‘Why schools should deepen focus on experiential learning’

The need for schools to focus attention on developing students’ knowledge, skills, and ensure they get values from experiences outside a traditional classroom setting has been stressed.

Chairman, Board of Trustees, Atlantic Hall, Taiwo Taiwo, said such learning methodology is imperative in the face of the ever-changing world, as it has the capacity to stimulate academic inquiry.

She said this was what informed their new partnership with Sprott School of Business, Carleton University, Canada, as they strategise on how to deepen experiential learning in the interest of their students.

She said: “We are partnering with Carleton University, which is one of the best universities in Canada, because through this partnership, they will be sending teachers, who will support certain critical gaps that we have in our educational system and in that way help our students as well as our teachers build themselves in those areas.

“We are an excellent educational institution and I am very proud to say that we have been adjudicated a spot as one of the top secondary schools in Nigeria but we recognise that the students are lacking certain skills, one of which is experiential learning, creative thinking and writing.”

Noting that the partnership is a significant step towards advancement of the school and the students as it approaches its 30th anniversary soon, Taiwo said the collaboration is also a strategic vision that will help the students embrace the future.

“We recognise that as we reach a new decade that we cannot sit still. This is an ever-changing world and there is no more dynamic a space than the educational space. In the future, our students will be talking to computers rather than teachers, they will be learning in totally different ways and it will be foolish of us if we stand still and not help our children to adapt to this ever changing world and in seeking partnerships with dynamic institutions like Carleton University, we know that we are aiding our students to embrace the future,” she assured.

Dean, Sprott School of Business, Carleton University Canada, Dana Brown, while stressing the need for experiential learning, said schools must focus on it, as it is the new way the current generation of students wishes to learn.

“This generation of students has grown up very differently from the previous generation with access to information and technology. And what they do not need for their educational experience is someone to tell them the facts that are repeated back to them. What they want from their educational experience is to learn by applying knowledge that is gotten in a way that has positive impact in the world”.

Brown observed that experiential learning is helping students in their education journey forward and this system of learning is been practiced at Carleton University.

“We are in a new world, we recognise from the angle of the business school that business leaders in this new world are going to have to behave differently for the sake of all of us to survive, and to make this world a better place. We need good leaders who are thinking, we do not need leaders who are going to apply old models to new problems. When we teach experiential learning, we are teaching people to find their values, bring them out for the purpose of reaching their full potential,” Brown said.