You have learned an enormous amount of content during your training as a Master Gardener Volunteer. Now how do you relay this information to others?

There are a variety of teaching styles:

• Content focused where the teacher delivers material in a more formal setting and students must recall the information.
• Teacher focused where the teacher alone demonstrates the content and coaches the student how to develop and apply the information.
• Student experience focused where the teacher uses a variety of group activities and projects to ensure that students are participating in learning.
• Student responsibility focused where students play an active role in designing and planning their own learning experiences; in this case student maturity is essential.

GardenWIse projects will focus on the experience of the student with the teacher facilitates a situation where the students will be allowed to learn the material on their own. As a teacher, you must be comfortable with students discovering on their own time. The design of this style will typically have the teacher demonstrate a technique and then have the students try to implement the technique working in pairs or small groups. The teacher helps the students recognize their own inner experience of doing the work. The classroom becomes a laboratory where theories are tested and proven.

Experiential learning is the process of learning through experience or learning through doing. Hands on learning is a form of this but does not necessarily involve students reflecting on the experience. We know that rote or didactic learning is where the learner plays a passive role. Experiential learning concentrates on the take-away that the student will be able to apply to a relevant situation in the future.

View the presentation below to learn more about the experiential learning process.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFbbWfXzf7c&feature=youtu.be

Experiential Learning Model in Action