Christopher Wilding

Professional Inquiry Project

Intern-Teacher: Christopher Wilding Teacher Mentor: Jared McKenzie
School: Connect Charter University Consultant: Leonard Sproule

Selected Focus Inquiry Question

To what extent can experiential education programs like Connect Charters EXPO program
construct authentic real-world learning experiences for students, and what are the benefits
towards developing student engagement and learning within the classroom?

Processes and Activities

Within the Connect Charter school program is the implementation of a new program known as
EXPO, or experiential place-based and outdoor education. This program is based on a 6-week
rotating cycle for each grade to allow teachers to engage in real-world concrete learning
opportunities outside of the classroom. Additionally, every week has two classes designated for
reflection on the EXPO programs activities. This program is modeled after Kolbs learning cycle
of experiential education and provides teachers with a designated opportunity to fully engage
within experiential education. See below:

Image from: https://www.learning-theories.com/experiential-learning-kolb.html

As this program is new this year I have a unique opportunity within my internship to help plan
and create the EXPO program plans that the students will be engaging with. For my process, I
will be working with my grade team to create a resource for activities that provide cross-
curricular opportunities within the program.

Furthermore, within the overall EXPO program my primary research will be based on meetings
with students during their pre-determined reflection periods. This will be to see the extent to
which students are taking their experiences, observations, and reflections from their EXPO
activities and synthesizing them into new conceptual understandings of material. This will be
done through overall group work as a class within the EXPO reflection periods that will occur
during one of the two reflection periods every week. Additionally, I plan to meet with small
focus groups of students to receive more in-depth responses to the overall impact each EXPO
week had on their learning and the ways that it can be improved upon to develop greater student
interest and engagement.
 Christopher Wilding

Research
During my professional inquiry project, I will be using three key texts to help guide my initial
research process and guide my overall project. They are:

Moon, Jennifer A. A Handbook of Reflective and Experiential Learning: Theory and

Practice

Kolb, David A. Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and

Development. 2014

Wurdinger, Scott D. and Julie A. Carlson. Teaching for Experiential Learning: Five
Approaches That Work

Using these resources, I hope to develop a research process that helps showcase the overall
efficacy of experiential learning with Connect Charters EXPO program and the possible benefits
it provides to students.

Timeline
As the EXPO program runs every six weeks, this allows for 5 possible reflection periods
between every week of off-campus activities. However, due to the nature of the school schedule
and overlapping activities within the school, it is only possible to conduct three reflection periods
for each EXPO week. Additionally, as the last trip falls after the PIP symposium it only allows
for a total of three overall reflection possibilities. This

EXPO Grade 8 Off-Campus Planned Weeks

September 5-7
October 30 November 2
November 15
December 11-14

End Product
My final presentation will have three major components to it.
The first will be a resource that provides some of the vast information on experiential learning
within education. This resource will be based on the resource literature I have provided, as well
as other information that may be become relevant as I conduct the research and reflection
processes.
The second aspect will be a resource that provides examples of cross-curricular opportunities
within the middle-school curriculum for experiential learning. This will be a compendium of
different activities and opportunities that teachers can access when trying to implement different
experiential learning activities for students.
The third and final aspect will be a brief showcase of the student responses from my reflections
and focus groups that will be given to my grade 8 team. This will focus on areas for
improvement or greater focus, as well as strengths and successes within the EXPO activities
conducted within the grade 8 program. This will help to provide feedback to the overall
implementation in the first half of the year and help develop greater opportunities in the future.