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The primary purpose of this paper is to provide a concrete example of how experiential learning approaches (from internships in global policy institutes to visiting communities in rural Amazonia to meeting with officials from inter‐governmental organizations) can be implemented in order to most effectively meet specific educational goals in international sustainability studies.

Using four key educational goals as the framework for discussion, the author presents a multi‐dimensional international experiential program at American University as an example of how non‐traditional educational approaches can be used to supplement the traditional lecture‐based format.

The case illustrates how experiential learning offers an educational experience that most effectively: connects the academic with the practice, fosters an effective interdisciplinary curriculum, links students to work experience and job opportunities, and engages and empowers students.

This paper contributes to the literature on experiential learning and sustainability studies and argues that experiential learning approaches deserve greater attention in theory and practice.

The unique institutional and course structure presented in this case is unlikely to be replicated in most higher education settings, but select elements of this model can be incorporated into traditional institutional settings to enhance lecture‐centric curricula.

The paper takes on the difficult task of simultaneously addressing traditional goals (e.g. connecting theory with practice; preparing students for the job market) with less traditional goals (e.g. engaging and empowering students) in higher education. This paper illustrates how these goals are often mutually reinforcing.

The aim of this article is to describe the scenistic approach to training with corresponding activities and the theory bases that support the approach.

Presented is the definition of the concept of scenistic training along with the step‐by‐step details of the implementation of the approach. Scenistic methods, while clear examples of situated cognition and learning, are derived from several other important theory bases to include constructivism, experiential learning, mental models, transformative learning, and action theory.

The theory base offers support for the activities and steps contained in scenistic training methods. The theories, in combination, address motivation, distinct learning tasks and activities, and the regulation of learning. To an extent, scenistic methods invite the trainee to create and manage learning with guidance and support from trainers. This delegation of responsibility to the trainee has powerful motivational consequences.

In this article a detailed presentation of the concepts and theories that support the development and use of scenistic training methods is offered. Even though the efficacy of scenistic methods are supported with empirical research, the theory‐base for the methods has not been carefully explained.

Most of the development of scenistic methods has taken place in the past ten years, a time period in which there has not been a lot of interest displayed in new training approaches. This article seeks to illuminate the concept for practitioners and scholars of training as well as to offer detailed theory grounding for scenistic methods.

Originality and value are combined in the expression of the details of a somewhat generic model of scenistic methods as well as a reasonably broad perspective of theories that help to explain the dynamics of the steps in the approach.

Entrepreneurship education has been largely treated as a pedagogical “black box.” Despite the emergence of popular entrepreneurship models such as business planning, the lean startup, or business model canvas, neither theoretical nor pedagogical foundations are typically evident. This limits the accumulation of useful evidence that could inform better teaching practices. In this chapter, we develop a set of conceptual models anchored in learning theory regarding how entrepreneurship education should be taught to students. These conceptual models are built on the techniques of entrepreneurship pedagogy such as experiential education. They are developed for three groups of students: students without any entrepreneurship experience, students with previous entrepreneurship experience, and students who are currently running their start-ups. A set of potential variables that could be used for course evaluation purposes is also included. The proposed models meet the needs of students with different levels of entrepreneurship experience. Theoretically, we demonstrate that entrepreneurship students should not be treated as a homogeneous group, as they have different levels of startup experience and different educational needs. Lecturers of entrepreneurship programs could choose the suitable model proposed in this chapter in teaching based on the characteristics of their students. The chapter provides novel insights with regard to how entrepreneurship programs should be designed for students with different levels of entrepreneurship experience.

This paper seeks to address an underdeveloped aspect of entrepreneurship education (EE), which is still criticised for not explicitly linking educational practice with established educational theory. As such, the purpose of this paper is to propose a novel educational framework – Authentic Alignment – that the authors evolved based on their own EE practice, as well as two major educational theories.

A review of a range of conceptual educational frameworks in EE revealed a gap in the current literature, referring to the fact that practice is not sufficiently linked to sound educational theory. The paper combines a range of educational theories – predominantly Constructive Alignment (CA) and Authenticity – to develop a novel conceptual framework, termed “Authentic Alignment”. The discussion of Authentic Alignment draws upon EE literature, as well as student feedback and the reflections and experiences of the practitioners and academics involved in delivering a higher education unit underpinned by Authentic Alignment.

It is argued that Authentic Alignment coherently and explicitly links educational practice to major established educational theories and as such presents a valuable approach to education through entrepreneurship as it aligns authentic approaches to instruction, learning and assessment that strike a balance between resembling and being relevant for real entrepreneurial activity.

The paper invites educators to draw upon Authentic Alignment for their own entrepreneurship units/programmes by customising the specific approaches to their own requirements, while retaining the underlying principle of constructively aligned authentic education.

By explicitly linking EE to CA and Authenticity, this paper introduces a novel educational framework that provides a valuable structure for education through entrepreneurship. The customisability of Authentic Alignment, however, suggests a wider applicability and is thus valuable also for education about and for entrepreneurship.

Failure plays a pivotal role in entrepreneurial learning. Knowledge of the learning process that enables an entrepreneur to re-emerge stronger after a failure, though considerable, is fragmented. This paper systematically collects relevant literature, assigns it to the stages of the experiential learning process (concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, active experimentation; Kolb, 1984), evaluates the research coverage of each stage and identifies promising avenues for future research.

This systematic literature review follows the guidelines articulated by Short (2009) and Tranfield et al. (2003), using Web of Science and EBSCO as primary data sources. Kolb’s (1984) experiential learning theory provides a basis for organizing the identified material into a framework of entrepreneurial learning from failure.

The literature provides insights on all stages of the process of entrepreneurial learning from failure. Particularly well elaborated are the nature of failure and its triggering effect for reflection, the factors influencing reflection, the contents of the resulting learning and their application in entrepreneurial re-emergence. Other topics remain under-researched, including alternative modes of recovery, the impact of personal attributes upon reflection, the cognitive processes underlying reflection, the transformation of failure-based observations into logically sound concepts and the application of this learning in non-entrepreneurial contexts.

This review provides the most complete overview of research into the process of entrepreneurial learning from failure. The systematic, theory-based mapping of this literature takes stock of current knowledge and proposes areas for future research.

This chapter explores how experimental learning and transfer of learning can be designed in professional Master of Public Administration (MPA) programmes when external conditions constrain the application of learning formats that require the personal contact of students and/or the cooperation of the student’s employer.

The authors conduct a single case study of the professional MPA programme at the University of Kassel in Germany. The programme is based on the principles of blended learning with a high share of online teaching. The analysis is based on semi-structured interviews with students, document analysis and practical experience by one of the authors.

The study shows that attempts of bridging theory and practice have proved challenging in the past, which has, for instance, resulted in changes of course modules aiming directly at linking both domains. The findings are presented and discussed in the light of three different perspectives: (1) learning outcomes of professional MPAs and the theory-practice-nexus in a systems theory perspective; (2) the impacts of administrative culture; and (3) didactical/micro-level perspective. Furthermore, recommendations for practical purposes are derived.

The exploratory study does not provide strong generalisable results but aims at enriching the academic discussion as well as points to solutions for the practice.

Beyond useful insights on how (elements of) experimental learning are or might be implemented in the PA masters’ programme under study, the chapter offers a more generalised discussion of the challenges contextual factors might pose to the implementation of experimental learning formats and discusses possible solutions to overcome such challenges.

This chapter outlines an augmented reality project developed as part of a master’s course on eTourism within a curriculum. It discusses opportunities to foster community engagement with local tourism actors and experiential learning for international students. It also contributes to the literature on experiential education in this field. Moreover, the chapter discusses cross-cultural learning implications as international students were asked to study a local destination. Results show how the introduction of a practical project into the tourism curriculum proved to provide better learning of the application of eTourism, and a powerful pedagogical approach to raise global citizenship awareness.

The purpose of this study is to empirically explore how managers differ from non-managers with regard to learning skills as competencies and learning style in a public-sector work setting. The paper also examined how learning style affects competency development.

This study applied Kolb’s experiential learning theory concomitant with its instruments to analyze 12 skills and 4 learning styles. A total of 457 government officers from the Indonesian Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Internal Affairs participated in this study, including 112 managers and 345 non-managers.

The study had four major findings. Although the two groups were similar in technology skills, managers had stronger skills than non-managers in leadership, relationship, helping, sense making, information gathering, information analysis, theory building, quantitative analysis, goal setting, action and initiative. Relationship skills were important for both managers and non-managers. Managers were more abstract and less concrete learners than non-managers. The learning style with more thinking over feeling affected learning skills development much more than the learning style with more acting over reflecting.

Using experiential learning theory, this study has clarified what competencies of managers are more developed than those of non-managers and how the two groups learn differently.

This chapter argues for the development of a model of tutor/student interaction, applying experiential theory and using a learning community framework to improve the student learning experience and to enhance the quality of course curriculum and content. A further value is the opportunity for students, to ‘find’ potential solutions to workplace problems and, as public sector managers, to challenge and change workplace practices and attitudes.

This chapter explores the practice of using course participants’ own experiences to inform course content and increase the currency and value of teaching and initiates development of what could eventually become a real co-production process.

The chapter applies an experiential approach to education and learning, contending that this could lead to a potential co-production process. It argues that this combined approach is a useful model by which to examine current workplace issues using the professional experiences of course participants.

The chapter advances the argument put forward in ‘Another Look at Research’ (Oldfield, 2016) by placing experiential learning within the context of a co-production approach to the delivery of education and learning and delineating a distinctive pedagogical approach to mid-career education.

A central aim of higher education is employability, in order to enable graduates to act in dynamic working environments. Internships as the prevalent work-based learning (WBL) settings offer such an opportunity during the studies; they are commonly used and broadly researched as interventions to improve students’ skills and competences. The purpose of this paper is to examine the influencing factors on students’ skills and competences that lead to employability in WBL settings.

The paper provides a synthesis of relevant international empirical research on beneficial effects of the very common WBL setting, internship, to create a research framework across disciplines.

The current research is characterized by a search for “best practices,” rather than a holistic and systematic view, acknowledging and taking into account different perspectives and their influence. It cannot sufficiently explain why employability in some WBL settings is enhanced more than in others. Therefore, it is necessary to expand the current understanding and evaluation of WBL as an experiential and situated learning experience. It is essential to take promotive factors from the university, the practical partner and the student perspective into account to understand employability enhancement. Based on these findings, a research framework for a holistic perspective on influencing factors of students’ employability is designed.

There is no empirical proof for the findings yet. Future empirical research may, therefore, be directed toward empirical testing of the impact of WBL settings.

It is possible to infer recommendations for improving WBL settings from the three parties involved by interlinking situated and experiential theory.