What is experiential learning importance? What are the benefits of experiential learning? Why bother spending the time to learn a new teaching style?

I am often asked how to get colleagues on board with experiential learning. This is an important question. I taught at an experiential school for 10 years. It was tough when there was a staff member or two that didn't agree with or understand the experiential philosophy. 

Experiential learning is a profound and life-changing teaching strategy with a laundry list of benefits attached, but working with those that are resistant to the craft can be draining, leaving you with little choice but to keep on teaching in a way that you don't feel is effective for your students or fulfilling to you. 

So how can you work with those that are resistant to experiential learning? ​What can you do? What can you say?

What is experiential learning in the classroom, and what does an experiential learning classroom look like? Experiential learning can take place anywhere, including a classroom, and there are particular ways to make experiential learning in a classroom or homeschool learning environment more conducive than others.

What is experiential learning anyway? How is experiential learning defined? What does K12 classroom experiential learning look like? What are the characteristics of experiential learning? What are examples of experiential learning? What are experiential learning activities? Why is experiential learning important and what are the benefits? I get these questions a lot.

Most of the inquiries that I get from educators, however, are about how experiential learning can be worked into K12 curriculum. The good news is that it's a great learning tool for people of all learning environments, backgrounds, skill levels, and interests, and it's fairly easy to implement if you know the essential components. 

Blog Post: Why I Became an Experiential Learning Educator​

Interest-based learning is when students identify their interests and use those interests to drive and lead learning experiences. 

The purpose of designing learning experiences around interests is to encourage an intrinsic motivation to learn and inspire a passion for learning. This happens by tying learning experiences with topics and questions that are meaningful, relevant, and interesting to students. Personalize learning through interest-led project-based learning.