Fostering 21st-Century Skills Through Experiential Education

Abstract

The advent of the 21st century has seen significant developments and transformations that we have seen since centuries in terms of technology, economy, social relations, etc. As a consequence, education has thus acquired new meanings and responsibilities. Learners are expected to come forward with high order skills and abilities, including 4C’s: Critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication. Learners are required to be digitally fluent and globally ready. Conventional teaching-learning practices, where teachers lecture and students listen and assessing learners by a test are no longer sufficient to build real world skills that leaners need today. Learning through experiences, is completely based on the core principles of ‘learning by doing’. It promotes active participation in student’s learning process through reflection, rather than the traditions methods of learning-teaching process involving just listening and memorizing. This paper explores the importance of learning through experience to embed 21st-century skills among higher education learners in accordance with India’s National Education Policy (NEP) (2020). Based on the prior work of various scholars like John Dewey, David Kolb, and Jack Mezirow, the paper starts with a discussion of experiential learning role in connecting classroom theory into real world practices. Subsequently, it explores the role of “learning through experiences” in inculcating required skills in learners for future success. Various institutions in India are already adopting these practices in their curricula by exploring specific pedagogies that promote experiential learning such as project-based learning, internship programs, and community-based learning. The paper ends by concluding that learning through experiences is not only a pedagogical method rather it helps learner learn how to exist and work in the real world.