The first phase is about motivating participants of the workshop and showing the importance of the subject for the participants. Let the participants know you and each other and communicate with the participants about “why” this topic is useful, relevant and important for them. If you have enough time you can collect the expectations from the group on the topic: on what brought them here and what they are willing to learn, know, or share. This could help you to make the workshop more inclusive and ensure active participation. If the willingness to learn has been awakened, the participants are motivated and they will set their own personal learning goals for the workshop. 

Suitable methods are: name games/getting to know each other, collection of expectations for the workshop, activating exercises, short presentation of the topic, its usefulness and relevance, task, short discussion/brainstorm with the group about where it is possible to use the topic, videos etc.

In this phase information is conveyed, or the first discussion of the topic takes place. In this phase you share your knowledge and know-how with the participants. If relevant, participants can also share their knowledge or prior experience. 

Suitable methods are: your presentation, sharing prior experiences of participants in small groups and presenting in the whole group, preparation of content in group / peer/ or individual work etc.

Practice and learning from actual experience makes people experts. If you only get information about how to conduct a good presentation, you can not necessarily deliver a successful presentation. It takes practice to turn the acquired knowledge into skills that afterwards are used in everyday activities. This phase is the most learning-intensive part of the participants’ learning journey as it lets them to actively experience the provided knowledge with all their senses. In this stage participants learn from personal experience and most importantly – to learn by doing, not by theorizing. The activities in this stage require active involvement and participation of the participants, like cooperation, sharing functions, care for others etc. Keep in mind that this part should take enough time, the methods used to create actual experience are time consuming. 

Suitable methods in this phase: peer and group work, simulations, role plays, practical exercises, learning games, any form of in-depth discussion of the contents, problem solving tasks in couples or small group work etc.

It is frequently thought that the most important thing in experiential learning is various attractive exercises and activities which create experience, but reflection and conclusions about the relationship between acquired experience and life situation are crucial. Otherwise we would say that learning is in stagnation, i.e. there is no actual learning if there is no reflection of experience. 

A learning experience is successful if participants reflect on what happened during the exercises and activities, make conclusions and apply it in their situation and in their lives. 

In this phase the focus is on the reflection of the experience gained during the workshop and thinking on application of what has been learned in one’s own everyday life. 

Suitable methods in this phase can be: reflection and self-assessment activities, small group conversations about implementation / application, casework, drawing up plans or checklists for future, brainstorming on application in everyday life, evaluation of the workshop.