Experiential Learning: A Handbook for Education, Training and Coaching

by Colin Beard, John P. Wilson

As employees spend more and more time in workplace training, corporations are seeking creative ways to develop and motivate their staff. Beard and Wilson provide a solid and easy-to-follow background into the concepts of experiential, or activity-based, learning and highlight successful techniques, from outdoor team-building to office-based activities.
 
Experiential Learning offers educators, trainers and coaches the skills that can be successfully applied to a variety of settings including management education, corporate training, team-building, youth-development work, counseling and therapy, schools and higher education and special needs training. With the Learning Combination Lock model, brought to life with hundreds of examples from around the world, the authors illustrate a range of factors that can be altered to enhance the learning experience including: experience and intelligence; facilitation, good practice and ethics; learning environments; experiential learning activities; and working with the senses and emotions. This edition has been completely updated and includes a new chapter on Sensory Intelligence, more information on ways the brain works (emotional thinking, rational processing, meditative sensorial experiences), and guidance on coaching skills.

344 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Moez Lamti · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the kind of book where you can use a pick-and-mix approach and still manage to grasp the overall ideas fairly well. This is mainly because of the way it has been outlined and scaffolded by summaries and inside references to prior or previous chapters. There is an ostensible effort put to defining and conceptualizing, although I feel that the metaphorical illustrations of concepts (the tumbler system) is not straightforward and not really helpful. The book is however quite readable and easy to navigate, with references galore. The practical side (chapter 9) is not thorough, which is understandable, given the large scope of the book.

[Sara Best · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a challenge to get through as it could get a bit dry. However, I believe it will become a regularly used reference.
When I started reading it my job focused on teaching, and so I kept applying it to my role as a teacher. When I was about half way through the book, I became college registrar and my job focus became administration. Nonetheless, as I continued to read I found myself apply the content to my new role as manager of the academic records team. It is not that the book changed focus, but that I saw the application to my new career. In other words, the principles in this book can be applied to teaching and management roles.
The book covered a wide range of experiential learning approaches. The numerous case studies provided meaningful real world examples.

[Beth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Basic understanding of experiential learning - 2.5*