Terrain V01 - Journal - Page 20
18 | Sterling College
Beyond a Tagline:
Experiential Learning
at Sterling
“The belief that all genuine education comes about
through experience does not mean that all experiences
are genuinely or equally educative.” – John Dewey
Written By
Dr. Lori Collins-Hall, Interim President
Over the last two decades, the attention
to experiential learning and high-impact
practices has become pervasive in higher education. However, as Dewey tells us,
not all experiences, despite rhetoric and
taglines, are created equal. The American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) has highlighted the critical importance of integrative and applied
learning in preparing students for the real-world challenges they will face in their
work and civic lives. Integrative learning
is the process of making connections
among and between concepts and experiences so the knowledge and skills
can be transferred and applied in novel ways to complex issues or problems.
This hands-on experiential and integrated approach to learning has been
a hallmark of a Sterling education
for more than 60 years – long before
AAC&U championed it. Founded as
a college preparatory school in 1958,
Sterling School’s formative years were
influenced strongly by the ethos of Kurt
Hahn. Nearly fifty years ago, a small
group of faculty built upon Sterling’s
legacy as a boarding school, inspired by
the experiential educational philosophy
of John Dewey and Kurt Hahn, to launch
a new curriculum that explicitly tied, for
the first time in the school’s history, the
pedagogy of experiential learning with a
mission of environmental stewardship.
The Grassroots Project debuted with 65
students, and would go on to add a second year in Rural Resource Management.
This two-year program led to the school
being able to offer AA degrees in 1983
which later served as the foundation of
the BA program, and Sterling evolved
again, into Sterling College. Ecological
thinking and action, the central focus
of education at Sterling College, reflects
the integration of liberal learning and
ecology to provide the unique experiences and competencies that form the
core of a Sterling education. Through
this framing, Sterling prepares students
to address the effects of climate change
and biodiversity loss, to build strong and
resilient communities and food systems,
and reverse soil and water degradation
through an education that seamlessly
integrates work and learning. Throughout its emergence, Sterling never lost
sight of the vision of Hahn - to create
a different kind of school that is distinguished for helping young people discover their interests and passions.
Every college that lays claim to experiential learning and educates based on
the principles of the liberal arts, as Sterling does, seeks to educate people to be
knowledgeable, apply that knowledge
in service to themselves and the wider
world, be self-sufficient and resilient in
the face of challenge, while developing
a desire to seek and continuously refine
that knowledge in our dynamic world.
Photo: Drew Vetere
Photo: Will Freihofer