Abstract:

Theorists and educational scholars maintain that the purpose of education remains constant with its goal for the good of society developing young males and females into productive citizens who will be able to care for themselves and those that follow after them (Bernard, 2001). It is the schools’ responsibility to promote the goals and needs of society (Ornstein, 2003). Lawrence Cremin in Teaching and Schooling in America believes “the aim of education is not merely to make citizens, or workers, or fathers, or mothers, but ultimately to make human beings who will live life to the fullest “(Cremlin, 1961).

The overall goal of colleges and their faculties is to educate students (Goals 2000). Two reasons for students’ inability to succeed academically may be their lack of awareness of how each actually concentrates, absorbs, internalizes, and retains new and complex information. Another might be their professors’ incapacity to teach with instructional strategies that complement how each student can best master required curriculum. Throughout history the way students have been educated has gone from the traditional lecture style (essentially incorporating lectures, discussions, and visual resources - Drew, Dunn, Quinn, Sinatra & Spiridakis, 1994-5) to experiential learning (the process where knowledge is created through the transformation of experience -Kolb,1984) offering students alternative ways of mastering the subject matter, encouraging them to foster a pro-active approach to problem solving as educators investigate further into how the students of today learn.

Since the overall goal of college is to educate its students, knowingly understanding that education in a global world presents special, dynamic challenges it is evident that educators must look at teaching and learning in a different context. Experiential learning, academic service learning (a pedagogical strategy through which students identify, research, addressing real community challenges using knowledge and skills learned in the classroom), and learning styles (the way students absorb, retain, and process new and difficult information – Dunn & Dunn, 1999) are tools by which educators can and should utilize in bringing their students to a higher level fostering a greater understanding of the world around them.

This paper will discuss how freshmen in a core college class, through physical experience, studied various areas of New York City as well as Rome, Florence, and Assisi in relation to the architecture and differences among neighborhoods, immigrants and their varying cultures, as well as the less fortunate within the main city’s of New York and Rome.

Keywords:

Experiential Learning, Service Learning, Learning Styles, Global Studies.