This special issue of the Journal of Experiential Education comes at a particularly salient time in the history of higher education. As the sector experiences what many have called the "great disruption" brought about by a host of interrelated factors including the global economic recession of 2008, rising income inequality, rapidly shifting demographics, and the changes associated with the Internet age, colleges and universities around the world have scrambled to respond. One such response has been an increasing emphasis on experiential education.Experiential education, or perhaps more accurately experiential learning in this context, works well as both an institutional and pedagogical response for a variety of reasons. First, from an institutional standpoint, the emphasis on developing "real world skills" through hands-on and applied learning helps counter the persistent critique that colleges and universities do not prepare students adequately for the world of work and provides, in theory, a demonstrable return on investment for that expensive degree. Second, institutions are finding that certain kinds of experiential work, such as community-based learning, serve as public exemplars of the educational mission while providing good public relations with local, state, and regional stakeholders. Finally, as colleges and universities across the United States and in many other parts of the world continue to compete for students and their tuition revenue, innovative experiential programs can help differentiate institutions in a very crowded marketplace.But beyond the perhaps cynical and market-based viewpoint of the institution, there are also sound pedagogical reasons for the rise in experiential approaches. George Kuh's (2008) influential research on High Impact Practices demonstrates that many experiential applications such as study abroad, service learning, project-based learning, and internships have significant impact on students' overall success in school. In addition, the Gallup-Purdue Index Report (2014) study found several key experiential factors contributed to postgraduate success and workplace engagement including experiences where students could apply learning outside the classroom, active involvement in extracurricular activities, and project work that took more than a semester to complete. And, according to a 2016 National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) survey, attributes employers most seek in job applicants include leadership, the ability to work in a team, communication, and problem-solving skills-all attributes developed through well-designed, effective experiential learning environments.

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This article considers several variations of experience within the intersecting fields of outdoor, environmental, and experiential education. I argue that, to date, too little work has been undertaken interrogating the theoretical and philosophical use of the term “experiential.” This has resulted in a relatively homogeneous and simple construction of the role of experience in education that misrepresents both the complexity and the level of contestation in the discourse. In an attempt to begin to address this problem, I propose three variations of experiential education: experience as interaction, embodied experience, and experience as praxis. Each of the three variations is discussed in terms of their defining characteristics and the promises and challenges of their various constructions of experience. I argue further that each of these variations are threatened by the rise of a fourth variation, what I term neo-experiential education, which neatly combines market logics of efficiency, standardization, and control. I conclude with a call for more theoretical and philosophical work in this area.

The current position of the field of experiential education within mainstream education places at a premium attempts to significantly broaden and deepen experiential pedagogy beyond mere “learning by doing.” This article will explore one such attempt—the Brain Compatible Approach—and its potential linkages with experiential education. An overview of the Brain Compatible Approach will be outlined, followed by a discussion of several key principles. Linkages between these principles and experiential education will be discussed, as well as several “Quick Tips” on possible practical applications of the research. Finally, the benefits of aligning experiential education with the Brain Compatible Approach will be explored.