This paper identifies five types of learning experiences which are relevant to understanding students' grasp of concepts and principles. These include exploring existing concepts, honing and clustering concepts, developing analytical and reasoning skills, developing problem solving skills, and structuring knowledge in memory. Each of these learning experiences is presented with research results and some of the instructional methods and classroom techniques identified for a rich learning environment. Changes in teaching approaches require new roles for both teachers and students. This paper suggests a way for teachers to model for students and presents a student-centered process for learners to extract knowledge from experience. (Contains 49 references.) (YDS)