Lighting Their Fires through Experiential Learning

Irish poet and playwright William Butler Yeats, who won the Nobel prize for literature in 1923, said, is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire. This famous quote appeared in nearly 25,000 URLs when I searched for the quote using Google(TM) (September 10, 2005). The context in which that quote appeared on many of those URLs contained some reference to broadly defined. In fact, experiential is a widely-used term in many contexts and educational endeavors: Challenge courses, ropes courses, environmental education, service programs, wilderness and adventure programs, therapeutic and adaptive programs, or self-directed learning, constructivism, progressive education, unschooling, and many other terms are used often in conjunction with There are professional associations, societies, and consortia formed specifically to advance the use of experiential methods in educating ourselves; among these are the Association for Experiential Education (AEE), the National Society for Experiential Education (NSEE), and the International Consortium for Experiential Learning (ICEL). Similarly, there are journals devoted to the subject; an example is the Journal of Experiential Education. My point is simply that learning and are NOT unique to agricultural education. However, the momentum and popularity of experiential education methods in our society at large give credence, legitimacy, and even hope for a continuing reliance on the use of experiential in agricultural education. At the same time, however, I believe that we as agricultural educators must work hard to ensure that experiential education that employs problem-based in a local community-based context does not succumb to high stakes testing and standards-based curricula of the moment. We must remember (or learn) that happens independent of time (or time-on-task-if the task is defined independent of the learner), the presence of a teacher, or location. Too, real is always learner driven. Wendy Priesnitz, the editor of Life Learning Magazine, wrote that life ... involves living and learning-in and from the real world. It is about exploring, questioning, experimenting, making messes, taking risks without fear of ridicule, making mistakes, and trying again. Life does not involve memorized theory so much as it requires applying knowledge. And that often means moving around, talking, experimenting, thinking, jumping up and down... (http:/ /www.lifelearningmagazine.com/ understanding.html). Does this describe your classroom when your students are really engaged in problem solving, creative thinking, and inquiry-based and contextual learning? Yes, we know the basic tenets of experiential and teaching. Often, though, we may need to be reminded of them as we face increasing numbers of students in classes, students with fewer experiences in agriculture as we know it, and more demands on our time and talents from administrators and counselors and special education coordinators and parents and . . . What are some of the basic tenets and features that make experiential successful? Let's look at some that I believe are necessary as one sets out to embrace experiential education: Every child can learn, but not all children learn alike. We as agricultural educators have long known that different students learn differently. So, we realize that different approaches to teaching/learning are often required so that each and every student in a class learns. We deal with this reality on an individual case basis; for example, a student might not get a concept when we read from a book, but he or she understands it quickly when a picture or diagram is drawn. Other students may need to hear an idea expressed in words and then discuss it with classmates. …