Learning by Doing: Experiential Learning in Formal School Education

<< Background >>The goal of primary schools is the acquisition of knowledge, attitudes and skills for developing basic competencies which pave the way to the full development of a person. Pupils have opportunities to develop the most important abilities: cognitive, emotional, social, ethical and religious, which are undeniable for the balanced development of individual and social life. Teachers committed to this educational mission are the most important persons in the pupil’s life and education, mostly for those pupils and families coming from disadvantaged contexts. Experiential learning brings informal learning into formal education environments. It expands and augments spaces in which students learn. By taking on new roles, the educator becomes coach, mentor, leader and companion in the learning journey of the pupils. The project also inspires teacher with a gallery of experiential learning activities for schools and then also guides them with a handbook and a tool that enables the crafting of other informal learning activities in schools so that they can offer a learning experience to students that is more holistic, inclusive and relevant for personal development.<< Objectives >>Learning by Doing set out to:1. Increase awareness of experiential learning as a non-formal educational practice that can bring a new dynamic in formal school education, making classrooms more creative, engaging and inclusive.2. Train, inspire and support teachers and schools in the acquisition of knowledge and exposure to experiential informal learning techniques and strategies to that they can transfer the practice into their classrooms and into their schools.3. Test and implement experiential learning methods derived from non-formal education to formal school education and make the transfer of informal learning into school spaces smooth and as part of a strategy to improve students’ key competences with particular emphasis on critical thinking, learning to learn as well as civic competences, through their participation in experiential learning activities 4. Improve teachers’ skills and enhancing their practical experience through the usage of pedagogy methods that make learning spaces more engaging for all sorts of learners.5. Transfer knowledge among school teachers with formal educational background and educators specialising in non-formal education through peer learning and co-creation with others.<< Implementation >>We have:Developed a framework for experiential learning to transfer expertise and knowledge from informal to formal learning educators, including examples of good practices and reading material about the practice.Developed a gallery of experiential learning activities covering various topics including civic engagement, critical thinking, geography, sports, heritage and language learning which enable students to acquire basic skills and competences that go beyond syllabus based didactic topics and ventures into social and personal development.Developed a handbook for the transfer of experiential learning practices and strategies from informal to formal learning spaces and an accompanying tool that helps teachers plan and craft new experiential learning activities in a co-creation environment if they plan such activities with their colleagues.Engaged with teachers and schools to seek their input, feedback and assessment of the effectiveness of our outputs in order that our results are relevant to the beneficiaries, to formal school environments and to a comprehensive learning experience for pupils.We organised outreach events that were aimed at establishing relationships with teachers and schools for further cooperation and explorations in the future.We have successfully started a roadmap towards further activities benefitting from the results of this project and emulating the synergies between providers of informal and formal education for young pupils.<< Results >>There are three concrete outputs for this project:1. A Theoretical and methodological framework of applying Experiential Learning in Formal Education that provides teachers in schools new didactic methods that make their lessons more attractive to students and that will up skill teachers with new pedagogical approaches that improve their performance, make their profession more attractive and fulfilling for the rest of their professional life. 2. A Repository with Training Material and activities of Experiential Learning that empowers teachers to engage with leadership roles in class and in the school, to have the role of a “tutor” or “facilitator”, instead of the “lecturer” that at times loses the audience audience and to gain a significant experience in experiential learning.A result of these two outputs is knowledge transfer that took place between the partners and between the partners and formal educators who gave input and feedback on the framework both informally and in focus groups. This transfer continues in the process of the third concrete output.3. A Handbook that supports teachers in the transfer of informal learning into formal education spaces that are more active in learning, reducing the chances of early school leaving as well. Also in such environments, the students are more concentrated and focused in the classroom, and they diffuse their energy in the experiential activities and thus, they won’t be disruptive, facilitating the teachers’ job. Finally, teachers have been and will continue to be recipients of knowledge transferring from educators specialising in non-formal education.4. A digital tool on the FIGMA platform that supplements the Repository and the Handbook by enabling teachers to work on ideation for their experiential learning activities and to help them create (or co-create with colleagues) the activities, assess effectiveness and maintain their focus on the learning objectives, on their role in leading (not teaching) experiential activities.A result from this output, and the Repository and Handbook, is that we have established a rapport that is more interactive with schools and that we have embarked on two new cooperations for two other projects for the use of experiential learning in heritage (to convey heritage, civic education, history and geography and environmental studies) and another one on democratic engagement.