Landscapes for Experiential Learning: The Pedagogical Value of Student-Managed Spaces at UC Davis

David de la Pena (UC DAVIS)

Universities have embraced pedagogies of experiential learning, adapting classrooms to increase flexibility and engagement. However, this shift has not been fully explored for campus landscapes. In fact, as we build out college campuses, we may be leaving less space available for active learning. If students learn best through immersive experiences, how can our landscapes contribute to that learning? Lessons gleaned from the field of education posit that learning is most effective when students are given opportunities to formulate ideas, test them through concrete experiences, and reflect on the outcomes. Campus landscapes could be ideal experiential laboratories — well equipped but loosely programmed spaces that encourage interdisciplinary collaboration and allow students to propose projects, execute them, and learn from their successes and failures.

As a land grant university, UC Davis is well suited to be an experiential learning campus, with majors that include agriculture, plant sciences, and landscape architecture and courses that train students to drive tractors, butcher animals, and construct landscapes. Two case studies illustrate the shift towards active learning landscapes that is underway: 1) The UC Davis Arboretum has eschewed a traditional model of educational plant displays and tied aspects of design, installation, and maintenance to student-led internships that focus on sustainability, biodiversity, and environmental stewardship. 2) The Sustainable Living and Learning Communities occupies 40-acres of the core campus and has been managed by students since the 1960s. A learning laboratory for sustainability, it includes the student farm, a self-built housing cooperative, and other organizations focused on experiential learning, community cooperation, and agriculture.

The case studies draw from three years of participant observation, interviews, focus groups, and public events in order to offer best practices and critiques. They suggest that landscapes hold tremendous potential for experiential learning but that they need adequate support, infrastructure, and curricular integration to succeed.