Hands-On Learning: What It Is, Why It Works and What It Looks Like in School

Hands-on learning means children learn by doing something real, then thinking about what happened. The doing is only half of it. The thinking afterwards is what turns an activity into learning.

The best-known model is David Kolb’s experiential learning cycle, which builds on the work of John Dewey, Kurt Lewin and Jean Piaget. It has four stages: a concrete experience, reflective observation on what happened, abstract conceptualisation (working out the general idea), and active experimentation, trying the idea out in a new situation (Kolb, The Process of Experiential Learning).

In a classroom that might mean: children plant beans in different spots (experience), notice the ones in the cupboard are pale and thin (observation), conclude that plants need light (concept), then predict what will happen to a plant under a box and test it (experimentation).

The research supports active, hands-on approaches strongly, with some honest limits.

• In a large analysis in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, university science students in active learning classes scored about 6% higher on exams, and failure rates dropped from 33.8% to 21.8% compared with lectures (Freeman and colleagues, 2014). The study was of undergraduates, not children.
• The Education Endowment Foundation’s Teaching and Learning Toolkit, as reproduced by its Australian partner, rates metacognition, teaching children to plan, monitor and reflect on their own learning, at about seven months of additional progress (Evidence for Learning). That is the reflection half of hands-on learning.
• The same toolkit rates oral language approaches at about six months, and around seven in the early years (Evidence for Learning). Talking through what you did is part of doing it.
• Research with the Exploratorium in San Francisco on making and tinkering found learning across five dimensions, from problem solving and conceptual understanding to creativity and social engagement, but stressed that results depend on careful design of the activity (NSTA).

Not every activity is learning. Use these questions to tell them apart:

• Can the child say what they were trying to find out or make, and why?
• Was there a real problem to solve, or just instructions to follow?
• Did anything go wrong, and did the child have to fix it?
• Did the teacher ask questions afterwards, so the child had to explain what happened?
• Does it connect to what the class is learning in maths, science or language?

A pretty craft that every child completes identically from a template is busy work. A wobbly model that a child redesigned twice and can explain is learning.

• Cook together: measuring, timing and following a sequence.
• Fix things together and let your child hold the tools.
• Turn questions into small experiments: "Which ice cube melts faster, in the sun or the shade?"
• After any activity, ask "what happened, and why do you think it happened?"

What is hands-on learning? Hands-on learning is an approach in which children learn by doing a real activity, such as building, experimenting, measuring or making, and then reflecting on what happened. It is based on experiential learning theory, which describes a cycle of concrete experience, reflection, forming ideas and testing them in new situations.

What are the benefits of hands-on learning? Research on active learning shows higher exam scores and lower failure rates than lecture-based teaching, and approaches that build reflection and talk are linked to several months of additional progress. Hands-on learning also builds problem solving, persistence, teamwork and confidence.

Is it true we remember 90% of what we do? No. The learning pyramid percentages are a myth. Edgar Dale’s original 1946 cone of experience had no percentages, and the numbers were added later without research behind them. The real evidence for active learning comes from studies such as Freeman and colleagues’ 2014 analysis.

What are examples of hands-on learning? Examples include planting and measuring seeds, building and testing paper bridges, running fair-test science experiments, programming floor robots, measuring the playground for maths, and making and selling a product.

Is hands-on learning only for young children? No. It suits every age. Young children learn through sorting, building and play; primary students through experiments and projects; older students through independent investigations, design challenges and enterprise projects.