Experiential Learning in the Classroom

Abstract

The experiential approach to learning is based on teaching models in which the student is the center of the teaching-learning process. Two experiential classes were included for the past two years in McGill's second year B.Sc.(N.) course on chronic illness. One class focused on trust, the other on loss, including dying. One of the teaching models for experiential learning is the human awareness or awareness training model. This model focuses on the development of human potential through the effective aspects of learning such as emotions, feelings, and values (Brown, 1971; Shutz, 1967). Human awareness models utilize theoretical concepts from the Gestalt approach to personality which is concerned with the synthesis of thinking, feeling and acting (Perls, 1969), all relevant to learning and nursing. Based on the assumption that being in touch with one's own feelings is a crucial aspect of the nursing process, the two experiential classes are an attempt to help the students deal with some of the powerful emotional responses aroused in nurse and patient.