"Traditional classrooms often leave little room for student involvement and initiative. In a "rethought" classroom, concepts need to be experienced firsthand, not just read about or heard about. Whether through projects, role plays, simulations, mock trials, or experiments, students need to be mentally, and often physically, active. Our classrooms also must provoke students to develop their democratic capacities: to question, to challenge, to make real decisions, to collectively solve problems." (Introduction: Creating Classrooms for equity and social Justice, pg. 1)
Coming from first hand experience, I have always been more interested and involved when in the classroom we were able to be hands on. I believe that it all depends on the student and the way they learn. Being a dancer I need to see things and demonstrate with them to grasp an idea or have it actually stick in my system. Having the children participate and experiment in the classroom during learning time also keeps them stimulated, intrigued, involved, and focused if the pace is not too slow. Many children find that they keep themselves more involved in the learning process when they have hands on assignments rather than sitting at a desk and just listening. By sitting and listening they quickly become uninterested. For some other children, they find this method of learning or teaching distracting because they seem to not focus as well. They feel as if there is a lot going on around them and they don't know where to draw their attention.
I feel as if participatory, experiential learning can be helpful or distracting mostly depending on the student and the learning environment.
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