Experiential Education: New Approaches and Practices

The purpose of this symposium is to share experiences of leading experiential teaching, foster discussion on educational methods, and identify and build new networks. It stems from a project on experiential learning in heritage-based subjects, funded by a Principal’s Teaching Award Scheme (PTAS) small grant and investigated by Dr Aaron Allen (IAD), Dr Bryony Coombs (ECA) and Dr Hope Doherty-Harrison (ECA).

The value of experience in preparing our students both for their degree programmes and for life after they leave higher education is well known, but questions remain about just what constitutes experiential teaching and learning, or how one goes about building it into their practice. Issues of creativity and constructive alignment, not to mention delivery at scale, all pose challenges for course organisers and their teaching teams. The purpose of this symposium is to not only look at innovative practice, but to facilitate discussions about how best to implement ‘learning by doing’ in our course provision.

Confirmed speakers include Jill Burke (Professor of Renaissance Material and Visual Cultures), Paul Nixon (manager at The Real Mary King's Close), and Ed Bethune (founder and chair of the 1722 Waggonway Heritage Group, Cockenzie), as well as students who took part in the PTAS 'Experiencing the Past' workshops.

Programme

10.30 Introduction to the Project ‘Experiencing the Past.’

11.00 Margot Dieu: ‘Tell Me What You’re Made of: Reconsidering the Fifteenth-Century Conical Headdress Through the Lens of Experimental Dress Reconstruction’

11.30 Dr Josh Fitzgerald: ‘Eat Your Homework: ‘Hands-In’ Experiences for Historical Foodways of Latin America’

12.00 Lunch

13.15 Experiential Exercise: Quills and Ink

14.30 Panel Discussion: Ed Bethune, Marlee Merson, Paul Nixon.

15.00 Prof. Jill Burke, Keynote

Access

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