EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING PRACTICES OF MARITIME STUDENTS AND THEIR ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE: BASIS FOR FACULTY DEVELOPMENT PLAN

Students in maritime education frequently have to understand challenging concepts in ship handling, navigation, and maritime safety. Nowadays, experiential learning styles have become the talk of educational emphasis in general. With these, the study identified such styles to find a point of departure in designing a teachers' training plan that considers the learning preferences of students and thus improves the quality of maritime education at the institution. By employing descriptive correlational design and administering a 4-point likert scale questionnaire to 150 maritime students, the study revealed that maritime students generally preferred hands-on learning, reflection, theoretical frameworks, and experimentation, with the highest engagement in active, practical learning experiences. Significant relationships were found in experiential learning practices based on age, sec, and year level. It is concluded that the students seem to enjoy participating in activities where they apply what they know, reflect on what happened, and assimilate the concepts into action. It is recommended that maritime students engage more in experiential learning activities that balance both hands-on practice and teachers must incorporate a balanced approach to learning that integrates experiential learning with traditional theoretical lessons.