The ‘here and now’ concrete experience also provides a publically shareable reference point for testing the implications and validity of ideas created during the learning process, leading to more effective understanding of theories.
Engineering students in particular learn effectively when they are able to relate material to their own personal experience; and experiential learning methods are valuable for engineering students who are more likely to be ‘sensing, inductive and active’ learners who are likely to forget something that is ‘just said to them’ (Felder and Silverman 1998).