Giving Compass' Take:

• Whittle School & Studios focuses its curriculum on experiential learning which has numerous benefits for students.  

• How accessible are experiential learning models for traditional public school systems? Is there a way to select parts of experiential learning without uprooting entire curricula?

•  Read about how project-based learning can connect with deep real-world impact. 

After 25 years of integrating computers into schools and mostly swapping printed for digital worksheets, the world of education is returning to the age-old wisdom of experiential education.

Opening in September in Washington and Shenzen China, Whittle School & Studios stresses learning by doing. Whittle Schools embrace six key outcomes: resilient individuals, self-aware beings, rigorous scholars, ethical citizens, creative buildings and intrepid explorers. Like other leading outcome frameworks (e.g., MyWays from NGLC, XQ Learner Goals), these goals can only be achieved with student-centered and experiential learning.

Experiential learning includes projects (extended multi-step challenges), maker activities, and place-based (community-connected) learning experiences. It may also include games, simulations, work-based and service learning.

There are five primary benefits of actively engaging learners:

  • Experiential learning is engaging and sticks. Powerful personal learning experiences engage learners where they are and build motivation. It connects what is learned to what is felt. It makes learning relevant and meaningful. It involves extended effort, mistakes, reflection, and refinement of strategies.
  •  Experiential learning is personal. Meeting each learner where they are and inviting them into learning experiences builds agency. Asking students to reflect on the experience builds metacognition.
  • Experiential learning is community-connected. Place-based learning uses the city as the classroom. It leverages local assets and partners in learning and connects local issues to global themes.
  • Experiential learning is integrated. With the chance to go deep, experiential learning is applied, relevant and integrated.
  • Experiential learning builds success skills. Extended challenges build project management and collaboration skills as well as Initiative and persistence.

Read the full article about experiential learning by Tom Vander Ark and Andy Meyers at Getting Smart