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| News and
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39th Annual NSEE Conference
Westin Hotel - Charlotte
Charlotte, NC
October 6-8, 2010
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| ::Address:: |
NSEE
c/o TALLEY MANAGEMENT GROUP, INC.
19 Mantua Road
Mt. Royal, NJ 08061
(856)
423-3427
(856) 423-3420
(fax)
Email:
nsee@talley.com
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National
Society for Experiential Education (NSEE) is a
nonprofit membership association of educators, businesses, and
community leaders. Founded in 1971, NSEE also serves as a
national resource center for the development and improvement
of experiential education programs nationwide. NSEE supports
the use of learning through experience for:
- intellectual development
- cross-cultural and global
awareness
- civic and social
responsibility
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- ethical development
- career exploration
- personal growth
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The mission of NSEE is to foster the effective use of
experience as an integral part of education, in order to
empower learners and promote the common good. The goals of the
organization are:
- to advocate for the use of experiential learning
throughout the educational system and the larger
community;
- to disseminate information on principles of good
practice and on innovations in the field;
- to enhance the professional growth and leadership
development of our members; and
- to encourage the development and dissemination of
research and theory related to experiential learning.
NSEE celebrated its 25th Anniversary in 1996 at the
National Conference in Snowbird, Utah. As part of that
celebration, NSEE At Twenty-Five was released. This document
describes the many milestones NSEE has reached as a diverse
and involved organization and looks at the directions which
NSEE will go in the future.
In 1997, Foundations of Experiential Education grew out
of conversations on the mission of NSEE that took place at a
strategic planning meeting of the NSEE Board of Directors. The
document describes the common ground on which NSEE members,
and so the organization, stand.
Standards of Practice:
Eight Principles of
Good Practice for All Experiential Learning
Activities
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Regardless
of the experiential learning activity, both the experience and
the learning are fundamental. In the learning process and in
the relationship between the learner and any facilitator(s) of
learning, there is a mutual responsibility. All parties are
empowered to achieve the principles which follow. Yet, at the
same time, the facilitator(s) of learning are expected to take
the lead in ensuring both the quality of the learning
experience and of the work produced, and in supporting the
learner to use the principles, which underlie the pedagogy of
experiential education.
- Intention: All parties must be clear from the outset
why experience is the chosen approach to the learning that
is to take place and to the knowledge that will be
demonstrated, applied or result from it. Intention
represents the purposefulness that enables experience to
become knowledge and, as such, is deeper than the goals,
objectives, and activities that define the
experience.
- Preparedness and Planning: Participants must ensure
that they enter the experience with sufficient foundation to
support a successful experience. They must also focus from
the earliest stages of the experience/program on the
identified intentions, adhering to them as goals, objectives
and activities are defined. The resulting plan should
include those intentions and be referred to on a regular
basis by all parties. At the same time, it should be
flexible enough to allow for adaptations as the experience
unfolds.
- Authenticity: The experience must have a real world
context and/or be useful and meaningful in reference to an
applied setting or situation. This means that is should be
designed in concert with those who will be affected by or
use it, or in response to a real situation.
- Reflection: Reflection is the element that transforms
simple experience to a learning experience. For knowledge to
be discovered and internalized the learner must test
assumptions and hypotheses about the outcomes of decisions
and actions taken, then weigh the outcomes against past
learning and future implications. This reflective process is
integral to all phases of experiential learning, from
identifying intention and choosing the experience, to
considering preconceptions and observing how they change as
the experience unfolds. Reflection is also an essential tool
for adjusting the experience and measuring outcomes.
- Orientation and Training: For the full value of the
experience to be accessible to both the learner and the
learning facilitator(s), and to any involved organizational
partners, it is essential that they be prepared with
important background information about each other and about
the context and environment in which the experience will
operate. Once that baseline of knowledge is addressed,
ongoing structured development opportunities should also be
included to expand the learner’s appreciation of the context
and skill requirements of her/his work.
- Monitoring and Continuous Improvement: Any learning
activity will be dynamic and changing, and the parties
involved all bear responsibility for ensuring that the
experience, as it is in process, continues to provide the
richest learning possible, while affirming the learner. It
is important that there be a feedback loop related to
learning intentions and quality objectives and that the
structure of the experience be sufficiently flexible to
permit change in response to what that feedback suggests.
While reflection provides input for new hypotheses and
knowledge based in documented experience, other strategies
for observing progress against intentions and objectives
should also be in place. Monitoring and continuous
improvement represent the formative evaluation tools.
- Assessment and Evaluation: Outcomes and processes
should be systematically documented with regard to initial
intentions and quality outcomes. Assessment is a means to
develop and refine the specific learning goals and quality
objectives identified during the planning stages of the
experience, while evaluation provides comprehensive data
about the experiential process as a whole and whether it has
met the intentions which suggested it.
- Acknowledgment: Recognition of learning and impact
occur throughout the experience by way of the reflective and
monitoring processes and through reporting, documentation
and sharing of accomplishments. All parties to the
experience should be included in the recognition of progress
and accomplishment. Culminating documentation and
celebration of learning and impact help provide closure and
sustainability to the experience.
Source:
National Society for Experiential Education. Presented at the
1998 Annual Meeting, Norfolk, VA
NSEE is nationally recognized for:
Serving over 800 members and an extended network of
over 15,000 non-members who are teachers, professors,
principals, deans, directors of service-learning programs,
professionals in career development and youth employment,
counselors, directors of internships and cooperative education
programs, school-to-work coordinators, superintendents,
college presidents, researchers, and policymakers.
Taking leadership in developing and disseminating
principles of good practice and innovations in
experienced-based learning.
- Providing a forum for discussion of state of the art
ideas, practices, and innovations at the National Conference
and Regional Workshops.
- Keeping practitioners up-to-date through the NSEE
Quarterly.
- Informing educators about critical issues, program
models and practices, theory, and research through books and
resource papers on experiential education.
- Assisting with a variety of needs in starting or
strengthening experience-based learning programs through
consulting services provided by a trained network of NSEE
members.
- Providing information and referrals about research,
theory, and high quality programs through NSEE's National
Resource Center for Experiential and Service Learning.
- Collaborating with hundreds of other national,
regional, and local organizations to strengthen and advance
experiential education.
NSEE is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors
representing diverse K-12 and higher education settings,
nonprofit organizations, and government agencies. Candidates
for elected positions are nominated by the
membership.
NSEE Staff coordinates the activities of the
organization from the national office in Mt. Royal, New
Jersey.
NSEE members volunteer to serve on a variety of
committees and there are opportunities for leadership
development, service to the membership, and community building
among members through NSEE's Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
and Networks.
NSEE
c/o TALLEY MANAGEMENT GROUP,
INC.
19 Mantua Road
Mt. Royal, NJ
08061
Phone:
856.423.3427
Fax:
856.423.3420
nsee@talley.com
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