Experiential Learning

Experiential learning strategies enable students to interface academic learning with practical application. The “doing” component of learning actualizes the experience and demonstrates the relationship between body and mind. As John Dewey (1938) explains in “Experience and Education”

The idea of using the present simply to get ready for the future contradicts itself. It omits, and even shuts out, the very conditions by which a person can be prepared for his future. We always live at the time we live and not at some future time, and only by extracting at each present time the full meaning of each present experience are we prepared for doing the same thing in the future. This is the only preparation which in the long run amounts to anything.

United Emirates graduate, Nerys Loveridge, wrote her thesis on “Familiar Places and Inner Spaces: Integrative Learning in Context. Her experiential learning involved observations and interviews to ascertain local community structures.

Teresa Angeles (2009 Graduate), whose thesis title was “The Impact of Gardening on Adolescent Life Perspectives,” worked with a group of adolescents at the Auburn School District Community Garden in Seattle. Her experiential learning involved working with youth in the design, preparation and development of the garden. In addition to interviewing her subjects, she kept a photo and video journal of these experiences.

Experiential learning is a key element in the online Masters in Integrative Learning. The course of study establishes an educational context for the emerging social paradigm – one that evokes care for the planet and an understanding of how to bring about change. Through experiential learning activities students develop a personalized portfolio that represents the self-structured aspects of their studies.

If you enroll in this experiential learning M.Ed. you will participate with a community of learners from around the world.