Experiential learning for liberal arts programs!!

A couple of years ago I worked in a university in the Middle East and at that time the department ( olf English) was going through accreditation process. From what I heard the university or accreditors demanded from the literature or linguistics units to demonstrate how experiential learning could be applied in their courses. Faculty in the liberal arts had a real challenge to face by then. Usually experiential learning is taking place in scientific disciplines or professionally oriented programs ( engineering, medicine). Yet, having that new 'intruding' paradigm into an unusual terrain ( liberal arts) was not an easy thing. Courses which cannot intergrade the experiential learning dimension are prone for extinction, may be closure of the unit ( literature, poetry, drama).

I had a broad idea on how experiential learning could be applied in educational and  training contexts such as translation, interpreting, business studies, engineering including medicine. This is due to the fact that in addition to my experience with applied languages, I worked with peers during my doctoral studies in the research lab who were working on the aforementioned disciplines. At the end of the day, in education development studies we get the tools/techniques and then we collaborate with subject specific experts to get the job done and fulfilled. In a classroom or lecture theater, the context is typically confined to a fixed space and limited time. Beyond the classroom, learning can be acquired through  other sources like visiting a heritage site or museum, or being immersed in a good book....or being in the workplace itself.

My other colleagues teaching drama, poetry and literature were bewildered as to how to integrate the experiential learning in their courses. Since what the university wants is the economic/social relevance of the courses or the program. 

I made some inquiroes at the international level. I found a professor in one of the universities in Canada who published three articles about this innovative model of teaching drama nd poetry and her insights and model was really working. I suggested this to my colleague teaching literature who found it tough and hard to integrate, because even the pedagogical paradigm that the new model belong to, which is different from that he had been working on ( using lectures, exams, long talks, and student memorisation).

In my opinion what the university should have done first is organise training and development of sessions for faculty first ....and in these sessions focus will be on case studies or problem solving activities. Faculty / instructors are experts in their domain/content, when you provide them a case study they can reflect and adopt it if they seek innovating in their courses...those who are resistant will not go far. Here where not only content that matters but also pedagogy ( see Shulman model ' PCK' ( The Pedagogy and Content Knowledge) whereby not only the content expertise that matters ( having a PhD in X, Y, Z) or being an expert in using that tool or that software, but also the way to facilitate.

True that when developing such type of approaches in learning and teaching the professional practices should be placed in the first place: seek what skills, knowledge and abilities needed to get to a certain level of competency and performance. It is no more about content, but competency. This is a different paradigm as it need a change in the mindset of course and program developers and designers