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Showing posts from December, 2015

Building Sandcastles: Experiential Learning

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I took my family on vacation last week. My pre-school son spent considerable time digging in the beach sand. I watched closely as so many of his creations were destroyed in front of his eyes. As an adult with some sandcastle-building experience, I could have spared him the pain of loss by offering him some early-vacation advice.  I did not.   I got my start in "education" in 2001 when I became a Police Firearms Instructor. Unexpectedly, the 5-day course I attended to receive my instructor certification was little more than a beefed-up shooter class. The curriculum did not get into the principles or theory of adult learning.  It ignored any research or science related to human development, growth, or understanding. And it most certainly did not address students' emotional connections to learning. I emerged from the weeklong class as a slightly better shooter, but without any of the skills I'd need to be an educator. I'd have to figure those out by myself a