Saturday, 2 October 2021

Experiential learning for liberal arts programs!!

A few years ago I worked at a university in the Middle East and at that time the department (of English) was going through the 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 takes place in scientific disciplines or professionally oriented programs ( engineering, medicine). Yet, having that new 'intruding' paradigm into an unusual terrain ( liberal arts) was not easy. Courses that cannot integrate the experiential learning dimension are prone to extinction and maybe the closure of the unit ( literature, poetry, drama). I had a broad idea of how experiential learning could be applied in educational and training contexts such as translation, interpreting, business studies, engineering, and medicine. This is because, 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 disciplines above. 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, 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 experiential learning into their courses. Since what the university wants is the economic/social relevance of the courses or the program. I made some inquiries at the international level. I found a professor at one of the universities in Canada who published three articles about this innovative model of teaching 

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