The Arcosanti Workshop Program as with most workshops tend to emphasize hands on learning over classroom learning. There is a component to the program where ideas are discussed.
What should be emphasized is that there needs to be a balance in the education process between thinking and discussion in a learning setting and then going out into the field to test the hypotheses generated in the classroom discussions. Experience learning is about learning by doing - getting practical knowledge of how to do something by actually doing it not overthinking it as is often the result of too much traditional academic structure in the learning process - a student may actually fear experimenting in the field because of the risks involved and that they don't have those practical skills to competently do the hands work.
Experiential learning has powerful fixes in the conscious as well as the unconscious and was previously a key aspect of childhood development - that is when children were allowed to roam their hometowns on their own. Roaming the neighborhood used to be a schooling of its own. The demise of the neighborhood has all but abolished the constructive aspects of schooling. That also goes for the experiencing of nature, now increasingly seems made and packaged for the privileged to see, enjoy and experience with the increasing cost of travel and park fees esp when considering the stagnant or declining wages for many in US.
The Urban Effect is "the breaking down of physical, social and cultural barriers" that inhibit the sharing and self-actualizing process by sequestering people in their houses.
We learn best through combining our learning processes with participation in the everyday, real-world activities associated with the construction and running of a human habitat and the various "life support systems" that are necessary to the continued existence of this project-the techniques and methods of sustaining the community.
Notes:
Paolo Soleri Arcosanti: An Urban Laboratory? 1987 P.61