Helpful Tips for Preparation
Preparation for Experiential Learning focuses on setting up students for success in these opportunities. The three components of Preparation are:
Intention
From the outset, all parties must be clear about why experience is the chosen approach to the learning that is to take place and the knowledge that will be demonstrated, applied, or result from it. Intention represents the purposefulness that enables experience to become knowledge and, as such, is deeper than the goals, objectives, and activities that define the experience.
Preparedness & Planning
Participants must ensure they enter the experience with sufficient foundation to support a successful experience. They must also focus from the earliest stages of the experience/program on the identified intentions, adhering to them as goals, objectives, and activities are defined. The resulting plan should include those intentions and be referred to regularly by all parties. At the same time, it should be flexible enough to allow for adaptations as the experience unfolds.
Orientation & Training
For the full value of the experience to be accessible to both the learner and the learning facilitator(s), and to any involved organizational partners, they must be prepared with important background information about each other and the context and environment in which the experience will operate. Once that baseline of knowledge is addressed, ongoing structured development opportunities should also be included to expand the learner’s appreciation of the context and skill requirements of her/his work.