How do we transform education and prepare students to thrive in their chosen careers?

What does learning look like in a post-secondary institution that emphasizes entrepreneurial, creative and critical thinking? How do we design teaching and scholarship that are informed by and contribute to our local, national and international communities? Increasingly, experiential learning is prioritized in higher education. Students demand relevant and meaningful learning experiences and employers expect them to be equipped with the skills required by a changing workforce.

On May 1 and 2, the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning will host Exploring Experiential Learning, the 2019 University of Calgary Conference on Post-Secondary Learning and Teaching. The conference will focus on the increased emphasis on experiential learning in higher education.

What exactly is experiential learning? The term covers a wide span of applications, including (among other things) student field experiences, co-operative education or internships, alternative break programs, work-integrated learning and applied research projects.

Experience through work-integrated learning

This year’s two keynote presentations will discuss the theme of experiential learning from different vantage points. Dr. Norah McRae, PhD, associate provost at the University of Waterloo, will discuss specific applications and benefits in her presentation, A Quality Framework for Work-Integrated Learning. Work-integrated learning is an experiential education process that formally incorporates students’ academic studies into workplace or practice settings. Generally, this process involves partnership between academic institutions, host organizations and students.

McRae says, “Through engaging in work-integrated learning, students develop learning outcomes related to employability, personal agency and lifelong learning. That is, work-integrated learning requires the habits of mind, of critical self-reflection, such that an individual is assessing where they are at, where they want to go and what is required to get there. In an increasingly uncertain world, these capabilities are going to be even more important.”

Experiential learning through theatrical improvisation techniques

Dennis Cahill, artistic director of the Loose Moose Theatre Company, will be co-presenting the conference’s other keynote presentation with Dr. Jeff Dunn, PhD, a professor in the Department of Radiology at the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary. Cahill and Dunn’s presentation, Improvisation: Enhancing Experiential Learning, will explore the conference theme through the lens of theatrical performance techniques.

“Improvisation exercises offer the participants in a class or workshop the opportunity to experience performance-related behaviours, so they can be recognized by the individual and then altered,” Cahill explains. “Exercises are based in theory. For example, when someone is under stress, they will have a tendency to think ahead and try to control the future. The issue is that this behaviour takes them out of the moment so they are no longer present with those they are trying to communicate with. An exercise can be used first to expose this behaviour and then another exercise can be used to alter the behaviour so the individual can see the difference.”

He connects this idea directly to the model of experiential learning. “Experiential learning takes theory into practice,” he says. “I can tell you that fear of being in front of an audience produces certain behaviours, but experiencing that behaviour, as well as alternate behaviours, is more immediate and for most people seems to be much more powerful.”

Dr. Natasha Kenny, PhD, senior director at the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning, highlights the timeliness of the conference’s theme.

“There is not a better time in higher education to explore the importance of experiential learning,” she says. “Across the international landscape, universities are engaged in conversations about how to intentionally design and assess experiences that actively engage students in hands-on learning opportunities.

"Through experiential learning activities, students are encouraged to critically reflect and identify the meaning behind their learning, so they can apply what they have learned in new and novel situations. We are absolutely thrilled to provide leadership in bringing people together to explore the transformative potential of experiential learning.”

Registration deadline is April 17 

Learn about the Conference on Post-Secondary Learning and teaching here.

Jeff Dunn is a professor in the Department of Radiology, and an adjunct professor in the departments of Clinical Neurosciences, Physiology and Pharmacology and is a member of the Hotchkiss Brain Institute and the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute at the Cumming School of Medicine.