Analysis of Situational, Experiential, and Social Learning Approaches

This essay examines three significant learning theories: situational learning, experiential learning, and social learning. Situational learning emphasizes unintentional learning derived from authentic activities and contexts, highlighting how individuals adapt and acquire knowledge through real-world experiences, particularly in organizational settings where employees respond to dynamic situations and learn independently. Experiential learning, conversely, focuses on the construction of skills and knowledge through direct experiences, following a cycle of concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation. This approach encourages learners to actively engage with their experiences to develop skills and understanding, fostering a deeper comprehension of the subject matter. Finally, social learning, developed by Albert Bandura, explores how learning occurs through observation and interaction, emphasizing the cognitive processes involved in acquiring skills and knowledge from peers and models. The essay highlights how social learning tools, such as those found in platforms like Docebo, facilitate communication, knowledge sharing, and collaborative learning, illustrating the diverse ways individuals learn in formal and informal settings. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of each theory in understanding how individuals learn through changing situations, experiments, and social interactions.

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HRM

Situational learning, experiental learning and social l earning
The first theory is situational learning which states that learning is unintentional that
occurs due to any authentic activity, culture or context. In several organisations, different
situations occur where employees are required to react constant and bring significant
changes. In these situations, employees learn several things by themselves. There is no formal
instruction given on the part of management to employees for working in any particular
manner. Similarly, students also work several things in difficult situation. For example: if
four persons were assigned in a group for presentation. On the presentation day, one person
was not able to come due to sickness. Such situations taught students to always keep them
ready for the complex situations that can occur during work (Greenhow & Lewin, 2016).
During these kind of situations, people learn from the experience in the form of informal
leanring.
Experiental learning is said to be the process through which learner tends to construct
the skills, values, and knowledge from the direct experiences (Rogoff, Callanan, Gutierrez &
Erickson, 2016). In the experiental learning theory, knowledge is created through the
experience transformation. Experiental learning follows certain series of steps. Concrete
experience is the action has where students are encouraged to try action. Reflection
observation is the next step where students are effectively encouraged to reflect on their
experience from different perspective. Afterwards, abstract conceptualisation stage comes
which is integration phase. In this stage, students integrate the experience that is action and
result into the existing knowledge. At last, active experimentation comes where they
hypothesize what will happen and try the actions by solving problems and making decisions.
In this way, it involves several methodologies where learners engage with learning in their
direct experiences and focused reflection to develop skills, increase knowledge, as well as
develop their capacity. In experiental learning, situation might be different which helps the
student in coming to better understanding. In different organisational setting, employees tend
to learn several things by themselves while experimenting something. This learning is a part
of employee own knowledge and courage to learn something while experimenting. At the
time of experimenting something, different issues and challenges also come on the way
which induce a person to learn something during experimenting (Akers & Jennings, 2016).

Social learning is a theory developed by Albert Bandura. It is cognitive process that
occurs purely through direct instruction and observation in the absence of direct
reinforcement. In the recent time, people learn by doing, listening as well as watching to
understand several new concepts and applying them in everyday challenges. Social learning
gives emphasis on how a person interacts with the peers for skill acquisition and just-in-time
learning. In the recent time, several modern social learning tools have developed through
technology, social networks and software that a person use every day to interact and
communicate with the people across professional and personal lives. For example: “Coach &
Share” module of Docebo has created the integral environment. This is a environment where
people can communicate and meet seamlessly but also give answers, ask questions as well as
rate their experience (Docebo, 2020).
In this way, the above explained informal learning occurs due to the learner’s own
skills, knowledge or enthusiasm to learn something new without any organisation
instructions. In day to day activities also, learners tend to learn several things through
changing situation, experiments and some social gathering and interaction.

References
Akers, R. L., & Jennings, W. G. (2016). Social learning theory. Wiley Handbooks in
Criminology and Criminal Justice, 230-240.
Docebo. (2020). What is social learning. Retrieved from:
https://www.docebo.com/blog/what-is-social-learning-how-to-adopt-it/
Greenhow, C., & Lewin, C. (2016). Social media and education: Reconceptualizing the
boundaries of formal and informal learning. Learning, media and technology, 41(1),
6-30.
Rogoff, B., Callanan, M., Gutierrez, K. D., & Erickson, F. (2016). The organization of
informal learning. Review of Research in Education, 40(1), 356-401.