Title: Experiential Learning Events
Description: This inquiry reconstructs three Experiential Learning Events (ELE) as case studies through the use of questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, and narrative. The ELEs in the study included a total of 70 students and teachers in unique cultural formations. The sites of study included: the 2001 Intensive English Seminar (IES): Fiction to Film High School English Class, the 2014 NASA + Real World Matters Climate Change in the Classroom Workshop in New York City, and the 2016 Glenbard District 87 Mathematical Curiosity Adventure in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Each ELE allowed students and teachers to interact with a field (literature/film, science, and mathematics) “in the wild.” Narratives were analyzed using metaphor theory and Gendlin’s EXP scale to understand learners’ perceptions of ELEs in relation to our understandings of traditional schooling. The primary research questions included: What happens during and after experiential learning events? Specifically, What did people perceive? How did it happen? For whom? Why? Findings: While this inquiry was not designed to present any definitive answers, case studies and the metaphors related to them suggest ELE participants have richer experiences than they might in traditional settings.

Narratives also suggest that a hallmark of ELEs is that they are more fluid in relation to the commonly fixed learning experiences found in traditional secondary school settings.