Experiential learning occurs when a person engages in some activity, looks back at the activity critically, abstracts some useful insight from the analysis, and puts the result to work through a change in behavior. Of course, this process is experienced spontaneously in everyone's ordinary life. People never stop learning; with each new experience, we consciously or unconsciously ask ourselves questions such as, _How did that feel?,_ _What really happened?,_ or _What do I need to remember about that?_ It is an inductive process: proceeding from observation rather than from a priori _truth_ (as in the deductive process).
Learning can be defined as a change in behavior as a result of experience or input, and that is the usual purpose of training. The effectiveness of experiential learning is based on the fact that nothing is more relevant to us than ourselves. One's own reactions to, observations about, and understanding of something are more important than someone else's opinion about it. Research has shown that people learn best by _doing._ One remembers best what one knows better than one remembers what one knows about.