Kokemusperäinen

Kokemusperäinen is an adjective in Finnish that describes something grounded in experience rather than in theory. It refers to knowledge, methods, or evidence that arise from practical engagement, observation, or personal or collective events. The term is common in educational, organizational, and professional contexts to indicate that learning or practice is based on real-life experience.

In education, kokemusperäinen oppiminen, or experiential learning, emphasizes learning through concrete experiences, reflection, conceptualization, and experimentation, often framed by learning theories such as Kolb's cycle. In professional practice, the term is used to describe approaches, skills, or knowledge that develop through doing, apprenticeship, and case-based reasoning, as opposed to purely theoretical instruction.

In research and evaluation, kokemusperäinen lähestymistapa or kokemusperäinen tieto refers to evidence derived from fieldwork, case studies, user experiences, or practitioner observation. While such knowledge can be highly relevant and transferable, it may also be more subjective and context-dependent than results derived from controlled experiments, so it is typically complemented by systematic methods and theoretical framing.

Etymology: formed from kokemus (experience) and peräinen (based on). Related terms include kokemusperäisyys and kokemuksellinen, which share related nuances but are used in slightly different contexts.