Experiential Learning Exercises’ Effects on Students’ Attitudes Toward the Global Poor
Conference Tracks
Assessment and SoTL - Research
Abstract
Does participating in a budgeting exercise change students’ attitudes and empathy towards those living in poverty in the developing world? Experiential learning strives for an education that “first immerses learners in an experience and then encourages reflection about the experience to develop new skills, new attitudes, or new ways of thinking (Lewis and Williams, 1994, p. 5).” In short, the instructor designs activities to give learners firsthand personal experiences with the subject content, facilitates students to reflect on the experiences, and then encourages them to draw conclusions (Svinicki and Dixon, 1987, p. 143). In this paper we assess whether a budgeting exercise, drawing on students’ daily experiences and reflection on the difficulty of saving, affects their ability to understand the complex causes of global poverty and their empathy towards developing world citizens living in poverty.
Session Format
Research Brief and Reflection Panels
Location
Room 4
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Nyenhuis, Robert Mr and Gellers, Josh, "Experiential Learning Exercises’ Effects on Students’ Attitudes Toward the Global Poor" (2019). SoTL Commons Conference. 92.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/sotlcommons/SoTL/2019/92
Experiential Learning Exercises’ Effects on Students’ Attitudes Toward the Global Poor
Room 4
Does participating in a budgeting exercise change students’ attitudes and empathy towards those living in poverty in the developing world? Experiential learning strives for an education that “first immerses learners in an experience and then encourages reflection about the experience to develop new skills, new attitudes, or new ways of thinking (Lewis and Williams, 1994, p. 5).” In short, the instructor designs activities to give learners firsthand personal experiences with the subject content, facilitates students to reflect on the experiences, and then encourages them to draw conclusions (Svinicki and Dixon, 1987, p. 143). In this paper we assess whether a budgeting exercise, drawing on students’ daily experiences and reflection on the difficulty of saving, affects their ability to understand the complex causes of global poverty and their empathy towards developing world citizens living in poverty.
