When Kimberly Pearce stepped onto a sailboat for class, she didn’t know what to expect, but that was the whole point of the lesson.
In early September, students pursuing their special education licensure partnered with the Milwaukee Community Sailing Center (MCSC) for a unique experiential learning opportunity designed to help them understand how students may feel when entering unfamiliar spaces or navigating new experiences shaped by different abilities, fears, and lived experiences.
“These experiences help me to feel what my students feel when they are asked to do something new,” says Pearce, who expects to complete her master’s degree in special education in May. “Each time I am put into a situation that I have never done, I relate to how my students feel. It also solidifies the fact that making connections with my students is so important because giving them the feeling of safety helps to take away the fear of doing something new.”
The outing challenged future teachers to consider how they can create supportive learning environments that give students with different abilities and needs meaningful opportunities to participate, take risks and succeed.
Students split into groups of two to four and boarded sailboats alongside certified volunteer guides, spending 60 to 90 minutes on the water.
“I thought we were getting on tiny little sailboats that were going to rock and be very unsteady,” says Pearce. “It is terrifying to go into a situation that you don't know. You don't know what to expect, you don't know what the expectations are, and you don't know if you can do it.”
For Thor Stolen, PhD, who has taught this lesson for more than five years, that uncertainty is an important part of the learning process. The goal is to help the students think differently about disability, accessibility and inclusion, and recognize how unfamiliar environments can affect a person's confidence and willingness to participate.
“It puts our teacher candidates in a space where they all come with different abilities and levels of confidence,” he says. “It challenges students to ask ‘Why?’ or ‘What's the point?’"
Once on the water, students had the opportunity to pilot the sailboats with guidance from their volunteer instructors. The experience offered a chance to move beyond assumptions about what they could do and discover what was possible with encouragement and support.
For Pearce, the lesson reinforced the importance of building relationships with students and creating a sense of safety before asking them to step outside their comfort zones.
At the end of the day, Stolen hopes the experience inspires his students to bring that same spirit of exploration and encouragement into their own classrooms.
“I hope they stretch themselves as teachers and encourage their students to stretch themselves to overcome fears,” he says. “I hope they create and engage in unique and meaningful lessons, provide opportunities with peer support, and have fun teaching and learning.”
