Background: Many universities in Canada offer experiential education (EE) opportunities for students that are both field-based and on-campus. Despite a commitment to EE, there is a paucity of information about various stakeholder perspectives of EE and the equity implications of the different approaches to EE. Furthermore, it is unclear how EE…

Background: Although the literature on education and learning sciences determined how student identities influence their experiential learning process, this link is less clear in the agricultural context, where farmers have faced unique value chain challenges i.e., production to marketing. Purpose: This study contributes to examining how farmers'…

Background: Experiential learning approaches applied in classrooms are often disconnected from theory and loosely connected in classroom practice. Given critiques of experiential learning, there is a significant need for process learning theory with a practice-driven model. Scholars have only begun to explore the enhanced learning that often…

Background: Case study is widely used in teaching and learning literature; however, the extant literature contains few examples of student-developed case studies. This study used the situated perspective of experiential education (EE) to highlight context and legitimate peripheral participation encouraging enculturation into research communities…

This article introduces ways in which movement can enhance one's understanding of how to learn using Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) concepts of the Learning Cycle, Learning Styles, and Learning Flexibility. The theoretical correspondence between the dialectic dimensions of the Learning Cycle and the dimensions of the Laban Movement Analysis…

This paper explores the meaning Norwegian sea kayakers form in their engagement with nature and their reflections upon uncertainty and resistance. Findings in this paper stem from ethnographic fieldwork conducted in a sea kayak community, with the aim of describing learning processes and experiences made outdoors by recreational sea kayakers. Sea…

A session that has a theme of outcomes of experiential programs in varied contexts is both exciting and pressing. The three studies in Session IV all addressed relevant issues to experiential programming and all the authors were faced with the empirical challenge of demonstrating how and/or if their programs achieve what they say they are going to…

According to prevailing models, experiential learning is by definition a stepwise process beginning with direct experience, followed by reflection, followed by learning. It has been argued, however, that stepwise models inadequately explain the holistic learning processes that are central to learning from experience, and that they lack scientific…

"Voluntourism" refers to the use of "discretionary time and income to travel out of the sphere of regular activity to assist others in need" (McGehee & Santos, 2005, p. 760). These experiences have been shown to raise consciousness and increase interest in activism (McGehee, 2002; Wearing, 2001) and to build pro-social…

Outdoor education researchers have accumulated a notable cache of work documenting the outcomes of participation in outdoor education programs (e.g., Hattie, Marsh, Neill, & Richards, 1997; Kaplan & Talbot, 1983). While continuing this work remains an important task, some researchers are turning their attention toward understanding the process of…

Emphasizing an holistic approach to learning and life ("put a book in your backpack"), this speech advocates Douglas Heath's maxim 'We hobble a gifted youth if his talent is not yoked to passion; we drown the passionate youth if his emotionality is not disciplined by intellectual skills.' (JC)

If an educational program provides a theory of learning (defining specific competencies), and if community subsystems are understood and used in conjunction with academics, and if other learning resources (persons, events, media, etc.) are identified and catalogued, then the "community" can function as a total learning resource. (Author/JC)

Our fascination with technology's ability to process information and the resulting glut of information gets in the way of attaining wisdom, the highest level of learning. Information technology may be useful in the administration of experiential education, but is irrelevant to the most important levels of learning. An informationless outdoor…

The characteristics of fun are that it is relative, situational, voluntary, and natural. Fun can have a positive effect on the learning process by inviting intrinsic motivation, suspending one's social inhibitions, reducing stress, and creating a state of relaxed alertness. Includes summary of questionnaire responses from 20 experiential education…

Metaphors are guiding images that influence one's approach to problem solving. Experiential learning is a process of metaphor change; the task of educators is to facilitate development of new metaphors that generate new potential when old metaphors don't work. Discusses stages of metaphor development, creating an open learning space, and…