Beyond Learning by Doing: Theoretical Currents in Experiential Education

Offering a fresh and distinctive take on a progressive pedagogy, this book examines the notion of experience as it is used in the field of experiential education. As an increasingly popular pedagogical approach, experiential education encompasses a variety of curriculum projects from outdoor and environmental education to service learning and place-based education. While each of these sub-fields has its own history and particular approach, they draw from the same progressive intellectual taproot. Each, in its own way, evokes the power of "learning by doing" and "direct experience" in the educational process. For all the usage of such language, the terms themselves have generally become common sense and taken for granted in a way that belies the contradictions and conflict within the idea of experience itself. By unpacking the assumed homogeneity in these terms to reveal the underlying diversity of perspectives inherent in their usage, this book contributes theoretical coherence to the project of pushing the field of experiential education forward.

Jay W. Roberts is Associate Professor of Education and Environmental Studies at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana.