Experientialism

Experientialist curriculum theory and practice is a category, tendency, or school of thought in curriculum studies. The position asserts that curriculum should consist of learning experiences, not merely academic content or behavioral skills. For learning experiences to be internalized, a learner must relate them through careful reflection to previous experiences in life and aspirations for the future. The experientialist line of curriculum studies originated at the beginning of the 20th century, though its roots can be traced from John Dewey to Francis Parker and earlier to Johann Friedrich Herbart, Friedrich Froebel, Leo Tolstoy, Johann Pestalozzi, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, humanist, and humanist educators of the Renaissance, who revived the work of Quintilian and others.

Experientialists are associated with traditions of progressive education and the emphasis that John Dewey ...