‘Experience is the best teacher’, as the old adage goes, highlighting the capacity of day-to-day experiences to offer incidental teachable moments. Travel, creative pursuits and on-the-job training – opportunities for learning are, in fact, everywhere. Recognising this wisdom, learning from experience has developed into an educational framework used widely across different teaching and learning contexts.
Experiential learning, as a pedagogical approach that bridges theory and practice, originated in the 1960s. Initially associated with challenging traditional teaching methods in schools, it soon became the focus of adult educators (Fenwick 2001). Since then, experiential learning has grown into an umbrella term encompassing various practices and utilities, ranging from accreditation of work experience and off-campus activities to foundational curriculum principles and classroom instruction techniques (Warner Weil and McGill 1993).
In addition to diverse applications, a full spectrum of theoretical traditions has contributed to shaping priorities of experiential learning, spanning self-actualisation, unconscious dimensions to social transformation and situated cognition (Fenwick 2001). Although critiqued for their heavy reliance on reflection and the insufficient attention to the context of experience, constructivist approaches grounded in the experience-reflection-learning cycle remain most common (Meyer 2024). These approaches emphasise learning through hands-on experience, real-world relevance, progressive development of knowledge, observation and reflection, which, in turn, facilitate learning through transformation of experience and integration of theory and practice.
Experiential Learning Varieties
In Higher Education, integration of theory into practice is often associated with off-campus activities and the development of employability skills through internships and industry projects. This overlooks the experiential possibilities of classroom-based activities and real-world applications beyond workplace tasks. Building on William James’s radical empiricism, Kolb (2014, xxiii) redefines the boundaries of experience and explains that, if certain conditions are met, even a classroom lecture can facilitate a concrete experience. To that end, experiences can be big or small, real or simulated with experiential learning designs ranging from small-scale classroom activities to whole program undertakings (Joplin 1981). The scope and flexibility of experience as a category also show that while hands-on learning can help develop employability skills, the applications of experiential learning are far broader.
In Humanities and Social Sciences, in particular, experiential learning is an opportunity to cultivate critical thinkers, engaged citizens and proactive members of community. For instance, Brunet et al. (2020) employ a capability approach, incorporating critical thinking, empathy and active citizenship as a framework for experiential learning. This moves experiential learning away from market outcomes and instead positions it as a tool that builds students’ capabilities to respond to the present-day challenges.
Showcases
These showcases provide inspiring examples of classroom-based experiential learning activities across the Faculty of Arts. They include simulations, project-based learning and virtual reality experiences. The showcase videos were produced by Master of International Journalism students, Haoyu Pang, Hannah Fan, Alaia Zhao and Yuxuan Liu, who undertook their capstone internships at the Arts Teaching Innovation.
Glossary
To capture the diversity in scale and outcomes, the glossary below, though not exhaustive, defines several common experiential learning approaches and highlights their overlaps.
-
Work Integrated Learning (WIL) is a broad category of experiential learning with the specific emphasis on development of workplace and employability skills. It recognises workplaces as distinct learning environments and offers students guided opportunities to transfer their theoretical knowledge to the practice of work (Patrick et al. 2008). In Australian universities for activities to be classified as WIL, they must engage students in the practice of work through placements, industry projects, fieldwork, or authentic simulations (Universities Australia 2019). To that end, the University of Melbourne considers curriculum-based WIL activities to be experiences of work that integrate theory into practice and involve engagement with industry and community partners or other authentic activities (the University’s WIL criteria are available on Staff Hub).
-
Community-Based Learning and Service-Learning are overlapping and closely linked learning approaches. These forms of experiential learning, include volunteering and placements that integrate community engagement and partnerships with critical reflection (Brown 2024). While these activities are likely to also qualify as WIL, Community-Based and Service Learning have a distinct purpose of meeting community needs. Their focus is social responsibility and social justice. Unlike WIL, Community-Based and Service Learning seek to disrupt structural social forces and inequities (Brown 2024). Through a close engagement with community dynamics, students are prompted to apply critical thinking in connecting on-the-ground community issues with structural forces.
Example
Stories from the Flood was a community literacy project in southwestern Wisconsin, initiated by a local organisation in response to severe floods and their catastrophic consequences (Gottschalk Druschke et al. 2022). The project gave the flood-devastated community a platform to tell their stories as a form of healing. In this endeavour, community members were supported by university students, who participated in community-based story gathering and used the project archive to design flood-related interventions as part of their university assignments.
-
Place-Based Learning grounds learning in students’ first-hand encounters with local places and phenomena (Knapp 2005). Originating in environmental education, it has since grown into a critical tradition that explores the intersection of cultures and ecosystems through a conduit of a physical place. Students are prompted to see physical spaces as multi-layered, encompassing perceptual, sociological, political, and ideological dimensions (Gruenewald 2003). Applying these different approaches encourages students to meaningfully connect with local places through taking localised social action.
Example
Learning from Country in the City is a teaching and learning approach integrated into a pre-service teacher training at one of Sydney’s universities. It challenges the common stereotypes that ‘authentic’ Aboriginal cultures are found only in remote locations. Through cultural tours of local urban places led by community-based educators, students learn from Aboriginal peoples’ narratives of place and experience familiar urban spaces as Country – land as a living entity (Thorpe et al. 2021). In the context of pre-service teacher education, the program shapes an Aboriginal curriculum narrative of these future teachers (Burgess et al. 2022). But, similar experiences could be designed – and embedded in Arts subjects – with the emphasis on policy, political processes, social change, cultural issues and history.
-
Role plays invite students to assume different roles in acting out scenarios. Used extensively in language teaching, they are also great for exploring different perspectives in policy studies, international relations, history and other disciplines. For example, role plays in history teaching allows students to see an historical event from a particular vantage point and experience the complexities and subjectivities of history by negotiating their perspective with others. These do not have to be made up conversations among significant historical figures, instead ordinary people’s oral history accounts can form the basis of role-play activities.
Example
Stevens (2015) teaches the Partition of India by getting students to take the perspective of an oral history narrator who experienced these tumultuous events as a person of a particular religious and ethnic group. Students are assigned different oral history accounts, given time to familiarise themselves with their narratives and paired up to role play a conversation in which each student explains their story and the event of the partition from their perspective before swapping the role play partner and engaging in another perspective. Social science disciplines could similarly employ oral history and other interview-based research to involve students in role plays as a way of negotiating sensitive social, political and cultural topics with respect and empathy for different viewpoints.
-
Simulations extend role-play activities by involving students in scenario-based representations of real-life situations. As an effective alternative to real-life situations, simulations facilitate scenario-based environments for students to act on their theoretical knowledge, practise their skills and experiment. The responsibility for the outcomes is put in the hands of students (Vlachopoulos and Makri 2017, 16). Mock trials, international negotiations, community consultations are a few examples of simulation scenarios relevant to Arts disciplines.
Example
Simulation games like deciding the next day’s front page can let media and communications students in on complex media ecosystems, develop their news media literacy and experience the decision-making process involved in the production of news (Gross 2020). In Gross’s activity design (2020), students act as section editors pitching their stories to the editor-in-chief, who is concerned with both newsworthiness and profit. The editor-in-chief acts in line with their newspaper’s agenda and target readership. Aware of these factors, the section editors pitch their stories accordingly.
-
Problem-based approaches organise curriculum around carefully crafted problems and embed learning into a meaningful task. Students learn through an experience of solving a real-world problem (Hmelo-Silver 2004). While structured, problem-based learning also offers students opportunities to collaborate and develop self-directed learning skills (Wurdinger and Carlson 2010). Examples of possible authentic problems in Arts disciplines include effects of social media on youth cultures, preservation of recently discovered cultural artifacts or an international crisis. It is important that the problems are appropriately defined and scoped, allow for multiple perspectives and are tailored to the students’ level of skills and the subject’s learning outcomes. Problem-based learning can vary in scale from a tutorial activity structured around a specific case study with limited solutions to a complete subject design, where concepts and theories emerge from student-led research and solution development.
Example
Large-scale problems, such as determining the most socially just welfare policy in a specific national context, can inform a scaffolded assessment design in Policy Studies and Political Science subjects, where students in small groups apply their existing theoretical knowledge to respond to the problem by moving through a combination of individual and group assignments, with each step representing a milestone (Berggren 2011). These progress steps usually entail a variation of problem definition, inventory of existing knowledge, brainstorming and information gathering, solution development, and presentation of findings.
-
Project-based learning empowers students to explore their interests through a creation of a project. It engages students in a meaningful learning experience culminating in a project output. Project-based learning is broader in scope than problem-based learning and can get students to handle multiple problems. However, the two approaches can be combined, whereby project structure provides milestones while problem-based component gives them a problem-focused framework for theory building and iterative learning (Wiek et al. 2014). In Arts disciplines, projects can involve developing a policy proposal, curating an exhibition, and producing multimedia or text-based content.
Example
Amorati and Hajek (2021) employed an innovative project-based approach in an advanced Italian language subject where students applied their linguistic skills to write an illustrated children’s short story. Students worked largely independently with opportunities provided to practise their creative writing and receive feedback (Amorati and Hajek 2021).
Designing Experiences for Learning
With such a diversity of methods, how to choose what would work in your context and design experiences that lead to learning? David Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory is one of the most influential approaches to learning from experience. Building on the experience-reflection-learning cycle, Kolb explains experiential learning as a learner-centred cyclical process in which knowledge is constructed through a transformation of experience. Kolb’s theory (2014) integrates four adaptive modes: concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation and active experimentation. These four modes are dialectically positioned. Concrete experience and abstract conceptualisation, along with reflective observation and active experimentation, are two pairs of dialectically opposed adaptive orientations. The tension between concrete experience and abstract conceptualisation represents the taking hold of experience, while the dialectic of reflective observation and active experimentation expresses transformation. The interactions and resolutions between these modes and their dialectical pairs form the structural foundation of the model and the process of learning, but what does this mean in practice?
Kolb (2014, 69) explains the prehension dimension – the dialectic of apprehension and comprehension – by instructing his readers to pause and sense their surroundings through sight, sound and touch. Feeling the chair’s support, facing the glare of the computer screen and hearing the background sounds are all immediate experiences. To Kolb, this immediate grasp of experience is apprehension – the reality as perceived instantly without the need for symbolic meanings, concepts or categories. However, to convey this form of reality to others we immediately reach for words, which order our concrete experiences through symbols and concepts. We might, for example, describe the chair as comfortable by noting its material. Words, though arbitrary, afford comprehension – the grasping of experience so that it can be preserved and shared.
Both apprehension and comprehension can lead to transformation. Returning to the example of reading, close engagement with a text can transport a reader to a different place, spark their imagination or challenge their views. These experiences brought about by reading can prompt transformative action. For example, encountering a challenging idea on a page can lead to exploration, which extends the experience of reading into conversations with others and further research, potentially altering the person’s views in the process. In other situations, the action may not be immediately available, but the experience can still be transformed through reflection and the intention to act in the future. Above all, neither taking hold of experience nor transforming it facilitates learning independently. For transformation to be possible, there must be something to transform. Likewise, simply perceiving an experience does not lead to learning unless the experience prompts action.
To that end, the question for educators is not only how to create experiences but also how to prompt their transformative potential. This is where John Dewey’s notion of interaction can be instructive. Dewey (1938/2015) highlighted interaction as the necessary criterion of experience, meaning that for experience to occur, a learner must interact with its conditions. While each learner enters the learning environment with a different set of attributes, prior experience and knowledge, it is up to the educator to shape these conditions through instruction, class set-up, and learning resources and tools (Dewey 1938/2015, 45). For experiential learning to occur, experiences need to be designed with the latitude for student-driven transformation.
When designing your next experiential learning activity, consider suitable learning outcomes and align them with the structure of experience and assessment. Follow the steps below to guide the design process.
Identify Learning Outcomes
While experiential learning introduces an element of unpredictability in what can be learned, its capacity for the integration of theory into practice dictates relational learning outcomes. These include application of skills and theory, analysis of information, evaluative judgement, and development of new ideas through synthesis. In other words, experiential learning develops students’ functioning knowledge – the type of knowledge that informs action (Biggs et al. 2022). For example, media students can be tasked with designing a media campaign to raise awareness of a social issue. This type of problem-based project work will give students a chance to apply their theoretical knowledge in determining the scope and vision of the campaign and creating content.
Design an Experience
To design an experience for learning, first determine what type of activity is best suited for your context. In a classroom setting, this could be role-plays, simulations, in-character debates and discussions, Virtual Reality experiences, project-based work, or problem-based learning. To determine what is suitable for your students, consider the purpose of the activity. What competencies is this activity intended to develop and what intended learning outcomes are students being scaffolded towards? Then, consider the context and materials you have available. For example, in policy studies analysis of competing interests can be facilitated via simulations where students take the roles of different stakeholders. Past or current policy debates can be used to develop simulation scenarios.
Prompt Transformation
For learning to occur, experience alone is not sufficient; it needs to be transformed. Consider how you can prompt this transformation. For example, you can adopt Schön’s method (1991) of reflection-in-action, where tacit knowledge is used to reflect on actions as they are being taken. This means incorporating reflection breaks into the activity design. For example, silent reflection breaks during a simulation can give students the opportunity to consider the actions they have taken and plan their next steps.
Assess Learning
Interventions, like reflection breaks described above, can shape the process of learning and its outcomes while also offering opportunities for formative assessment and feedback. More generally, assessment in experiential learning ranges from direct observation of students’ engagement in an activity, such as observing students’ participation in a simulation, to authentic outputs, like blogs, portfolios and multimedia resources. While assessment in experiential learning can be particularly challenging, due to unintended outcomes of learning from experience, it is also a critical feature of the learning process that shapes, intensifies – and can help students to fully appreciate – experiential encounters (Chan 2022). Alignment with intended outcomes remains important. Thus, the design of experiences and assessed interventions must aid the development of functioning knowledge and competencies you want to see in your students. For example, a semester-long writing project can be scaffolded through a set of project milestones with a focus on different skills. Students can first analyse the works of others before generating their own ideas and outputs. The development of evaluative judgment can also form part of the process through self-assessment and peer review exercises.
Interested in learning more or would like to design an experiential learning activity for your students? Please get in touch with Arts Teaching Innovation.
References
Amorati, R., & Hajek, J. (2021). Fostering Motivation and Creativity through Self-Publishing as Project-Based Learning in the Italian L2 Classroom. Foreign Language Annals, 54 (4), 1003–1026.
Berggren, H. M. (2011). Problem-Based Learning and Improved Learning Outcomes in “The Politics of Welfare Reform.” Journal of Political Science Education, 7(4), 434–453.
Biggs, J. B., Tang, C. & Kennedy, G. (2022). Teaching for quality learning at university. Open University Press.
Brown, S. M. (2024). Community-Engaged Field Trips: An Accessible Technique for Community-Based Learning in an Era of Education Austerity. Sociological Focus, 57(1), 51–56.
Brunet, T. A., Shaban, H., & Gonçalves, S. (2020). The Capability Approach: A proposed framework for experiential learning in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. 2020 HDCA Conference.
Burgess, C., Thorpe, K., Egan, S., & Harwood, V. (2022). Learning from Country to conceptualise what an Aboriginal curriculum narrative might look like in education. Curriculum Perspectives, 42(2), 157.
Chan, C. K. Y. (2022). Assessment for Experiential Learning. Routledge.
Dewey, J. (1938/2015). Experience and Education. Free Press.
Fenwick, T. J. (2001, January 1). Experiential Learning: A Theoretical Critique from Five Perspectives. Information Series No. 385.
Gottschalk Druschke, C., Dean, T., Higgins, M., Beaty, M., Henner, L., Hosemann, R., Meyer, J., Sellers, B., Widell, S., & Woser, T. (2022). Stories from the Flood: Promoting Healing and Fostering Policy Change Through Storytelling, Community Literacy, and Community-based Learning. Community Literacy Journal, 16(2), 107–120.
Gross, B. I. (2021). Setting the Agenda: A Simulation of Deciding Tomorrow’s Front-Page. Journal of Political Science Education, 17(1), 77–92.
Gruenewald, D. A. (2003). The Best of Both Worlds: A Critical Pedagogy of Place. Educational Researcher, 32(4), 3–12.
Hmelo-Silver, C. E. (2004). Problem-Based Learning: What and How Do Students Learn? Educational Psychology Review, 16(3), 235–266.
Joplin, L. (1981). On Defining Experiential Education. Journal of Experiential Education, 4(1), 17-20.
Kolb, D. A. (2014). Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. Pearson Education.
Knapp, C. E. (2005). The “I-Thou” Relationship, Place-Based Education, and Aldo Leopold. Journal of Experiential Education, 27(3), 277–285.
Meyer, J. (2024). Deciphering the Defining Features of Experiential Learning: A mix of personal experience and sustained scholarship suggests a new framing. Experiential Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, 7(1).
Patrick, C., Peach, D., Pocknee, C., Webb, F., Fletcher, M., & Pretto, G. (2008). The WIL report: a national scoping study [Final Report]. Queensland University of Technology.
Schön, D. A. (1991). The reflective practitioner: how professionals think in action. Basic Books.
Stevens, R. (2015). Role-Play and Student Engagement: Reflections from the Classroom. Teaching in Higher Education, 20(5), 481–492.
Thorpe, K., Burgess, C., & Egan, S. (2021). Aboriginal community-led preservice teacher education: learning from country in the city. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 46(1). https://doi.org/10.14221/ajte.202v46n1.4
Universities Australia (2019). Work Integrated Learning in universities: Final report.
Vlachopoulos, D., & Makri, A. (2017). The effect of games and simulations on higher education: A systematic literature review. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 14(1), 1–33.
Warner Weil, S. & McGill, I. (1993). A framework for making sense of experiential learning. In S. Warner Weil & I. McGill (Eds.) Making sense of experiential learning: Diversity in theory and practice (pp. 3–24). The Society for Research into Higher Education and Open University Press.
Wiek, A., Xiong, A., Brundiers, K., & van der Leeuw, S. (2014). Integrating problem- and project-based learning into sustainability programs: A case study on the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 15(4), 431–449.
Worthington, T. A. (2018). Letting Students Control Their Own Learning: Using Games, Role-Plays, and Simulations in Middle School U.S. History Classrooms. The Social Studies, 109(2), 136–150.
Wurdinger, S. D. & Carlson, J. A. (2010). Teaching for experiential learning: Five approaches that work. Rowman & Littlefield Education.