Remember the engaging teacher who made learning come to life? Decades later the learning is still with you. We want this powerful retention for our students. We want learning to be deep and relevant…to transfer to new situations and empower our teens.
Listening to lectures and reading textbooks are passive, versus the active engagement of experiential learning. Experiential “learning by doing” trumps rote memorization. Why? Because experiential learning engages students in critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making in contexts that are personally relevant to them.
This approach to learning also involves making opportunities for debriefing and consolidation of ideas and skills through feedback, reflection, and the application of the ideas and skills to new situations. It sticks.
The United Nations (UNESCO) trains teachers across the planet in experiential learning. They see the processing and critical reflection of experiential education as “a key approach to student-centered learning for a sustainable future.”
LEADPrep’s Friday excursions, project-based learning, and international service learning trip are effective—and FUN—uses of experiential learning. Using flipped lessons, time is created for students to explore learning together at school. Experiential learning goes beyond new concepts, to include how to work together and open-ended possibilities that engage the imagination. If this middle/high school approach appeals to you, contact us today.
Experiential learning is critical in today’s world where attention spans have come down and learning sometimes is reduced to 140 characters!
