Transforming Classrooms: The Dynamic Intersection of Experiential Learning, IKS, and CBL
Across centuries, Indian education stood not just for transmission of knowledge but for the transformation of the self. It was never limited to the mastery of content, but extended to the cultivation of character, clarity, and consciousness. Today, as we navigate an increasingly unpredictable world, there is a growing need to return to that timeless vision—where learning becomes meaningful, rooted, and holistic.
The National Education Policy 2020 offers us that opportunity. At its core lies a powerful convergence: Experiential Learning, Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS), and Competency-Based Learning (CBL). Together, they form what can be called the Golden Triangle of Transformative Education—a triad that connects the learner to life, identity, and purpose.
This is not an educational trend. It is a philosophical shift. One that empowers learners not just to know more, but to become more.
Experiential Learning: Learning Through Living
Learning that is memorable is rarely confined to a textbook. It lives in a child’s eyes as they grow a plant, in their voice as they debate a real-world issue, or in their hands as they build, create, and explore.
Experiential learning recognizes that true understanding comes from doing—from reflecting, engaging, questioning, and applying. It moves away from passive reception toward active participation. Every environment becomes a classroom; every experience, a teacher.
Interestingly, this isn’t new to India. Our ancient education systems emphasized lived experience. Whether through shramdaan, observation of natural cycles, or oral storytelling, knowledge was internalized through action, reflection, and immersion.
In embracing experiential learning today, we are not importing a pedagogical innovation—we are remembering a wisdom tradition.
Indian Knowledge Systems: Rooted in Identity, Radiating Insight
What makes learning meaningful is not just what we learn, but where it comes from and what it connects us to. Indian Knowledge Systems are not a subject to be studied—they are a lens through which to see the world.
Rooted in harmony, sustainability, inquiry, and ethics, IKS offers contextual, interdisciplinary, and value-based knowledge. The Panchakosha framework of holistic development, the logical precision of Nyaya, the environmental foresight of the Vedas, and the health science of Ayurveda—these are not fragments of the past, but frameworks for the future.
When students engage with IKS, they develop more than academic competence—they build cultural confidence. They begin to see themselves as part of a larger, living tradition. They learn that India is not just a country of ancient achievements, but a cradle of continuing relevance.
This rootedness doesn’t close minds—it opens them to the possibility of blending tradition with innovation, and the local with the global.
Competency-Based Learning: From Knowing to Becoming
We often mistake coverage for comprehension, grades for growth. But learning is not a checklist—it’s a continuum. Competency-Based Learning reimagines assessment as a tool not of judgment, but of growth and mastery.
CBL asks: Can the learner apply what they’ve understood? Can they transfer knowledge across contexts? Can they think critically, solve problems, and collaborate with purpose?
Here, learning is personalized, flexible, and skill-oriented. Students progress not by age or time, but by readiness and demonstration of understanding. Reflection, peer feedback, and formative assessments take center stage.
This aligns beautifully with both IKS and experiential learning. IKS gives learning its ethical and cultural grounding. Experiential methods give it breath and movement. And CBL ensures that this learning is deep, visible, and lifelong.
The Golden Triangle: A Vision for Wholeness
Imagine a learning experience where a child explores water conservation by building a rainwater harvesting model (experiential), studies traditional water systems like baolis and stepwells (IKS), and demonstrates their understanding by presenting a sustainable solution to a real community (CBL).
This is not just education. This is transformation.
The synergy between these three elements creates learning that is not fragmented, but integrated—where the head, heart, and hand work together. It fosters learners who are capable, conscious, and connected—to themselves, to their culture, and to the world.
Toward an Education of the Soul
At its deepest level, education in India was always about becoming. Not becoming an employee or an exam-topper, but becoming a balanced, ethical, and self-aware human being.
The triad of Experiential Learning, IKS, and CBL is not just a pedagogical approach. It is a return to that sacred aspiration.
It gives us a language to shape education that is joyful, grounded, and future-ready. It invites us to restore dignity to the process of learning and to the learner themselves.
And perhaps, most importantly, it reminds us that when we learn through experience, grounded in heritage, and guided by competencies—we do not just learn to live; we learn to live well
