Action Learning: Welcome

There is, I think, no point in the philosophy of progressive education which is sounder than its emphasis upon the importance of the participation of the learner in the formation of the purposes which direct his activities in the learning process…

--John Dewey, Experience and Education (1938)

For John Dewey, an experience is “educative” if it “arouses curiosity, strengthens initiative, and sets up desires and purposes that are sufficiently intense to carry a person over dead places in the future.” Action Learning, Active Learning, Game-Based Learning, Gamification--these are all methods of teaching that take into consideration the learning experience of students. In other words, these are self-conscious forms of experiential learning aimed at engaging students in active and voluntary learning experiences that create “continuity” between the educational and lived experience of students. The resources collected here represent different approaches to creating educative experiences that engage students in collaboration, critical thinking, and problem solving across a range of disciplines.

"You, as the expert, can design activities to help students think more critically about the content. This can be achieved inside the classroom while you are there to facilitate discussion and correct misconceptions. Activities can help the students link disparate pieces of information together, scaffold the skills and concepts they need to construct knowledge, facilitate and guide questions, and link the knowledge to its application in the outside world."  -- University of Texas at Austin, Faculty Innovation Center