Tell your students why you teach the way you do!

Students appreciate understanding how you are teaching them. While conducting my dissertation research into experiential learning, the data revealed two important issues:

1. Virtually no student that I interviewed had been told by their instructor why they were being taught using the instructor's methods. I had interviewed a total of nine students from three departments; Communication, Psychology, and Sociology.
2. Only one instructor demonstrated awareness of their teaching methods as pedagogies. I had interviewed a total of eight instructors from three departments; Communication, Psychology, and Sociology, as well as a General Education History instructor.

When I asked them about experiential learning, all nine students provided vivid examples of instruction that they considered experiential. All of the students found strong positive value in these experiences. What is supposedly not experiential learning? Lectures. However, two students found specific lectures to be experiential and valuable, and both explained in detail why they felt this way.

Sudents engaged in team-based project-based semester long projects at the University at Buffalo in Singapore. Photo by Paul McAfee.

Here is a definition from the Association for Experiential Education that is broad enough to encompass the many examples of experiential learning found in my dissertation research:

Experiential education is a philosophy and methodology in which educators purposely engage learners in direct experience and focused reflection in order to increase knowledge, develop skills and clarify values (What is Experiential Education, 2022).

I personally have found that talking to the students about our learning methods at the start of the semester helps them engage with their projects. Some experiential learning methods, especially semester-long project-based learning, expose the students to ambiguity and uncertainty. Many students are unfamiliar with these feelings, but they adapt more quickly when we include discussion of the benefits of project-based, team-based, learning. The students express their appreciation of being involved in how they are being taught in the end-of-semester course evaluations.

During the student interviews, I asked each student to define experiential learning. Here is a graphic showing their key concepts on a model developed by Bergsteiner et al. (2010) that is based on the Kolb (2015) Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) model.

Student definitions of experiential learning in the Kolb Experiential Learning Theory model, adapted by Bergsteiner et al. (2010).

#ExperientialLearning #ProjectBasedLearning #ProblemBasedLearning #TeamBasedLearning #UniversityAtBuffalo

References

Bergsteiner, H., Avery, G. C., & Neumann, R. (2010). Kolb's experiential learning model: critique from a modelling perspective. Studies in Continuing Education, 32(1), 29-46. https://doi.org/10.1080/01580370903534355 

Kolb, D. A. (2015). Experiential learning: experience as the source of learning and development (Second ed.). Pearson Education, Inc. (1984)

What is Experiential Education. (2022). Association for Experiential Education. Retrieved 1/5/2022 from https://www.aee.org/what-is-experiential-education.