Performance-Based Learning: A Case Study in Experiential Education

Abstract

Experiential education is a highly prized and effective interdisciplinary methodology to supplement classroom instruction and to improve student learning. Experiential theories have a wide reach, traceable to Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates. John Dewey's pivotal work Experience and Education, first published in 1938, is canonical in academic scholarship and has been expanded on throughout the 20 th century, most notably by Kolb's scholarship spanning the 1980s to present day (Dewey, 1938). David Kolb's four-stage learning cycle is still used across disciplines in scholar's conversations on useful methods for helping students grasp complex academic content and experience transformative learning opportunities (Kolb, 2015). Four senior-level projects carried out in a special topics course in Family and Consumer Sciences at Southeastern Louisiana University provided students with an opportunity to rehearse the research skills they will need after graduation. These experiential learning projects focused on the obesity epidemic in the United States; they had a significant impact on student learning, not only for professional preparation, but also for emphasizing a topic of social significance.