How Do You Use Experiential Learning to Bridge the Classroom and the Real World?

Abstract

Historically, a liberal arts education was thought to “liberate” students from the narrow perspective of experiential learning. Paradoxically, experiential learning is increasingly being used to broaden a liberal arts education. This chapter provides a discussion on three signature experiential learning practices, and suggests these practices can be implemented across disciplines to enrich the learning experience.

The Dialectics of Modernity and Tradition: A Decolonial Critique of the University’s Role in Shaping Social Consciousness

“…Universities can organize and promote community-based learning projects, wherein students and faculty collaborate with local communities on various initiatives. Such experiential learning enhances academic understanding and bridges the gap between academia and society, ensuring that the knowledge produced within the university walls has real-world applications (Beck et al, 2017).…”

The complexities of meaningful experiential learning: Exploring reflective practice in music performance studies

“…Experiential learning opportunities are designed to place learning within one’s lived experience and participation in the world (Wenger, 1998). These opportunities consist of systematic approaches that apply theory to practice (Beck et al, 2017). Experiential education both immerses learners in an experience and encourages reflection on the experience for the development of new ways of thinking, skills, or attitudes (Lewis & Williams, 1994).…”

Examining Physical Space, Leadership Inheritance, and “Authentic” Community Engagement through Co-Constructed Autoethnography

“…However, the meeting format discourages deep connection and collaboration between council members and guests. Although schools are often imagined as open-social systems, responding to environmental forces and composed of interdependent social components (Hoy & Miskel, 2013;Karmokar, 2019), K-12 schools and school curriculum are infamously understood to be separate from the real-world and real world learning (Beck et. al., 2017;Engel, 2019;Ghoshal, 2019;Wilhelm & Smith, 2002).…”