Melvin L. Silberman

I had high expectations for Silberman’s Handbook of Experiential Learning, after regularly using his Active Training book as a textbook in my classes. While Silberman is an editor of this text, his ability to provide depth in his topics and his organizational abilities do not shine in this book.

The authors tend to write very broadly and theoretically, missing the goal of a book described as a handbook. Practitioners wishing to implement experiential learning in their development programs are likely to be left scratching their heads after reading this work. There is a lot of theory here, with little discussion of how to implement.

I was surprised to find no discussion of how to evaluate experiential programs, as that is likely one of the first places a learning professional would want to start when adding this powerful means of learning into their interventions.

I am still searching for a true handbook of experiential learning, though I strongly recommend you pick up Silberman’s Active Training, if you don’t already own it.… (more)