Implications from common themes underscore the need to redefine and expand the purposes of professional education and to consider experiential learning programmatically in relation to these purposes. Other implications relating to program design and to how we view and manage the process of learning are summarized. (Author/MLW)

Rigorous professional standards and review procedures, appropriateness of program goals and activities, and use of mutually reinforcing pedagogical strategies are seen as typical of experiential learning in established graduate education programs. Twelve programs using experiential learning in graduate and professional education are examined.…

The historic sources of graduate study in the United States, specifically the German influence, are examined, and the relationship of current experiential learning to past traditions of graduate study is discussed. Greater flexibility in the use of experience in graduate instruction and research is suggested. (MLW)

Developing basic competencies of the successful professional is seen as the purpose of professional education. The basic competencies of the applied behavioral scientist are described. The conditions and processes for developing competencies are discussed, emphasizing the need for multi-modal learning experiences and the development of the whole…

Evidence suggests that engineering education shares the same needs and objectives as other programs concerned for the career capabilities of their graduates, especially development of liberal arts abilities. Some programs in engineering that have made advances in addressing a broader array of outcomes including the liberal arts categories are…

Moving problem-centered, experiential programs into the mainstream of graduate and professional education will require more formal mechanisms for leadership. Students of graduate education programs that infuse the disciplinary study of academe with the applied perspective of professional practice gain broader contact with the problems of the…