Reflections, Resilience, and the Power of Experiential Education
Monday 2 December 2024
Our Director of Cocurriculum, Sally Northcroft, recently represented St Leonard’s College at the Association of Experiential Education International Conference in America.
Our Director of Cocurriculum, shares insights into the transformative impact of reflection and resilience in experiential learning, drawing on the poignant example of Year 12 student Owen’s poetry.
Recently I had the privilege of representing St Leonard’s College at the annual Association of Experiential Education (AEE) Conference held in Colorado. At the conference, I presented on the review of experiential education programs offered at St Leonard’s College. The AEE conference attracted over 750 delegates from around the world.
As is the case after a conference of this magnitude, I found myself reflecting on the many workshops and presentations I attended. Over 150 presenters gave workshops and presented findings on the latest research and best practices across a range of experiential education programs. The most resounding and applicable message from this conference was that of the power of reflection and resilience. These intangible characteristics are highly valued and promoted, however, they are also very difficult to measure.
One presenter shared how important it is to find “magic in the mundane” whilst traipsing through his familiar city streets. Too often, the dopamine-like effect of planning ‘Instagram-worthy’ walks to beautiful places and signing up for high-octane activities can lead us to believe that magic only happens when we view or participate in these heavily marketed experiences. Sometimes, enjoying the simple moment, or taking the time to appreciate the beauty around us on a mundane Monday afternoon walk home from school can provide the same reflective power if we choose to do so.
Another presenter shared the way in which we perceive what it means to be resilient. Often, we picture the victorious super(wo)man stance atop some insurmountable peak, hands held high and chest puffed out like Rocky Balboa at the top of the stairs to the Philadelphia Museum of Art (parents, please explain who Rocky is to your children!). To really understand and implement what being resilient means we have to go back a few steps in the resilience journey and discover the moment we chose to ‘be’ resilient.
It happens at a moment when something has stopped us from progressing (an injury, an illness, not being selected or elected for a role or position) and we have to make a choice about how to respond. Picture a ball being bounced to the ground and when it hits the ground, it literally hits ‘rock bottom’ with nowhere else to go. In that moment – the moment the ball has nowhere to go, the ball changes direction (thanks to all the physics laws in place) and starts to move in another direction…up, up, up.
It is in this moment that the determination to be resilient comes into effect. When we find that there seems nowhere else to go, we take up the champion (Rocky!!!) stance, we raise our hands high, perhaps in pain or in sadness or in sheer determination, we choose to be resilient and change direction – to rise up, up, up and discover what it takes to overcome whatever it was that first stopped us.
As we come ever so close to the end of the year and with so many opportunities experienced to reflect upon, I am drawn with gratitude to one of the poems that Year 12 student Owen kindly shared with me. Owen collaborated with Mr Armstrong to put a collection of poems together to thank his teachers and in his words:
“I admire the ways which you have helped me to follow my own passions – it has turned me into an authentic version of who I am today. I look up to each and every one of you.”
Owen has found that through his reflections and his ability to find magic in the ‘everyday’, the resilience he discovered has been manifested in his poetry.
Experiential education does not have a linear learning path for either skill acquisition or character development. The learner and their journey are both singularly constructed and collaboratively curated. But we know it when we see it!
Owen’s poetry provided a platform to reflect and explore his resilience across so many areas in his time here at St Leonard’s College. When he went on the Year 10 hike and again on the Senior School hike, Owen used his love of poetry to help him through the challenging moments, focusing on the simple pleasures like the rain, the mist and a little tent to protect him. In many ways, the value of reflection allows us to consider how we can prepare ourselves for the next challenge.
For all our students, as they prepare to enter another year of exciting adventures and their inevitable challenges, it is the experiences that they have had, the resilience they have developed and the reflections on how to learn from these challenges that gives them the reasons to continue on their lifelong journey of learning.
By Sally Northcroft, Director of Cocurriculum
With Owen’s permission, please enjoy this gorgeous piece from Owen’s anthology:
Nightstorm
Nearby thunder interrupts the rain’s roar.
I lay with my tent door open,
holding the rain, mud and trees in my palm,
as if they were plasticine.
Nature cannot escape my grip.
An ant seeks refuge from the relentless rain outside,
and stomps over the mud into my tent.
It is a vine to my finger,
wrapping itself around, before injecting fire,
turning my skin red and swollen.
My darkness turns white:
lightning is a bulldozer,
leaving charred remains meters away,
where an innocent family of birds
bathed their feathered-wings
in recent sunlight.
So I unfurl my fist,
release my conceit,
and close my tent door.
Even concealed within my sleeping bag,
nature’s reminder still burns my hand.
