Personalizing Teaching through Experiential Learning

Abstract

Experiential learning programs, courses, and tasks create new opportunities for faculty and students to interact. Faculty roles may include one-on-one consulting, visits to off-campus sites to observe student work, and small group discussions. In addition to discipline content, discussions with students deal with their reactions to the experience, student anxiety over learning in new ways, doubts about their competency to do well, and other personal concerns. Three minicases of experiential learning in university settings are used to illustrate the nature of such programs and the issues teachers and students face when employing them to personalize teaching.

Key Words:

• personalizing teaching
• experiential learning
• learning communities
• student-teacher relationships
• nontraditional teaching

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Leslie K. Hickcox

Leslie K. Hickcox is an assistant professor in the department of Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Athletics at Northeastern Illinois University, in Chicago.