Learning does not have to end along with the regularly scheduled school day. Community Psychology senior capstone professor Dr. Paul Flaspohler was approached by Project Experience and Boys and Girls Club for help about how to better their programs. Experiential learning, or learning through reflection on doing, has been shown to be successful in the past. However, the question remains as to how to integrate experiential learning most effectively into after school programs. This poster is based off of a literature review conducted and written by Elise Ashford, Abby Davis, Samantha Ives, and Spencer Kluth. Search terms such as ‘experiential learning’, ‘after school program’, ‘children’, ‘benefits’, and ‘outcomes’ were used. Of the 24 relevant articles that were incorporated within the review; the majority of them were empirical articles, but some descriptive articles and reports were also included as well. Based on all of the implementation methods and definitions of experiential learning that the articles contained, the most necessary attributes of experiential learning were reflection and the development of student interest. This poster builds off of that surface level information with some suggestions on how after school programs can use this information in both conversation based and more tactile methods. In this case, conversational based lessons would be in-depth reflection based conversations that the students should actively participate in. Alternatively, tactile learning is when a lesson is able to be acted out, whether it be something as simple as a hypothetical scenario, or something a bit more difficult such as gardening. As a future school psychologist, this was an informative project because it was completely based on adjusting students’ curriculum to better fit their needs. As such, when it comes to working with other teachers in determining how to optimize a student’s education, I can look back on this experience for ideas, or help with research methodology if need be.
References:
Ethridge, E. A., Branscomb, K. R. (2009). Learning through action: Parallel learning processes in children and adults. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25(3), 400-408. https:doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2008.09.04
Kolb, A. Y. & Kolb, D. A. (2009). Experiential Learning Theory: A Dynamic Holistic Approach to Management Learning, Education and Development. In Armstrong, S.J., & Jukami, C. V. (Eds.), Sage handbook of management learning, education and development (pp. 42-68). Sage.
Seidel, S., Aryeh, L., Steinberg, A. (2002). Project-based and experiential learning in after-school programming. Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED481931
Wright, S., Forray, J. M., & Lund Dean, K. (2019). From advocacy to accountability in experiential learning practices. Management Learning, 50(3), 261-281.
Authors: Elise Ashford, Spencer Kluth, Abby Davis, Samantha Ives
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Paul Flaspohler, Psychology Department
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