Approaching Experiential Learning as a Continuum

Experiential learning is learning by doing. One of my college professors used to say, “Tellin’ ain’t teachin’,” which emphasized the need for active engagement in learning. Experiential learning can also refer to specific pedagogies and sets of experiences for learning by doing, such as real-world learning in the form of internships and field work (particularly in high school and college).

After reflecting on past experiences that didn’t quite work out the way I hoped they would, I’ve started to think of experiential learning as a continuum. Rather than defining learning experiences as experiential or not, considering a continuum of characteristics allows me to reflect on how I can make any kind of learning more experiential. I can plan field trips that live up to all the hype and classroom experiences that are engaging and meaningful to each student.

This continuum is made up of 12 characteristics of experiential learning. Each one is evaluated on a scale with its opposite. While this is my own list of characteristics that I’ve found to be indicative of experiential learning, they are influenced by the work of experiential education leaders such as the Association for Experiential Education and the work of the PAST Foundation.  

Start With an Experience

Last fall, my school arranged an in-school concert by the Columbus Symphony Orchestra. This was by definition an experiential learning opportunity, as students experienced the performance of live music. Yet, we had to consider several important design elements to create a truly engaging and meaningful learning opportunity.

The experience itself was relatively passive; students sat and listened. The orchestra emcee added active elements—bringing students onstage to spin a wheel to determine the next piece, which got students moving and helped to narrate and guide their listening.

A valuable piece of this experience was the fact that it was broadened from a onetime event into a long-term learning opportunity. The orchestra supplied the repertoire list ahead of time, so I front-loaded information about the music selections and orchestra for months before the concert. There were also opportunities for follow-up and reflection after the event. The preparatory activities created many opportunities to engage more in interdisciplinary learning, which introduced history and literature concepts from the music.

While students couldn’t personalize the actual concert experience, they individualized their preparatory activities from an online menu of interactive apps, videos, and readings on Google Classroom. During the concert, students had different experiences based on their previous interactions with the selections. Although many of the characteristics of this experience were determined by the orchestra, using the continuum made it easy to select the characteristics that I (as the music teacher) wanted to focus on to create a worthwhile, experiential learning opportunity.

Gauge the Depth of Learning

In the previously mentioned activity, many educators would be able to identify ways that the learning opportunities could be even more experiential, which is why this is described as a continuum. In the Columbus Symphony example, students could have performed pieces they learned about, perhaps on instruments or singing for a real audience. The continuum creates a starting point rather than a box to just check off. This is especially useful for teachers to evaluate and improve learning experiences they use every year.

The effort-impact matrix, created by business leaders, is another way to identify the usefulness of certain activities. Tasks are plotted on an effort axis and an impact axis and sorted as high impact–high effort, high impact–low effort, low impact–low effort, and low impact–high effort. While teachers are sometimes willing to put in high effort for low impact, students don’t typically need the matrix exercise to determine that their effort will not yield enough impact to make it worthwhile. The effort-impact matrix complements the experiential learning continuum and helps teachers creatively determine how they might raise the impact of a learning opportunity to be proportional to the effort required from teachers and students.

Early in my career, I organized a studio recording trip—a relatively high-effort project—that required field trip details, students missing class, chaperones. And that was just on my end. Getting a high-quality recording is hard, concentrated work. Once we were in the studio, many students clearly didn’t feel the result was worth the effort.

Years later, I did another recording project with much better results. While I didn’t have the experiential learning continuum as a specific tool, I targeted many of these same characteristics in order to make the experience more impactful. The recording was a commissioned piece by a Kenyan composer that celebrated the fundraising and awareness work the entire grade had been doing for a health clinic in South Sudan. The recording, which included a video, was interdisciplinary—integrating the paintings that students had worked on with a South Sudanese guest artist. The video and recording were shown to the entire student body as part of the larger learning experience and lived on for years when the unit was revisited. Students rose to the challenge of recording not only their voices but also video segments.

Using Experiential Learning in Other Ways

Teachers can also turn something like class expectations into experiential learning. At the beginning of the year, I plan four learning opportunities around the four expectations in my class. One is “By working together, we can all learn more, accomplish more, and enjoy this experience more.” I always want something experiential that can be a memorable example for students all year long. Focusing on the characteristics in the experiential learning continuum easily defines and narrows what the learning experience will look like.

I chose a circle jumping pattern activity for an active demonstration of this teamwork concept. Students jump back and forth on hoops and need to work together to avoid running into each other. To make the learning more applicable, I use a song that the Columbus Jazz Arts Group will be playing for their visit to our school later in the fall. Doing this also opens the door to interdisciplinary learning about the piece. I’ll be recording student performances so that classes can learn from each other, providing an authentic audience.

Once I begin to make choices about a learning activity, using the experiential learning continuum makes many of the details easy to fill out to create an engaging and meaningful experience for each student.