Abstract

Learning through experience is “learning by doing.” Experiential learning can be visualised as a four-stage cycle, with the first two stages allowing participants to observe, review, and reflect on what they have practised, and the third and final stage requiring participants to critically reflect in order to consciously connect their experiences to theory or earlier experiences. Cognitive flexibility is the capacity to switch between tasks as necessary. The four phases of experiential learning include thinking, acting, experiencing, and reflecting. These were applied to senior secondary school students, and it was discovered that they had enhanced cognitive flexibility abilities and could come up with new answers to problems. The “Cognitive Flexibility Scale” (CFS), created by M.M. Martin & R.B. Rubin in 1995, was the instrument utilised for data collection. This descriptive research study involved 92 participants among which 50 were girls and 42 were boys. The research finds that learning through experiential learning improves the students’ cognitive flexibility, problem solving skills and reflective thinking abilities. On the whole this research finds the impact of experiential learning on cognitive flexibility among senior secondary school students.

Keywords: Experiential learning, Cognitive flexibility, Senior secondary school students.

[1] Ph.D.,Research Scholar (Part time),Department of Education,Gandhigram Rural Institute(DU), Dindigul(Dt), Tamilnadu

[2] Professor & Head of the Department, Department of Education, Gandhigram Rural Institute (DU), Dindigul (Dt), Tamilnadu