Learn By Doing

4-H promotes youth learning-by-doing and utilizes a methodology called Experiential Learning, which engages learners in an activity that:

• is direct and hands-on
• uses open-ended questions that invite further discussion and interaction.
• allows participants to discuss the experiences they had doing the activity.
• results in active reflection and discussion of the activity by the participants.
• makes connections between the activity and real-world examples.
• applies the outcomes of the activity to one or more independent situations.

Experiential Learning Cycle

The most widely uses model of experiential learning in the 4-H Youth Development Program utilizes the following 5-step cycle.

Experience: Do It!  Begin with a concrete experience.  This can be an individual activity or a group activity, but it involves doing something with little or no help from the leader.  Ask youth to rate an item. For instance, "which product costs more?"  Additionally, you can create exhibits, role-play, give a demonstration, problem-solve, or play a game.

Share: What Happened?  Get the group or the individual to talk about the experience.  Share reactions and observations in the group.  Answer the questions: "What did you do?", "What did you see?", "Feel?", "Hear?", "Taste?", "What was the most difficult part of the experience?", "The easiest part?" Let the group talk freely.

Process: What's Important?  Discuss, analyze, reflect on, and look at the experience.  Youth should talk about how themes, problems and issues are brought out by the experience and how they were addressed.  Discuss how questions are created by the activity.  Ask more questions!  Analyze the experience.

Generalize: So What?  Support youth in finding trends or common lessons in the experience that can be applied to the real world, not just the specific topic.  Identify key terms or real-life principles that capture the meaning.

Apply: Now What?  Talk about how the new information can be applied to everyday life now or sometime in the future.  Apply what was learned to a similar or different situation.  Practice what was learned. 

Providing a hands-on learning experience alone does not create "experiential learning."  The experience itself comes first.  The learning comes from the thoughts and ideas created in sharing, processing, generalizing and applying the experience.

For more information, visit the 4-H Experiential Learning Website.

Reference:

California 4-H Project Leaders Digest (PDF Link)