Learning as Experience: Rethinking Early Childhood Curriculum with the Strategy of Bauhaus Philosophy

In recent years, new approaches to early childhood education, especially inspired by Dewey's views, have placed special emphasis on learning as experience. According to this view, learning becomes meaningful when the child actively interacts with his or her environment, experiences, creates, and discovers concepts through engagement with materials. ). This approach provides the possibility of designing active and creative learning environments for children and paves the way for reconstructing the curriculum based on experience. In continuation of this view, the educational philosophy of Bauhaus can also be considered as an inspiring model for rethinking early childhood curricula. Founded in 1919 by Walter Gropius, the Bauhaus school focused on the integration of art, life, and production, pursuing learning not through direct instruction but through making, experimenting, and active engagement with real materials. Despite numerous theoretical and empirical studies on the importance of experiential learning in early childhood, the effective implementation of this approach in Iranian preschools faces numerous obstacles and challenges. One of the fundamental challenges is the lack of flexible and experiential curricula that provide children with sufficient opportunities to explore, touch, make, and trial and error. Many current curricula are still influenced by traditional, memory-based, and one-sided models. As an integrated approach between art, life, and creativity, the Bauhaus offers an inspiring model for early childhood art education; one in which the child is at the center of experience, exploration, and meaning-making. The aim of this study was to explore the understanding and contextual experience of preschool teachers in Sanandaj city of art-centered experiential learning using Bauhaus principles. The research method was data-based theory with a structuralist approach of "Charms". 12 teachers were invited to be interviewed through purposive sampling based on theoretical saturation. Data analysis in three stages of open, axial and selective coding led to the extraction of eight selected categories in two sections of challenges and strategies. The findings showed that three main obstacles, including "bureaucratic curriculum", "lack of professionalism of teachers" and "cultural and organizational limitations", limit the possibility of realizing experiential learning. However, teachers have tried to overcome these obstacles by adopting five creative strategies, including "child-centered project-based", "participatory learning", "thought-oriented actions", "application of simple facilities" and "interaction with family". This research, while opening new horizons in early childhood education, shows that even in limited and conservative contexts, it is possible to recreate learning through experience, imagination, and creative participation.The Bauhaus philosophy, with its emphasis on hands-on learning, workshop-based learning, and the connection between art and everyday life, is a valuable model for rethinking early childhood curricula. Founded in 1919 by Walter Gropius in Weimar, Germany, the Bauhaus school or philosophy is one of the most influential educational movements in the history of art and design. The school’s main goal was to integrate art, craft, and technology so that design could be understood and experienced as part of people’s everyday lives. Education at the Bauhaus emphasized learning by doing; students understood the concepts of design and composition not only theoretically but also in practical workshops and by working with real materials. Workshops were the main focus of education, and each workshop was led by masters of form and masters of industry. Another distinctive feature of the Bauhaus was the interdisciplinary nature of education, blurring the lines between architecture, industrial design, graphics, and visual arts, and encouraging students to create hybrid projects. The Bauhaus educational philosophy also emphasized the connection between art and everyday life, believing that education should be such that works of art are present in the concrete lives of people. This approach is particularly in line with the principles of experiential learning in early childhood education, where children internalize concepts through touching, making, experiencing, and trial and error. From this perspective, the teachings of the Bauhaus can inspire the design of preschool curricula that provide workshop-based, interdisciplinary, and experiential learning environments to foster children’s creativity and critical thinking. These principles are fundamentally aligned with the concept of “learning as experience”; A concept first proposed by Dewey (19896) and later expanded. Experiential learning, as a fundamental approach, is a process in which an individual constructs knowledge through active participation, interaction with the environment, and reflection on experiences. He has modeled this process in the form of a four-stage cycle including objective experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation. In this view, learning becomes deep and sustainable when an individual actively participates in discovering and reflecting on his or her own experiences. In addition, Vygotsky, by proposing the theory of social interaction and the concept of the zone of proximal development, emphasized the importance of social cooperation and guidance in cognitive development. On the other hand, Piaget, by emphasizing the child's active interaction with the environment, defines learning as an active and constructive process in which the child forms concepts through personal experience and exploration.

Studies show that the principles of experiential learning, such as active participation, interaction with the environment, and knowledge construction, are directly reflected in the educational philosophy of the Bauhaus. In this school, learning took place through interaction with real materials, constructive experiences, reflection on the work process, and encountering successes and failures. This approach can be an inspiring model for recreating early childhood curricula; environments in which children develop their critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity skills through interdisciplinary activities, constructive games, and creative projects. From this perspective, the connection between the educational philosophy of the Bauhaus and experiential learning provides a pristine field for the development of active, self-directed, and creative learning environments in preschool education.On the other hand, in the field of early childhood education, there are prominent educational models that are deeply connected to the principles of experiential learning and in some aspects are aligned with the Bauhaus educational philosophy. The Reggio Emilia model, with its emphasis on project-based learning, the importance of the environment as the “third teacher,” and the valuing of the child’s creative expression, provides an experiential and artistic framework for learning. In SCOPE models, the key principle of “plan, do, review” as an experiential learning cycle emphasizes child self-direction and active learning. Also, the Montessori approach emphasizes the development of self-regulation and hands-on learning by providing environments rich in sensory tools and the possibility of freely choosing activities. The commonalities of these models with the Bauhaus philosophy are evident in their emphasis on learning through direct experience, practical work, fostering creativity, and active interaction with the environment. In all three approaches, as in the teachings of Bauhaus, the child is seen as an active learner in the process of discovering and constructing meaning,