How Well Do We Learn From Experiential Or Inquiry Learning Approaches?

Direct instruction directly teaches the content. People are supplied with content and activities that help them build needed background knowledge. And we make sure that what they know is correct and usable. Indirect approaches use experiential or inquiry methods that prompt discovery of needed information and often simulate and test performance.

Training people to identify hazardous materials in the workplace, for example, would likely have lessons, labs, and tests in a direct approach. In an experiential approach, people would likely work through scenarios or case studies.

Paulo Freire, a learning theorist, disapproves of what he calls the “banking model of education,” where teachers (or trainers or instructors) deposit information into students’ heads. Learning sciences clearly shows that we cannot directly fill people up with knowledge (my new book, Manage Memory for Learning explains how we do learn). People do not “record” what they learn during instruction for playback during application.

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