Use these guiding questions to have students activate prior knowledge, make predictions about their experiences, and otherwise reflect before going into the field or community to participate in experiential learning. Some instructors may also want to have students fill out a K-W-L chart before (and after) their experience, depending on the site and/or assignment.

These reflections may be of particular use when trying to increase outdoor class meetings due to public health concerns.

Objective

To reflect on what an outside-the-classroom experience might entail

Key Terms

metacognition; experiential learning

Reflections

  1. What do you expect the place (site, neighborhood, performance space) you will be visiting might look (sound, feel, smell) like?
  2. If you are attending an event or a performance, what kinds of sensory experiences do you expect will be most central and why?
  3. What kinds of past experiences have you had with the kind of site or event? How might this affect your interaction with it?
  4. What kinds of expectations do you have for the people or animals you may encounter at this site? How might they behave?
  5. How might course readings or other work you have done in the class prepare you for your experiences at this place or event? What connections do you think will be possible to draw between your course readings and your experience there?

At the Site:  The class can meet as a whole at a site and the instructor can act as a tour guide, making connections between features of the site and ideas from students’ pre-reflections or initial questions. Then students can potentially pair off for socially distanced group work that involves exploring the site.  Students can also visit sites in pairs and on their own without the entire class.  Pairs and individuals can make videos of parts of their experiences at sites.

Post-Visit: Short films of various kinds students make can be shared with the class, becoming the basis for further class discussion about a variety of topics, alongside student writings and memories of their experiences.

Before or After Visits: Students can bring their home cities/towns/rural spaces into discussions by writing about them, taking photographs, and making videos, even if they are not on campus.