Experiential Education in the Classroom and Academic Outcomes: For Those Who Want it All

We conducted a pretest-posttest study using measures of higher order thinking skills (HOTS), and lower order thinking skills (LOTS) in six 12th-grade American Government classrooms taught by three experienced teachers over one semester. One of the three teachers implemented a curriculum in two classes based on experiential education (EE) principles with guidance from the investigators. Students in the EE-emphasized classes demonstrated greater gains in HOTS than the students in the other four classes. There was no difference between the two groups in gains for LOTS. These results suggest that EE instruction in high school classes can promote HOTS more than traditional instruction does with no sacrifice in LOTS.