Presenters:
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Troy Glover (Recreation and Leisure Studies)
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Sharon Mair (Student from REC 220)
Research has shown that students are motivated to learn when they perceive course concepts and theories to be relevant to real-life. Providing students with opportunities to apply concepts and theories learned through coursework is an excellent way to help make course content more meaningful and more easily understood. Experiential learning can help expose and clear up misconceptions, and can facilitate the transfer of classroom learning to problem-solving in different contexts. In this session, Troy Glover described how collaborating with a community partner provided students in his Rec 220: Program Management and Evaluation course the opportunity to apply course theory and content to designing, delivering, and evaluating an actual program. In doing so, students were able to engage with the course material in a way that was personally meaningful to them. Additionally, students were able to demonstrate what they learned in class, moving the assessment beyond simply testing for knowledge.
Resources:
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Eyler, J. (Fall 2009). The power of experiential education. Liberal Education, 94(4).
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Theall, M. (2012). Idea item # 11: Related course material to real-life situations.