A few years ago, I took an Agile Fundamentals course at my workplace. The audience was teams in IT needing some foundational understanding of agility to be able to improve team process/productivity and build the agile mindset. Read more here about my experience.
Experiential learning means learners do an activity that cements a given concept or skill, and relates it back to their own lives and experience, building connections in the brain. Reflection after the activity wraps helps to reinforce those connections as well, and give the learner a chance to understand how they might apply the concept better in future circumstances (Growth Engineering, n.d.).
To build familiarity with the key Agile concept of simplicity with learners in the Agile Fundamentals course, I would run a "Big Hairy Problem" activity.
I ask the learners to think of a concern looming in their lives - what "big hairy problem" are they facing?
Since this is in the context of a training class, I'd ask that it be something they feel comfortable discussing with a fellow learner.
After the learners have had some time to think through and write a few words about their big hairy problem, I ask them to start to make a list of all potential solutions (hair salon tools, in keeping with the Big Hairy Problem theme) they can think of; anything goes!
actions within their own power;
something they'd need help to implement;
solutions that only partially address the problem;
big solutions;
little solutions;
controversial solutions
Once they've had several minutes to get a good list going, I will ask them to choose one solution (or salon tool, to stay on theme), and only one - the smallest, quickest, simplest thing they can use right now in order to make some progress on their Big Hairy Problem.
Discussion comes next: learners should discuss the problems they wrote down, some of their potential solutions, and what the small step is they can take to get started on a full resolution.
This should generate some additional insights as learners hear what others dreamed up for solutions, since those solutions might help other problems, too.
Once discussion and further informal ideation/inspiration takes place, we can all come back together to discuss some examples, see if we can come up with even simpler solutions than the ones chosen, and connect the concept of simplicity more formally to the work of agile teams.
This activity not only shows the facilitator how well learners grasp the concept of simplicity, but also engages learners in deepening their practice and understanding of the concept. The activity is grounded in real-life scenarios from the learners' own experiences (at work or elsewhere), requires thinking and judgment on the part of each learner, replicates problem-solving the learners experience outside of the classroom, and gives many opportunities for self- and group reflection, feedback, new insights, and refinement of ideas (Indiana University Bloomington, n.d.). This makes it a great example of authentic assessment.
The experiential learning of practicing simplicity helps the facilitator engage in a constructivist manner with learners; finding out where their understanding of the concept of simplicity is, and making use of the experiences of other learners around them to challenge their baseline, as well. The facilitator is not a commander in this activity, but rather a guide, another constructivist notion.
Additionally, the iterative nature of experiential learning (trying ideas, reflecting and testing them with others, and reformulating ideas) engages the spiral curriculum advised in cognitivist approaches to instruction. The new information is incorporated into the learner's existing understanding as he or she ideates and tests his or her ideas with others, and their "network" in the training room helps reinforce the concept by adding their own spin and interpretation, adding another layer of cognitivism and a touch of connectivism.
Growth Engineering. (n.d.). What is the experiential learning cycle? Retrieved from http://www.growthengineering.co.uk/what-is-experiential-learning/
Indiana University Bloomington. (n.d.). Authentic assessment. Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning, Indiana University Bloomington. Retrieved from https://citl.indiana.edu/teaching-resources/assessing-student-learning/authentic-assessment/