Navigating Disruption And Evolution Through Experiential Learning

What if learning experiences were focused on making a difference in the world? What if we invited in the opportunity for young people to take on the biggest challenges of our time? Learners focused on solving issues and making a difference in their local communities and globally are our best hope at getting things right in the future.

At ExL, we see the pandemic as an exceptional opportunity to shift the focus in schools from an obsession with test scores to recognize the importance and value of social emotional learning and service learning. The past year has been deeply challenging for all of us, but also offered profound learning opportunities for emotional self-management, conversation, collaboration, cooperation, teamwork, and the sharing of ideas through media. These are the tools by which students will create their future when your grade point average is long forgotten.

These selections from innovative and progressive learning thought leader, Tom Vander Ark & Emily Liebtag’s insightful and important new book, “Difference Making at the Heart of Learning: Students, Schools, and Communities Alive with Possibility” address the power of contribution and service and inspire, reflect and inform the mission, values and programs of ExL. 

Tom cites the importance of contribution and service embodied in a goal of “Difference Making” as empowering, enrolling, and enriching activities within a student’s personal, academic, local, and regional community. At ExL, we share these beliefs and vision and are proud to place Contribution and Service as a core value of all that we do. Here’s Tom and Emily:

CONTRIBUTION: “DIFFERENCE MAKING"

“Our first work is to connect, to create communities and schools where people feel a sense of belonging. We need to start with young people where they are, what they need, and what they care about. Through community-connected projects, young people connect with their strengths and interests, and they gain a sense that they can make a difference.

“What if learning experiences were focused on making a difference in the world? What if we invited in the opportunity for young people to take on the biggest challenges of our time? Learners focused on solving issues and making a difference in their local communities and globally are our best hope at getting things right in the future.

“Leaders must see purpose and belonging as being essential to learning experiences and their strategies if we want entire communities to be uplifted and to lead the way. Ground up “solutionaries” will make the most long-standing positive difference, not leaders who prioritize a test-score-driven agenda.

“We increase individual motivation and ultimately performance by placing students in a position to give, rather than receive, help. If we want to motivate kids, we should give them opportunities to help others” (Eskreis-Winkler, Milkman, Gromet, & Duckworth)

“Students need sustained mentors and relationships that support them in their academic, social, emotional, and physical well-being. If we want to be healed, especially those communities who have been oppressed and systematically left out, we must create connections and meet students where they are.

“Contribution is the innovation economy superpower. By taking on a complicated local problem and delivering value to a community, young people build agency and practice design thinking. It’s why Seth Godin frequently says that young people should learn to lead and solve interesting problems.

“Contribution requires personal leadership, strength of character, and an entrepreneurial mindset. It’s as much about problem finding as it is about problem-solving. Educational institutions have a new job of cultivating difference makers, not test takers. In an era where pedigree matters less than what you have.

“Schools have the new priority of helping youth develop a sense of purpose about their place in the world   and to support them in their initial contributions.

BUILDING CHARACTER AND COMMUNITY

“Contribution as not a new idea but a way of being in community that dates to the earliest years of our existence as a species. Leading with making a difference might be the way to change the world and that there is no better time to make a difference than now. The psychological, mental, and physical benefits of leading with contribution How contribution builds community and connects us to the ever-growing social economy.

“Developing these virtues—what some might call “character education”—has been a historical component of schooling, from ancient through modern times, except for a few decades at the end of the 20th century in many Western democracies.

“Finding a way to make a difference in the community uniquely develops all the top skills—self-direction, curiosity, and civic identity—identified by Turnaround for Children’s Building Blocks for Learning, a framework for the development of skills children need for success in school and beyond (Stafford-Brizard & Cantor, 2016).

“Request for Problems” to its local partners that would be used to inform their investigations and contributions. - “engaging students in solving authentic problems as a means to developing students as knowledgeable critical thinkers, communicators, collaborators, creators, and contributors.” “When learners see themselves as an entrepreneur now, when there is a real audience for their work now, they have a strong sense of ownership of their work.”

When faced with catastrophes and disaster throughout history, humans have transformed challenges into opportunities. The proven benefit of societal crisis is that it reveals vulnerabilities, exposes imbalance, bias and injustice and triggers dynamic new insights which inspire transformative innovations. 

Due to Covid 19, education is now experiencing this disruption. Traditional pedagogy, methods, practices and social behaviors rooted in site-based learning no longer apply. Our shared situation requires us to "think different" about how we learn in the current situation we all share. 

While often associated with travel, Experiential Learning is not sole defined by Place; it lives and thrives in Relationships. At EXL, we believe the context of Learning is more relevant than the Content of Learning: we nurture and value connecting our students to accomplished individuals whose counsel and mentorship inspire and motivate them. 

In these days of physicals separation, we have the tools to create and maintain productive and fulfilling relationships of surprising depth and intimacy. When used well, the results of digital Experiential Learning can be surprising and rewarding.