

The students’ task was to absorb the information and test this in the form of an exam or other written test. John Dewey’s ideal describes an entirely different function of the teacher.

According to Dewey , the teacher should only provide background information and have the students work together in groups on the concept. This should start conversation and discussion, and give rise to valuable collaboration. Although the written exam would continue to play an important role, particularly presentations, projects and other evaluation techniques are used to keep track of the progress.

John Dewey & Psychology

During his period at the University of Michigan, John Dewey published two books: Psychology , and Leibniz’s New Essays Concerning the Human Understanding .

Although he was still a philosophy professor there, he and his colleagues began to reformulate psychology, emphasising the mind and behaviour. The ideas on psychology in the John Dewey education theory also differ strongly from the standards at that time.

Their new psychology style, called functional psychology, focused on action and application. They reasoned that it went against the traditional concept of stimulus-response.

Although he didn’t deny the existence of stimulus and response, he didn’t agree that these were separate, individual events. He developed the idea that there is a certain form of coordination that enhances stimulation through past results.

John Dewey’s Vision of Democracy and Society

John Dewey believed that democracy is an ethical ideal and not just a political structure. He considered participation rather than representation as the essence of democracy .

Furthermore, he insisted on the interaction and harmony between democracy and the scientific method. He saw an increasingly larger and critical research community, drawing on their pragmatic principles and convictions.

The Role of Women in Society

John Dewey also had a controversial view of the role of women in society for his time. He was convinced that the woman’s place in society was determined by a woman’s environment rather than by biology. He noted that women are perceived based on their gender too much.

Now It’s Your Turn

What do you think? Are you familiar with the explanation of the John Dewey theory? Which elements of his contributions do you recognise in everyday life? Which other great thinkers preceded Dewey in his vision? How do you think the educational system would have developed if thinkers like Dewey hadn’t shared their vision? What’s your vision on education during Covid-19?

Share your experience and knowledge in the comments box below.

More information

• Dewey, J. (1989). The Later Works of John Dewey , 1949-1952: 1949-1952, Essays, Typescripts, and Knowing and the Known (Vol. 16). SIU Press.
• Dewey, J. (2014). John Dewey . The Middle Works, 1899–1924.
• Schilpp, P. A. (1939). The Philosophy of John Dewey .
• Shook, J. R. (2000). Dewey’s empirical theory of knowledge and reality . Vanderbilt University Press.

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• > John Dewey's Democracy and Education
• > Learning by Doing and Communicating

Book contents

• John Dewey’s Democracy and Education
• Copyright page
• Contributors
• Acknowledgments
• Note on Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Part I Companion Chapters
• Introduction to Part I
• 1 Learning by Doing and Communicating
• 2 Learning and Its Environments
• 3 Giving Form and Structure to Experience
• 4 Growth, Habits, and Plasticity in Education
• 5 Democracy without Telos : Education for a Future Uncertain
• 6 What Is the Role of the Past in Education?
• 7 “A Mode of Associated Living”: The Distinctiveness of Deweyan Democracy
• 8 A Democratic Theory of Aims
• 9 What Is the Purpose of Education?: Dewey’s Challenge to His Contemporaries
• 10 Shaping and Sharing Democratic Aims: Reconstructing Interest and Discipline
• 11 Experience and Thinking: Transforming our Perspective on Learning
• 12 The Role of Thinking in Education: Why Dewey Still Raises the Bar on Educators
• 13 Method: Intelligent Engagement with Subject Matter
• 14 Subject Matter: Combining “Learning by Doing” with Past Collective Experience
• 15 Work, Play, and Learning
• 16 Boundaries as Limits and Possibilities
• 17 Knowing Scientifically Is Essential for Democratic Society
• 18 Educational Values: Schools as Cultures of Imagination, Growth, and Fulfillment
• 19 The Value of the Present: Rethinking Labor and Leisure through Education
• 20 An Old Story: Dewey’s Account of the Opposition between the Intellectual and the Practical
• 21 Nature and Human Life in an Education for Democracy
• 22 Individuality and a Flourishing Society: A Reciprocal Relationship
• 23 Autonomy, Occupation, and Vocational Education
• 24 Philosophy of Education
• 25 Healing Splits: Dewey’s Theory of Knowing
• 26 The Consciously Growing and Refreshing Life
• Part II Democracy and Education in Context
• Index of Names

1 - Learning by Doing and Communicating

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Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 April 2017

• 5 Democracy without Telos: Education for a Future Uncertain

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• Learning by Doing and Communicating
• By Leonard J. Waks
• Edited by Leonard J. Waks , Temple University, Philadelphia , Andrea R. English , University of Edinburgh
• Book: John Dewey's <I>Democracy and Education</I>
• Online publication: 20 April 2017
• Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316492765.004

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Learning by Doing

• First Online: 30 October 2022

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• K. G. Srinivasa   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-1022-8431 4 ,
• Muralidhar Kurni   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3324-893X 5 &
• Kuppala Saritha   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-5799-2325 6  

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In this method, Science research skills can be acquired, conceptual understanding generated by scientific instruments and activities by providing the remote laboratory experiments or instruments. Remote access to special equipment is now expanding for trainee teachers and students; in earlier days, it was utilized by scientists and university students. Access to remote laboratories will provide better food for thought. Instructors and learners need to provide adequate resources by providing hands-on investigations and direct observation, supplementing the typical learning. Such experiences also may be brought into the school classroom by having access to remote laboratories. The high-quality, distant telescope can provide the students with a daytime school science class to make night sky observations as an example of this method. This chapter presents the Learning-by-doing method, its importance, and how to do it. Also, we present the most important challenges of applying the learning-by-doing method.

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Srinivasa, K.G., Kurni, M., Saritha, K. (2022). Learning by Doing. In: Learning, Teaching, and Assessment Methods for Contemporary Learners. Springer Texts in Education. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-6734-4_7

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Some people point that experiential learning (i.e. learning by doing it) can work well in formal education. However, others think a traditional form of teaching is the best. Do you think experiential learning can work well in high schools or colleges?

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How can the government make sure that people save enough money to live on when they are old?

Learning english at school is often seen as more important than learning local languages. if these are not taught, many are at risk of dying out.  in your opinion, is it important for everyone to learn english should we try to ensure the survival of local languages and, if so, how give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience., the most important aim of science is to should be to improve people's life. to what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement., nowadays, men’s sport is given far more attention in society than women’s sports. what are the reasons for this do you think this is a positive or a negative situation, living in a country where you have to speak a foreign language can cause serious social problems, as well as practical problems. to what extent do you agree and disagree with this statement.

What Is Learning? Essay about Learning Importance

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
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What Is learning? 👨‍🎓️ Why is learning important? Find the answers here! 🔤 This essay on learning describes its outcomes and importance in one’s life.

Introduction

• The Key Concepts

Learning is a continuous process that involves the transformation of information and experience into abilities and knowledge. Learning, according to me, is a two way process that involves the learner and the educator leading to knowledge acquisition as well as capability.

It informs my educational sector by making sure that both the students and the teacher participate during the learning process to make it more real and enjoyable so that the learners can clearly understand. There are many and different learning concepts held by students and ways in which the different views affect teaching and learning.

What Is Learning? The Key Concepts

One of the learning concept held by students is, presentation of learning material that is precise. This means that any material that is meant for learning should be very clear put in a language that the learners comprehend (Blackman & Benson 2003). The material should also be detailed with many examples that are relevant to the prior knowledge of the learner.

This means that the learner must have pertinent prior knowledge. This can be obtained by the teacher explaining new ideas and words that are to be encountered in a certain field or topic that might take more consecutive lessons. Different examples assist the students in approaching ideas in many perspectives.

The learner is able to get similarities from the many examples given thus leading to a better understanding of a concept since the ideas are related and linked.

Secondly, new meanings should be incorporated into the students’ prior knowledge, instead of remembering only the definitions or procedures. Therefore, to promote expressive learning, instructional methods that relate new information to the learner’s prior knowledge should be used.

Moreover, significant learning involves the use of evaluation methods that inspire learners to relate their existing knowledge with new ideas. For the students to comprehend complex ideas, they must be combined with the simple ideas they know.

Teaching becomes very easy when a lesson starts with simple concepts that the students are familiar with. The students should start by understanding what they know so that they can use the ideas in comprehending complex concepts. This makes learning smooth and easy for both the learner and the educator (Chermak& Weiss 1999).

Thirdly, acquisition of the basic concepts is very essential for the student to understand the threshold concepts. This is because; the basic concepts act as a foundation in learning a certain topic or procedure. So, the basic concepts must be comprehended first before proceeding to the incorporation of the threshold concepts.

This makes the student to have a clear understanding of each stage due to the possession of initial knowledge (Felder &Brent 1996). A deeper foundation of the study may also be achieved through getting the differences between various concepts clearly and by knowing the necessary as well as the unnecessary aspects. Basic concepts are normally taught in the lower classes of each level.

They include defining terms in each discipline. These terms aid in teaching in all the levels because they act as a foundation. The stage of acquiring the basics determines the students’ success in the rest of their studies.

This is because lack of basics leads to failure since the students can not understand the rest of the context in that discipline, which depends mostly on the basics. For learning to become effective to the students, the basics must be well understood as well as their applications.

Learning by use of models to explain certain procedures or ideas in a certain discipline is also another learning concept held by students. Models are helpful in explaining complex procedures and they assist the students in understanding better (Blackman & Benson 2003).

For instance, in economics, there are many models that are used by the students so that they can comprehend the essential interrelationships in that discipline. A model known as comparative static is used by the students who do economics to understand how equilibrium is used in economic reason as well as the forces that bring back equilibrium after it has been moved.

The students must know the importance of using such kind of models, the main aspect in the model and its relationship with the visual representation. A model is one of the important devices that must be used by a learner to acquire knowledge. They are mainly presented in a diagram form using symbols or arrows.

It simplifies teaching especially to the slow learners who get the concept slowly but clearly. It is the easiest and most effective method of learning complex procedures or directions. Most models are in form of flowcharts.

Learners should get used to learning incomplete ideas so that they can make more complete ideas available to them and enjoy going ahead. This is because, in the process of acquiring the threshold concepts, the prior knowledge acquired previously might be transformed.

So, the students must be ready to admit that every stage in the learning process they get an understanding that is temporary. This problem intensifies when the understanding of an idea acquired currently changes the understanding of an idea that had been taught previously.

This leads to confusion that can make the weak students lose hope. That is why the teacher should always state clear similarities as well as differences of various concepts. On the other hand, the student should be able to compare different concepts and stating their similarities as well as differences (Watkins & Regmy 1992).

The student should also be careful when dealing with concepts that seem similar and must always be attentive to get the first hand information from the teacher. Teaching and learning becomes very hard when learners do not concentrate by paying attention to what the teacher is explaining. For the serious students, learning becomes enjoyable and they do not get confused.

According to Chemkar and Weiss (1999), learners must not just sit down and listen, but they must involve themselves in some other activities such as reading, writing, discussing or solving problems. Basically, they must be very active and concentrate on what they are doing. These techniques are very essential because they have a great impact to the learners.

Students always support learning that is active than the traditional lecture methods because they master the content well and aids in the development of most skills such as writing and reading. So methods that enhance active learning motivate the learners since they also get more information from their fellow learners through discussions.

Students engage themselves in discussion groups or class presentations to break the monotony of lecture method of learning. Learning is a two way process and so both the teacher and the student must be involved.

Active learning removes boredom in the class and the students get so much involved thus improving understanding. This arouses the mind of the student leading to more concentration. During a lecture, the student should write down some of the important points that can later be expounded on.

Involvement in challenging tasks by the learners is so much important. The task should not be very difficult but rather it should just be slightly above the learner’s level of mastery. This makes the learner to get motivated and instills confidence. It leads to success of the learner due to the self confidence that aids in problem solving.

For instance, when a learner tackles a question that deemed hard and gets the answer correct, it becomes the best kind of encouragement ever. The learner gets the confidence that he can make it and this motivates him to achieve even more.

This kind of encouragement mostly occurs to the quick learners because the slow learners fail in most cases. This makes the slow learners fear tackling many problems. So, the concept might not apply to all the learners but for the slow learners who are determined, they can always seek for help incase of such a problem.

Moreover, another concept held by students is repetition because, the most essential factor in learning is efficient time in a task. For a student to study well he or she should consider repetition, that is, looking at the same material over and over again.

For instance, before a teacher comes for the lesson, the student can review notes and then review the same notes after the teacher gets out of class. So, the student reviews the notes many times thus improving the understanding level (Felder & Brent 1996). This simplifies revising for an exam because the student does not need to cram for it.

Reviewing the same material makes teaching very easy since the teacher does not need to go back to the previous material and start explaining again. It becomes very hard for those students who do not review their work at all because they do not understand the teacher well and are faced by a hard time when preparing for examinations.

Basically, learning requires quite enough time so that it can be effective. It also becomes a very big problem for those who do not sacrifice their time in reviews.

Acquisition of the main points improves understanding of the material to the student. Everything that is learnt or taught may not be of importance. Therefore, the student must be very keen to identify the main points when learning. These points should be written down or underlined because they become useful when reviewing notes before doing an exam. It helps in saving time and leads to success.

For those students who do not pay attention, it becomes very difficult for them to highlight the main points. They read for the sake of it and make the teacher undergo a very hard time during teaching. To overcome this problem, the students must be taught how to study so that learning can be effective.

Cooperative learning is also another concept held by the students. It is more detailed than a group work because when used properly, it leads to remarkable results. This is very encouraging in teaching and the learning environment as well.

The students should not work with their friends so that learning can be productive, instead every group should have at least one top level student who can assist the weak students. The groups assist them in achieving academic as well as social abilities due to the interaction. This learning concept benefits the students more because, a fellow student can explain a concept in a better way than how the teacher can explain in class.

Assignments are then given to these groups through a selected group leader (Felder& Brent 1996). Every member must be active in contributing ideas and respect of one’s ideas is necessary. It becomes very easy for the teacher to mark such kind of assignments since they are fewer than marking for each individual.

Learning becomes enjoyable because every student is given a chance to express his or her ideas freely and in a constructive manner. Teaching is also easier because the students encounter very many new ideas during the discussions. Some students deem it as time wastage but it is necessary in every discipline.

Every group member should be given a chance to become the group’s facilitator whose work is to distribute and collect assignments. Dormant students are forced to become active because every group member must contribute his or her points. Cooperative learning is a concept that requires proper planning and organization.

Completion of assignments is another student held learning concept. Its main aim is to assist the student in knowing whether the main concepts in a certain topic were understood. This acts as a kind of self evaluation to the student and also assists the teacher to know whether the students understood a certain topic. The assignments must be submitted to the respective teacher for marking.

Those students who are focused follow the teacher after the assignments have been marked for clarification purposes. This enhances learning and the student understands better. Many students differ with this idea because they do not like relating with the teacher (Marton &Beaty 1993). This leads to very poor grades since communication is a very essential factor in learning.

Teaching becomes easier and enjoyable when there is a student- teacher relationship. Assignment corrections are necessary to both the student and the teacher since the student comprehends the right method of solving a certain problem that he or she could not before.

Lazy students who do not do corrections make teaching hard for the teacher because they make the other students to lag behind. Learning may also become ineffective for them due to low levels of understanding.

Acquisition of facts is still another student held concept that aims at understanding reality. Students capture the essential facts so that they can understand how they suit in another context. Many students fail to obtain the facts because they think that they can get everything taught in class or read from books.

When studying, the student must clearly understand the topic so that he or she can develop a theme. This helps in making short notes by eliminating unnecessary information. So, the facts must always be identified and well understood in order to apply them where necessary. Teaching becomes easier when the facts are well comprehended by the students because it enhances effective learning.

Effective learning occurs when a student possesses strong emotions. A strong memory that lasts for long is linked with the emotional condition of the learner. This means that the learners will always remember well when learning is incorporated with strong emotions. Emotions develop when the students have a positive attitude towards learning (Marton& Beaty 1993).

This is because they will find learning enjoyable and exciting unlike those with a negative attitude who will find learning boring and of no use to them. Emotions affect teaching since a teacher will like to teach those students with a positive attitude towards what he is teaching rather than those with a negative attitude.

The positive attitude leads to effective learning because the students get interested in what they are learning and eventually leads to success. Learning does not become effective where students portray a negative attitude since they are not interested thus leading to failure.

Furthermore, learning through hearing is another student held concept. This concept enables them to understand what they hear thus calling for more attention and concentration. They prefer instructions that are given orally and are very keen but they also participate by speaking. Teaching becomes very enjoyable since the students contribute a lot through talking and interviewing.

Learning occurs effectively because the students involve themselves in oral reading as well as listening to recorded information. In this concept, learning is mostly enhanced by debating, presenting reports orally and interviewing people. Those students who do not prefer this concept as a method of learning do not involve themselves in debates or oral discussions but use other learning concepts.

Learners may also use the concept of seeing to understand better. This makes them remember what they saw and most of them prefer using written materials (Van Rosum & Schenk 1984). Unlike the auditory learners who grasp the concept through hearing, visual learners understand better by seeing.

They use their sight to learn and do it quietly. They prefer watching things like videos and learn from what they see. Learning occurs effectively since the memory is usually connected with visual images. Teaching becomes very easy when visual images are incorporated. They include such things like pictures, objects, graphs.

A teacher can use charts during instruction thus improving the students’ understanding level or present a demonstration for the students to see. Diagrams are also necessary because most students learn through seeing.

Use of visual images makes learning to look real and the student gets the concept better than those who learn through imaginations. This concept makes the students to use text that has got many pictures, diagrams, graphics, maps and graphs.

In learning students may also use the tactile concept whereby they gain knowledge and skills through touching. They gain knowledge mostly through manipulative. Teaching becomes more effective when students are left to handle equipments for themselves for instance in a laboratory practical. Students tend to understand better because they are able to follow instructions (Watkins & Regmy 1992).

After applying this concept, the students are able to engage themselves in making perfect drawings, making models and following procedures to make something. Learning may not take place effectively to those students who do not like manipulating because it arouses the memory and the students comprehends the concept in a better way.

Learning through analysis is also another concept held by students because they are able to plan their work in an organized manner which is based on logic ideas only. It requires individual learning and effective learning occurs when information is given in steps. This makes the teacher to structure the lessons properly and the goals should be clear.

This method of organizing ideas makes learning to become effective thus leading to success and achievement of the objectives. Analysis improves understanding of concepts to the learners (Watkins & Regmy 1992). They also understand certain procedures used in various topics because they are sequential.

Teaching and learning becomes very hard for those students who do not know how to analyze their work. Such students learn in a haphazard way thus leading to failure.

If all the learning concepts held by students are incorporated, then remarkable results can be obtained. A lot information and knowledge can be obtained through learning as long as the learner uses the best concepts for learning. Learners are also different because there are those who understand better by seeing while others understand through listening or touching.

So, it is necessary for each learner to understand the best concept to use in order to improve the understanding level. For the slow learners, extra time should be taken while studying and explanations must be clear to avoid confusion. There are also those who follow written instructions better than those instructions that are given orally. Basically, learners are not the same and so require different techniques.

Reference List

Benson, A., & Blackman, D., 2003. Can research methods ever be interesting? Active Learning in Higher Education, Vol. 4, No. 1, 39-55.

Chermak, S., & Weiss, A., 1999. Activity-based learning of statistics: Using practical applications to improve students’ learning. Journal of Criminal Justice Education , Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 361-371.

Felder, R., & Brent, R., 1996. Navigating the bumpy road to student-centered instruction. College Teaching , Vol. 44, No. 2, pp. 43-47.

Marton, F. & Beaty, E., 1993. Conceptions of learning. International Journal of Educational Research , Vol. 19, pp. 277-300.

Van Rossum, E., & Schenk, S., 1984. The relationship between learning conception, study strategy and learning outcome. British Journal of Educational Psychology , Vol. 54, No.1, pp. 73-85.

Watkins, D., & Regmy, M., 1992. How universal are student conceptions of learning? A Nepalese investigation. Psychologia , Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 101-110.

What Is Learning? FAQ

• Why Is Learning Important? Learning means gaining new knowledge, skills, and values, both in a group or on one’s own. It helps a person to develop, maintain their interest in life, and adapt to changes.
• Why Is Online Learning Good? Online learning has a number of advantages over traditional learning. First, it allows you to collaborate with top experts in your area of interest, no matter where you are located geographically. Secondly, it encourages independence and helps you develop time management skills. Last but not least, it saves time on transport.
• How to Overcome Challenges in Online Learning? The most challenging aspects of distant learning are the lack of face-to-face communication and the lack of feedback. The key to overcoming these challenges is effective communication with teachers and classmates through videoconferencing, email, and chats.
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Hardcover ISBN: 9780804728409 Paperback ISBN: 9780804728416

This book by a Nobel laureate in economics begins with a brief exposition of Kenneth J. Arrow's classic paper "The Economic Implications of Learning by Doing" (1962). It shows how Arrow's idea fits into the modern theory of economic growth, and uses it as a springboard for a critical consideration of spectacular recent developments that have made growth theory a dynamic topic today.

The author then develops a new theory that combines learning by doing (identifying it with the concept of "continuous improvement") with a separate process of discrete "innovations." Learning by doing leads to a fairly smooth reduction in labor required per unit of output, tied to the rate of gross investment in new capital equipment. Innovations arrive at random; when one of them happens, the labor requirement takes a jump downward.

This new model, simple as it is, does not lend itself to self-contained solution. The author accordingly presents the results of a series of computer simulations that exhibit the variety of paths the new model economy can follow, showing, among other things, that early good luck can have a persistent effect. The book concludes with some general reflections on policies for economic growth, drawn not from any one modeling exercise but from general experience with a variety of growth models.

Of the four chapters of this book, the first two were presented as the Kenneth J. Arrow Lectures at Stanford University in 1993. The computer simulations were specially done for inclusion in this book. The final chapter on policies for economic growth was first presented as the Ernest Sturc Lecture at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington in 1991.

About the author

Robert M. Solow is Emeritus Institute Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author of several books, most recently A Critical Essay in Modern Macroeconomic Theory (with F. Hahn).

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