Experienced Reflections
from Educators, Students and Community Members
–The following article originally appeared in Community Works Journal


I do...and I understand
 
by Frank Watson,
former Executive Director, Vermont Institute for Science, Math, and Technology
 
I hear...I forget
I see...and I remember
I do...and I understand
Ancient Chinese Proverb
 
The first time I heard this proverb I had just started working with the Elementary Science Study (ESS), National Science Foundation funded science curriculum development project. It was the fall of 1967. For ten years previous to coming to ESS I had taught elementary science K-6 in several small school districts in New York state. When I heard the proverb I realized that for ten years I have had been using experience as a focus of my teaching. Students were at the center of the stage and the experience was in and outside the classroom. I had never heard of "experiential" learning. I am not even sure we called it "hands-on.".
 
Little did I know how much my experience at Elementary Science Study would
contribute to a deeper understanding of this proverb and experiential learning. Even though we were developing science materials the philosophy was aimed at student participation at greater levels than just the classroom.
 
Some writing from a 1967 ESS publication illustrates why working with ESS shaped my ideas about experiential learning. "Rather than beginning with a discussion of basic concepts of science, ESS puts physical materials into children's' hands from the start and helps each child investigate through these materials the nature of the world around them. Children acquire a great deal of useful information, not by note but through their own active participation... it is apparent that children are scientists by disposition. They ask questions and use their senses as well as their reasoning powers to explore their physical environment; they derive great satisfaction from finding out what makes things tick; they like solving problems; they are challenged by new materials or by new ways of using familiar materials."
 
It was not a long jump for me from developing science according to these guidelines and a belief that experiential learning and service learning was at the core of good education for all students. Good education involves students and teachers in:
~asking good questions and seeking solutions
~using the senses to experience answers to the questions
~getting satisfaction by making projects work by
collaboration with others
~seeing new challenges, and doing things in new ways.
 
These are at the core of continuous learning and are excellent guide posts for experiential learning and service learning. They also are the heart of changing schools - they put the focus on the student and learning not just teaching alone. Schools that have used service learning are becoming different. The schools are becoming a focus for community learning. Community learning includes the school and community and the focus is on learning rather than teaching. Recently much has been written about "learning organizations" - organizations that learn from experience. I think the schools and communities developing service learning programs are becoming true learning organizations. Learning is at center stage and it involves students, teachers, administrators, parents and community members. These schools provide experiences in school connected to the community and learning in the community linked to the school.
 
The Vermont Institute for Science, Math and Technology (VISMT) has been part of service learning projects in several Vermont schools. We have witnessed schools with great community problems overcome those problems with a well structured service learning program for students, teachers and members of the community. We have seen what happens in experiential learning and service learning change the way a school operates. The student and learning has become the focus for this change. Not only is the teaching of science and mathematics different but the total curriculum of these schools is shifting. The students, teachers, administrators, parents and members of the community are doing and they are understanding!
 
I hear...I forget
I see...and I remember
I do...and I understand