Experiential learning — Dewey and Kolb

Dewey's foundational insight — that we do not learn from experience but from reflection on experience — was formalized by Kolb into the experiential learning cycle: concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation. Without the reflective step, experience accumulates without generating understanding; with it, even failure becomes generative. The Sutric emphasis on svādhyāya (self-study, disciplined reflection on one's own experience) is experiential learning applied not to skills but to the study of consciousness itself.