COURSE OUTCOMES

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING-SECONDARY I

(March 2017)

This course has been designed to provide students with the opportunity to explore a subject or project, reflect on their learning, and then communicate the relevance of the new knowledge gained through the experience to an audience. The subject and/or project will fall within one of these five themes: How the World Works, Service Learning, Past/Present/Future, Fine Arts, and Team Building. This course is influenced by Kolb’s Experiential Learning Model. Through focus questions, the students will be introduced and explore the four Experiential Learning steps of Concrete Experience, Reflective Observation, Abstract Conceptualization, and Active Experimentation.

Experiential Learning Focus Questions

  • What new experience or project is going to be explored? (Concrete Experience – a new experience or situation is encountered, or a reinterpretation and further exploration of existing experience)
  • How does the observed new knowledge of interesting/unique facts affect your knowledge? (Reflective Observation – an understanding of what is particularly important or unique from the personal interaction with the learning experience)
  • Based on Reflective Observation, what kind of plan or theory can be created from the new knowledge that benefits you or others in the future? (Abstract Conceptualization – reflection gives rise to a new idea or a modification of an existing abstract concept)
  • What personal or global issues will be solved with the new plan? (Active Experimentation – the learner applies new theory or plan to the world around them.)

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A critical component of this unit is to focus on communicating the findings from the Experiential Learning Focus Questions. The extensive and in-depth communication focus of the experiential activity qualifies this course as an English Language Arts and Writing course. All of the units are selective in order to allow the freedom and choice for QSI schools to decide when and where to add the Experiential Learning curriculum to the school year. The teacher will select an age-appropriate method of communicating the findings from the Experiential Learning Focus Questions and guide the student to identifying the best audience with whom to share the new knowledge.

The Experiential Learning unit will require large blocks of time for students to complete the in-depth study. Various class schedules can include, but are not limited to, periodically scheduling full school days, identified series of weekends, or a scheduled week from school in order to complete the subject/project. It is recommended that no more than one Experiential Learning unit is completed in a school year.

Selective Units:

S01 – How the World Works: Math/Science

S02 – Service Learning

S03 – Past, Present, Future: Cultural Studies/History

S04 – Fine Arts

S05 – Team Building

Suggested Materials and Resources

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