Feeling Green: Linking Experiential Learning and University Environmental Education

While university education about the environment has existed for centuries, it has been criticized for being reductionist and empirical. Subjects such as biology, chemistry and geography have instructed students with regard to the fundamental principles of nature, but have failed to promote an understanding or appreciation for the environment as a whole. Experiential learning, or learning by doing and reflecting, is an excellent tool that can facilitate this process. This paper will present a brief review of environmental education, discuss experiential learning literature and illustrate how the two can be linked. The argument underlying this conceptual paper is that environmental studies and science courses in institutions of higher education can be enhanced through experiential learning, and that such an approach to education would better prepare students to address the environmental problems of the future