'In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.' Eric Hoffer

When I first ventured into the classroom 12 years ago in a private American school in Damascus, Syria, my educational philosophy was non-existent. I had been trained to educate the youth that sat before me and had been exposed to a handful of educational theorists. I had also been indoctrinated with the current buzz words in education such as: “Inquiry Based,” “Hands On,” “Experiential,” and “Constructivism.” However, these buzz words were meaningless because I was educated using the traditional model of instruction. How could I be expected to become an experiential teacher using inquiry based and constructivist pedagogy if I had never experienced it? Over the next twelve years as I traveled and taught in Syria, Bolivia, Tanzania, Alaska, Pakistan and Taiwan, a feeling began to grow inside of me that the traditional model of education that I had experienced was outdated, especially given the incredible advances in technology. Gradually I began to discard this outdated model and replace it with something that felt more natural and resonated with how I was experiencing the real world to work.

As I reflect back on how my own educational philosophy has evolved, I now realize that it was learned the same way that we know students learn best: by asking questions of interest, experimenting with and coming up with answers to these questions and constructing meaning through personal experiences. The passivity of my educational training had given me the initials behind my name but had not allowed me to construct my own philosophy through experience. This realization has had a profound effect on my pedagogy and has allowed me to finally become the master teacher I am today.

These direct and personal experiences that have helped me to construct my philosophy of education have taken shape in many forms. Some of these experiences came directly from the classroom where I was experimenting with different methods of teaching. Some came directly from reading and researching on best practices and visiting cutting edge schools around the world. However, many of these experiences came outside of the classroom with the people that I met: the craftsmen in Damascus who could design an inlaid table better than anybody else in the world; the children from the Madidi National Park in the Amazon rainforest who taught us more about the plants, animals and insects of the rainforest than any textbook ever had; the Pakistani villagers who knew more about survival in harsh climates than any survival skills manual could ever teach you; the Inupiats of northern Alaska who could have predicted the current climate crisis before any of the specialists. The list could go on and on but the common theme from each of these individuals is the fact that they had become an expert at something through direct experience.

I have seen that people all over the globe learn best by doing. This is the same experience that I want each of my students to have. If you want to learn science, then do science. If you want to become a good writer then write. If you want to learn technologies then use technology. Current research on the brain is providing solid evidence that supports what Dewey and others have known for a long time. Humans learn by doing.

Any discussion on how students learn best would not be complete without emphasizing the role of technology. If humans learn best by doing, technology is providing a vehicle to make this happen. Students can now collect data in the field and have it uploaded and analyzed instantaneously. Blogs and WIKI’s are transforming the way we use the internet. Computers and analytical software are providing a means to teach previously ambiguous concepts. However, technology alone does not guarantee a better learning experience. How educators use this technology is more important than the technology itself. Therefore as educators, we have a responsibility to not only use this technology but to learn how to integrate its use with cutting edge pedagogical practices.

We are preparing students for the 21st century. Therefore, we must go beyond simply training individuals to enter the workforce and begin preparing them for life. It is our duty to equip young people with the skills necessary to become the responsible global citizens that we would want running our companies, leading our governments, educating our children and living next door to us. Traveling and working around the world for the past twelve years has made me realize the urgency of changing the way we educate young adults. This realization has transformed my classroom into a living and breathing testament to the power of learning by personal experience.