We describe a whole person learning experiential/behavioral skill pedagogy developed in an executive skills course. The pedagogy was designed to address recent criticisms of MBA education relative to program relevancy and the skill sets of students entering the workforce. We present an experiential learning model based on the concept of whole person learning, discuss how the model is used in the class, and provide an empirical assessment of skill improvement over a 5-year period. Using a pre-posttest with control group design to test student skill levels by way of an assessment center, the effectiveness of the pedagogy was supported. The skills assessed included communication, teamwork, leadership/initiative, decision making, and planning/organizing. Guidance is provided for implementing the pedagogy into MBA curricula.

Experiential learning activities have been used for over 40 years with the hope that they increase students learning. However, a definitive study that showed their overall effectiveness has not been produced. The purpose of this study is to address this gap in the literature. This meta‐analysis examined a 43‐year span and identified 13,626 journal articles, dissertations, thesis articles, and conference proceedings written about experiential learning and found only 89 of these studies contained empirical data with both a treatment and control group. Meta‐analysis of these studies show that students experienced superior learning outcomes when experiential pedagogies were employed. Further, learning outcomes were almost a half standard deviation higher (d = .43) in classes employing experiential learning pedagogies versus traditional learning environments. This review definitively, and quantitatively, shows the importance of experiential learning activities. We use these results to discuss future research areas that need to be addressed based on our analysis of potential moderators and provide recommendations on how to best employ experiential learning pedagogies.

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We describe a whole person learning experiential/behavioral skill pedagogy developed in an executive skills course. The pedagogy was designed to address recent criticisms of MBA education relative to program relevancy and the skill sets of students entering the workforce. We present an experiential learning model based on the concept of whole person learning, discuss how the model is used in the class, and provide an empirical assessment of skill improvement over a 5-year period. Using a pre-posttest with control group design to test student skill levels by way of an assessment center, the effectiveness of the pedagogy was supported. The skills assessed included communication, teamwork, leadership/initiative, decision making, and planning/organizing. Guidance is provided for implementing the pedagogy into MBA curricula.