From Theory to Practice: Experiential Learning at YSPH

This Spotlight on Teaching focuses on the work of Associate Professor Krystal Pollitt, PhD, PEng, who emphasizes experiential learning in her courses. Visit our Spotlight on Teaching website to learn more about other faculty teaching techniques.

In recent years, experiential learning has gained prominence as a powerful teaching approach. This educational strategy, which emphasizes learning through direct experience, is transforming the way students assimilate knowledge and apply it in real-world scenarios. One notable example of experiential learning at Yale School of Public Health (YSPH) is the Environmental Health Sciences course (EHS 530) Our Air, Our Health, taught by Associate Professor Krystal Pollitt, PhD, PEng.

Experiential learning is composed of four stages. The first stage requires taking part in an event. For the students in Dr. Pollitt’s class, this means taking a walking tour of Yale’s home city, New Haven, Connecticut, to measure airborne particulate matter with air sensors. The students observe real-time changes in air quality as they travel the city’s busy streets, quiet neighborhoods, and restaurants, culminating their journey at the climate-controlled environment of Yale’s Beinecke Library. Next, the students install the sensors outside their homes. The class then performs forensics analysis on the collected data, exploring how pollution intensities vary over time and space. These events provide students with concrete experiences related to the topic of the course.

During the walking tour, and later as the students’ home monitor data comes in from across New Haven County, the class is prompted to reflect on the changes that were seen in the data. What were the characteristics of the places and spaces that had the highest and lowest readings? How do these characteristics map onto their everyday lives? How did weather patterns impact the readings? And was this consistent in each of their locations? This second stage of experiential learning, reflective observation, is a crucial component of the experiential learning concept. Engaging students in reflective exercises ensures they process and internalize what they learn. Dr. Pollitt emphasized the importance of reflection in an interview. "Information needs to be digested, processed, and then communicated back,” Pollitt said. “This reflective engagement is essential in helping students develop critical thinking and a deeper understanding of the material.”

The third stage of experiential learning is conceptualization, which requires integrating an experience into formal theories and frameworks. During this stage, students place their personal data in the context of the larger scientific field. Because the data being discussed has such a personal element, it is much easier for the students to be thoughtfully critical while learning the theories rather than simply accepting them because an instructor stated them to be valid, Having this process led by Dr. Pollitt, an internationally renowned expert in air pollution, provides students with a broader context in which to understand the often ‘messy’ reality of data.

The fourth stage of experiential learning is experimentation. A fundamental aspect of the scientific process is that if a theory is valid, it should be able to predict future observations. After the students in Dr. Pollitt’s class have assimilated their experiences and reflections into broader theories and frameworks, they test them. Air samplers are placed in each student's kitchen, and while attending class via Zoom, they all make pancakes together. This allows the students to see the impact of a common activity on the indoor air quality in their homes. By experimenting with various interventions (e.g., turning on fans or opening windows), students gain valuable insights into how they can manage the quality of the air around them.

While the four stages of experiential learning (event, reflection, conceptualization, and experimentation) are prototypically demonstrated in Dr. Pollitt’s course, they can be found throughout the courses offered at YSPH. Sometimes, the event may be in the form of a case study, where students read about the challenges a protagonist faces in a real-life scenario; reflection may involve responding to polling questions during a lecture, and experimentation may consist of applying a theory to a data set in a homework problem.

During a recent meeting of the YSPH Office of Academic Affairs journal club, the various ways experiential learning appears in our courses were discussed by instructors from across the school. Traditional strategies like lecturing and homework are still an essential foundation for learning. But the addition of experience and reflection, as demonstrated in Dr. Pollitt’s classroom, provides a much deeper and more robust learning experience.

Experiential learning is a dynamic and impactful approach that bridges the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application. By fostering reflective engagement and active learning, educators like Dr. Pollitt are equipping students with the skills and confidence needed to understand, conduct, and use rigorous science to advance population-level health. YSPH is committed to providing an education that integrates science and the real-world practice of public health as part of its mission to educate generations of public health leaders. The critical thinking skills, depth of learning, and metacognitive awareness that experiential learning provides prepare our graduates to face the rapidly changing realities of making public health foundational to communities everywhere.

To further facilitate the advancement of experiential learning and other innovative teaching strategies, the YSPH Office of Academic Affairs is pleased to announce the inaugural YSPH Grant for Innovation in Teaching program. This funding opportunity is available to all primary YSPH faculty for courses taught at YSPH. For more information, please contact Mike Honsberger (michael.honsberger@yale.edu).

Mike Honsberger is Director of Academic Affairs at the Yale School of Public Health. This article was developed with the assistance of Clarity, an AI chatbot powered by Yale University.