How to portray professional reality in higher education settings? Using experiential learning and multiculturalism to improve students' knowledge acquisition

Abstract

Professional reality within a classroom is one of the most difficult tasks to accurately achieve. However, it is of high relevance for Higher Education students to be able to know first-hand the characteristics, both positive and negative, of working in a specific professional environment. The present article describes a learning activity specifically designed for Generation Y students. Based on “flipped classroom” methodology, this experiential learning project consisted in students creating a Tourism fair, each group promoting a specific city or country. They were expected to carry out all activities involved in the design as well as execution of the promotion of a destination, including market research, design of a commercial strategy, interaction with an audience, promoting the event on the media and social media, among others. Students were expected to develop collaboration and team work feelings, while manage conflicts, improve their communicative and leadership skills, plan accurately to obtain results, and most importantly: be innovative and learn how to operate in a potential future job. By evaluating their performance as well as their feedback, the experience proved to consolidate students’ learning process, increase their motivation towards the courses involved and their overall degree, their degree of involvement and overall course grades.