AHA Session 280
Sunday, January 7, 2024: 9:00 AM-10:30 AM
Mission II (Parc 55, Fourth)
Chair:
Amy M. Froide, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Panel:
Lindsay O'Neill, University of Southern California
Tawny Paul, University of California, Los Angeles
Melissa Stuckey, University of South Carolina
Tawny Paul, University of California, Los Angeles
Melissa Stuckey, University of South Carolina
Session Abstract
The last decade or two has seen a swing away from a focus on lecture within undergraduate classrooms to student centered learning and experiential learning. This roundtable looks to examine the whys and wherefores of experiential learning and its connections to public history. Experiential learning is often described as “learning by doing,” but what we want students to learn and what we ask them to do varies. University offices specializing in experiential learning link experiential and applied learning. They emphasize connecting the academic world to the larger public, often through links with commercial and non-commercial companies and institutions. While they see other benefits, here experiential learning is meant to prepare students for the world after graduation rather than to be an end in and of itself. Historians, however, often look beyond the skills and connections to how it impacts students’ understanding of the past. Those who practice public history within the classroom use experiential learning to help students think critically about how to engage the wider public in history and how to use the past to inform current debates. For other academics, experiential learning is a tool not for wider outreach, but rather a way to help students understand the period they study. Furthermore, the ways and reasons that teachers engage in these types of projects changes depending on the period and the place they are investigating. The participants in this roundtable will detail how they use experiential learning in their classes and why, but they will also explore how the subject, place, and period they study informs why they do it and what they can and cannot do.
See more of: AHA Sessions