Connect Education to Life

by Suki Zheng

In the modern classroom, educators focus more on students’ culture, background, and experiences. Research shows that when students feel undervalued or marginalized, particularly when lessons fail to connect to student lives or experiences, their motivation to learn tends to diminish. On the other hand, experiential and socially interactive learning activities help students’ to feel a sense of belonging and engage in learning. Activities like group projects, classroom discussion, and hands-on exercises give students voice in the classroom and learn in a meaningful way. Also, when teachers integrate student cultures and backgrounds in lesson planning and activities, it helps students to feel comfortable to share out and fit into the classroom. This essay will go in depth on how experiential and socially interactive learning activities can reflect students’ cultural background and promote inclusion.ve technology alone cannot replace authentic connection and representation in education.

Experiential learning helps students to understand lessons better because it allows students to learn through hands-on activities and real life experiences. A famous philosopher John Dewey believed that students learn best through experience instead of listening to lectures. He believed hands-on activities and social interactions helps students to better understand ideas and connect what they learn in school to their personal life. Studies show that experiential learning has a positive impact on students’ science learning, not only that it helps students on critical thinking skills, memory, and use of vocabulary. It also has a significant impact on students with lower levels of prior knowledge, students demonstrate great improvement after the experiential learning intervention (Ranken et al 427-428). Experiential learning improves student engagement and participation in learning. When students are more engaged, the knowledge that they learn will be more profound.

Socially interactive learning activities help students feel more included and connected in the classroom. Group projects and class discussion give students opportunities to share their ideas and knowledge about the lesson. After the pandemic, teachers incorporated technologies and tools designed to support student learning and make lessons more engaging. There are platforms such as Roblox where students can collaborate and create together (Rudra). Moving beyond traditional education where it’s teacher centered. The modern classrooms are more of teacher and students learning together, Romero explains “Our fifth-grade students join with their teachers while learning from home to collaborate and complete gaming-style assignments, using avatars and earning online currency for completing the assigned tasks”(Rudra). By incorporating real life experience with school subjects and working with peers and teachers helps students to feel included and enjoy learning.

Both experiential and socially interactive learning activities are important to student learning and engagement in the classroom. Educators play an important role in designing activities that make all students feel included. They use culturally responsive teaching to create more inclusive and engaging classrooms by incorporating students’ experiences, culture, and identity (National Equity Project). According to Ladson- Billings, some ways teachers encourage student engagement and participation through allowing home languages in school, understand student’s culture and family engagement. “Teachers utilize students’ culture as a vehicle for learning”(Ladson- Billings). Furthermore, when students are actively engaged and participate in classroom discussions, they also have the opportunity to broaden their own learning by engaging in their peers' culture and experience.

In conclusion, experiential and socially interactive learning activities can create a more inclusive and meaningful learning environment for students. Hands-on activities and group discussions help students engage and learn with others. To enhance students' learning experiences, teachers connect lessons to students’ cultures, languages, and personal experience to let students feel belonged and comfortable to participate in class. All of these are related to the culturally responsive teaching where students feel more valued and supported when the classroom is more student centered. Overall, experiential and socially interactive learning helps students to succeed in their education and feel valued.

References

• “Culturally Responsive Teaching.” National Equity Project,https://www.nationalequityproject.org/culturally-responsive-teaching
• Ladson-Billings, Gloria. “But That’s Just Good Teaching! The Case for Culturally Relevant Pedagogy.” Theory Into Practice [Columbus], vol. 34, no. 3, June 1995, pp. 159–65, https://doi.org/10.1080/00405849509543675
• Ranken, E., Wyse, D., Manyukhina, Y., & Bradbury, A. (2025). The effect of experiential learning on academic achievement of children aged 4–14: A rapid evidence assessment. The Curriculum Journal, 36, 417–434. https://doi.org/10.1002/curj.304
• Rudra, Suchi. “The Metaverse Is Already Here, and K–12 Schools Are Using It for Education.” EdTech Magazine, 1 June 2022, https://edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2022/06/metaverse-already-here-and-k-12-schools-are-using-it-education?utm_source=chatgpt.com