Experiential Based Education


“Tell me, and I will forget. Show me, and I may remember. Involve me, and I will understand”
- Confucius, 450 B.C

Experiential based education develops knowledge through the philosophy of learning by doing. The very foundation of modern education in several ways was founded on the ideas and philosophies of men who believed that the experience itself is what inspires one to learn. From Confucius, to Plato to modern times of John Dewey, and Kurt Hahn pivotal points in the basis of this practice of experiential based education. Just as there are many modern practitioners of this practice there are many varying forms and believed best practices for the exploration of the inner mind by connecting our thoughts and learning process to hands on, or as I like to say, “Elbow Deep” learning. Within this paper I shall focus mainly on the teachings of John Dewey, Kurt Hahn (founder of outward bound as well as Salem schools) and Project Adventure. Exploring and attempting to create a greater sense of the infusion to modern teaching by tracing experiential education beginnings and formations, learning models or cycles, and practical application in structured and unstructured classroom settings.
The beginnings of experiential based education dates back to the early times of civilization. Learning where to find food, water, shelter through a trial and error process is the transition that brought humans from nomadic tribes to an agrarian society, later then turning society into a higher structure based learning system of student and teacher. Early in educations infancy strict and disciplined wall of teacher and student rose, birthing a classroom of the supreme knowledge, the teacher, and the open receptacle, the student. This system helped very few individuals learn and was in need of some evolution. Along came a man named John Dewy who would steer the antiquated education system to a new belief and foundation. The human brain is the most plastic of all animals, and human infants are the most helpless, because we come pre-wired to learn to adapt to our environment1. John Dewey receives much of the credit for being known as the modern father of experiential education. Asking question like, “Why do so many students hate school?” Dewey saw that in school the strict pre-ordained knowledge approach was too concerned with delivering knowledge and not enough with understanding students’ actual experience. The experiential based education experience is not completely free and student driven, as several of its opponents like to believe, Dewey as well as Kurt Hahn believed in teacher driven and assisting the students by guiding them as facilitators to the goal already determined for the lesson, claiming that students often do not know how to structure their own learning experience for maximum benefits2. Dewey is also quoted as saying, “Students need educational experiences which enable them to become valued, equal and responsible members of society.”3. For Dewey, the goal of education was to help people become more effective members of a democratic society. This belief was in obvious opposition of the early structured school house and the belief that children should be seen not heard. Dewey’s design was poised on the basis of a theory of experience. We must understand the nature of how humans have the experiences they do, in order to design effective education4. For example each individual experiences events in an internal system of past events therefore aiding the individual to predict future occurrences. Simply put if you had a bad experience as a child riding a horse, you are more than likely are not going to want to become a jockey. This experience was one that is connected with fear, embarrassments or frustration, like many children with poor or inexperienced teachers, feel when they are in school. In turn making learning and striving for life long knowledge something that is forced and as we all know nobody learns better or internalizes knowledge when forced upon them. Taking all these practical and theoretical ideas further is Kurt Hahn. Kurt Hahn’s beliefs began to surface in the 1930’s around the same time as Dewey. Hahn a Jewish man from Germany whose family fled during the second world war was disheartened by what he saw of modern youth and classified them as the six declines of modern youth; - Decline of Fitness due to modern methods of locomotion [moving about]; - Decline of Initiative and Enterprise due to the widespread disease of spectatoritis [preferring watching to participating]; - Decline of Memory and Imagination due to the confused restlessness of modern life; - Decline of Skill and Care due to the weakened tradition of craftsmanship; - Decline of Self-discipline due to the ever-present availability of stimulants and tranquilizers; - Decline of Compassion due to the unseemly haste with which modern life is conducted or as William Temple called “spiritual death”. 5 While Hahn saw these as declines he sought to find a solution, many believe that his German upbringing was a monumental influence on his philosophy. Hahn then found several schools based upon his four antidotes to the decline of modern youth; Fitness Training (e.g., to compete with one's self in physical fitness; in so doing, train the discipline and determination of the mind through the body), Expeditions (e.g., via sea or land, to engage in long, challenging endurance tasks), Projects (e.g., involving crafts and manual skills), Rescue Service (e.g., Surf Lifesaving, Firefighting, First Aid, etc).6. Hahn believed that by having any person a child or adult within a group all experience the same stimuli, the experience, and therefore learning can be guided by a well trained facilitator to help enhance the educational aspect as well as increase the desire and self-esteem in turn increasing knowledge base. Several successful programs have spun out of Hahn’s philosophies of experiential education perhaps one of them most well known being Outward Bound (www.outwardbound.org). The history of experiential education has had a profound and large impact in all the education systems around the world. Whether it is acknowledged or not mostly every educator will admit that students learn better by doing and being active participants within the educational process, than by just being open receptacles of knowledge spouted out like that of a water hose causing run off to an already soaked lawn.

The mediocre teacher tells.
The good teacher explains.
The superior teacher demonstrates.
The great teacher inspires.
- William A. Ward

Educators break down thoughts and ideas of the lessons being taught into smaller understandable or bite size chunks for the student to better grasp either complex or difficult cognitive ideas. Why break the learning down at all? Can an educator just present the information in an authoritarian voice and have confidence the student will receive the information, much like throwing a handful of chocolate chips at some cookie dough and making chocolate chip cookies?
By breaking down fuzzy processes (such as learning and baking) into distinct stages (like a 4-stage model), the idea is that we can better understand, test out, and make use of the main components7. Experiential education is just like other learning processes in the way that it is best taught and understood by the breaking down into stages. Experiential learning cycles treat the learner’s subjective experience as of critical importance in the learning process. Experiential learning cycles (ELC) draw on experiential education principles, which are largely based on the educational philosophy of John Dewey8. Several models of ELC are currently available ranging from a one step model to a six step model, just as with any new teaching model educators must research and find which one works best for which situation. In addition to the set models the great thing (my opinion) about experiential learning instruction is that you can pick and choose and adapt your styles to the already formatted models. It is the teacher’s responsibility to structure and organize (model) a series of experiences which positively influence each individual’s potential future experiences. Just as mentioned earlier good experiences motivate, encourage, and enable students to go on to have more valuable learning experiences , whereas, poor experiences tend to lead towards a student closing off from potential positive experiences in the future. ELC does not leave students descending into a completely unstructured learning environment. Much research has shown that student driven education has been attempted and was unsuccessful. A learner needs some amount of freedom to develop experience based understanding, in the same as students need some degree of guidance to receive the most of their educational setting. In ELC there is a semi-structured approach. There is relative freedom to go ahead in the activity and expertise for ones self and the educator also commits to structuring other stages, usually involving some form of planning or reflection, so that the experience is not kept in its raw form it is packaged with facilitated cognitive thinking about the experience. Length of time spent on the stages is all up to the facilitator and the group one can spend seconds to days reflecting and returning to the experience, however it is found to be most effective when reflection it done immediately following and experience. The model that is the most commonly used in education and training programs is the three stage model. The three stage model cuts right to the heart of experiential learning which is that the experience is what we learn from and a good facilitator or teacher guides the students to learn about themselves as well as the ability to internalize the lesson being taught. The three stage model comprises of do – review – plan.
DO
Go forth and have the experience
REVIEW
Review what happened and what can be learned
PLAN
Plan a way to tackle the next round of experience

The most direct application of this model is to ensure that the teaching activities give a full value to each stage of the process. This usually means that within a major task the facilitator will have to “chase” the learner round the cycle in a Socratic fashion asking questions to encourage reflection, conceptualism, and ways of testing ideas. This ELC model is by no means the only model possible or the best one the simplicity of the model itself lends much to the educator to plug in what is best for the group, as well as one must consider the group they are working with, the setting and overall goal of the experience. This process is one that is done by every human alive just internally, the ELC models assist in taking it a step further to help us leave our internal system and view our education as relationships to others and aid in raising self awareness.

In roughly the last century, important experiments have been launched by such charismatic educators as Maria Montessori, Rudolf Steiner, Shinichi Suzuki, John Dewey, and A. S. Neil. These approaches have enjoyed considerable success... Yet they have had relatively little impact on the mainstream of education throughout the contemporary world.
- Howard Gardner, The Disciplined Mind

Experiential learning is sometimes blown off by the over structured hierarchy of the educational system in some areas. Often times believed that it will lead to student based or led curriculum, and it has been proven that the romanticism philosophy on education does not prepare student for life practices in most cases. Although much like the evolution versus creation debate that lingers in the schools, both sides are blissfully ignorant of the other sides real practices and evidence. Experiential based education is not a child led free for all it is a highly structured and learning oriented way to help students and adults alike view themselves and their education as way to internalize success, through failures and successes, and learn a lesson that is structured by the facilitator. Today many corporations use “Team building practices” founded by Kurt Hahn and the Outward Bound organization to help their industry grow. Several schools now have high adventure courses and use low rope initiative to foster understanding and aid in the practical application of subjects like math and science, as well as history. What better way to learn about physical science for a young child than by actually practicing it. These ideas put forth by Dewey and Hahn were meant to not only teach students hardcore education curriculum, in addition to that they teach leadership, team building skills, group skills, and social interactions. Imagine within a physical education class you learn about hiking and backcountry skills in the Adirondack Mountains. While in History class you learn about the history and logging revenue of the Adirondack region, in science learning about food webs and pyramids of New York State. Then actually taking a class trip into the same area you were taught about. Several schools (being mostly private) are doing these things on smaller scales such as students creating mock courts to debate historical events, student led community projects. The more you think about the practical application of experiential based education in the classroom the more possibilities open up. Several teaching collages now speak of John Dewey and his impact on educational reform, and utilize a lot of his lessons into teaching curriculum, teachers whether conscience of it or not use some sort of experiential based education into their curriculum also. This system is all around us every day our brains are made to learn form experience.
Experiential based education teaches by the actual doing. Students learn more and are more receptive to instruction when they are able to see a practical application of knowledge. It is the job of teachers, camp counselors, corporate team builders, therapists, challenge course practitioners, environmental educators, guides, instructors, coaches, mental health professionals, and any one who teaches by direct experience to enrich the lives of the people you instruct. With current educational reforms such as the “no child left behind act” it will become increasing more important for American students, and educators to find ways to reach the children that are struggling with education. Experiential based education has the ability to do just that, to be effective the education experience must contain meaning, it is our job as educators to guide the public to that meaning!!