Psychology and Experiential Education - Literature Review

Mackenzie, S.H., Son, J.S., & Hollenhorst, S. (2014). Unifying psychology and experiential education: Toward an integrated understand of why it works. Journal of Experiential Education, 37(1), 75-88.

Mackenzie, Son, and Hollenhorst provide a look at the field of psychology and the ways in which it could be used to further program planning for and research into experiential learning, stating that while research is separate, it could end up being complementary. The problem with experiential learning research, they believe, is a lack of quantitative, longitudinal, randomized control studies. They give a brief discussion of experiential learning theory (ELT), and highlight several psychology disciplines, suggesting where each might enable additional research on the topic of experiential learning, including positive psychology, self-determination theory, flow theory, and neuropsychology.

In my undergraduate studies, psychology was my major, so I was very excited to find this article among the readings for my experiential learning seminar and was pleased that I could still remember a lot of the theories and fields that they touched on. Flow theory is one that I’ve had firsthand experience with, that state of complete, focused engagement in an activity, so much that the outside world fades. Based on both the readings on challenge by choice and the various studies and topics that the authors mention, it seems like flow theory fits in quite well in that environment. While I don’t think that’s something I could utilize in my current position, the idea is still something that deserves consideration.

One of the other topics they cover is also one of my particular areas of interest: neuropsychology, a field of study I’d have pursued, except that I couldn’t find anything other than full time doctoral programs for it. There are two pieces of information that I took away from this. First, the discussion of experiential learning and its impact on the brain, especially in a outdoor environment. Again, not something that I can follow in my current position, but still information that I would love to be able to apply in other circumstances. In addition, and in the same vein, they also touch on the suggestion that the physical activity that goes along with experiential learning may have positive impacts for older adults, perhaps slowing the onset of Alzheimer’s.

Ultimately, I think that this is an area of study that might end up being very interesting and also very challenging. It’s human nature to wonder how and why things work the way they do; I think looking to psychology to determine why experiential learning is effective could be beneficial.