As we move into our second CoVid winter, it is time to think again about outdoor learning – what extra value can it bring? Is outdoor learning safer than learning in classrooms and workspaces? Can we combine outdoor learning and mobile learning? The Institute for Outdoor Learning aims to showcase the research evidence and practices of outdoor learning and demonstrate the benefits to the individuals and societies. The IOL’s framework reminds us that outdoor learning includes many activities, traditional and experimental, and that it can support a range of different learning objectives – social, vocational, environmental and academic.
Chart by the Institute for Outdoor Learning
The US National Park Service runs an official programme, Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP), that offers teaching tools and lesson plans, maps, research and learning opportunities to help engage young people with powerful stories representing America’s diverse history. The activities are connected not only to history teaching, but to geography, civics, social studies and other subjects.
Image by NPS Teaching with Historic Places programme
Similarly, the UK’s Learning through Landscapes charity provides ideas for outdoor lessons for many disciplines including math, sciences, literacy and languages and social studies.
Until recently, Finnish schools were organizing history lessons in the historic locations in other countries., e.g. using the low-cost airlines to have a class on the Acropolis in Athens! Unfortunately, the lockdown has made this kind of travel impossible, but you can find the Acropolis Virtual Field Trip lesson plan in Google Earth developed by a teacher for teachers. In Serbia, a group of teachers teaching Tourism are currently preparing to task their learners to create a ‘virtual visit’ in order to develop their professional competences.
So why is outdoor learning so important? Research demonstrates that learning in nature “may promote learning by improving learners’ attention, levels of stress, self-discipline, interest and enjoyment in learning, and physical activity and fitness.
There is also evidence that outside of the classroom, students have more opportunity to learn directly from their experiences and from their actions. Indeed, classrooms seem to be designed to ‘focus’ learners experience on what the teacher says and writes and to limit student actions to listening and writing. As Ljudmilla Rozhdestvenskaja argues: if students combine ‘outdoors’ and ‘classroom’ learning, this can enable them to access experiences and learn from action outdoors and connect this to critical discussion, reflection and theory-building in the classroom.
The lockdown has resulted in even greater sensory deprivation than we were used to before. Many students have, for several months, not even been able to access classrooms! Visits to historical sites, industrial or geographic sites can provide rich and stimulating experiences – including touch, as well as sight and sound – that can help students revive their interest in learning. With careful planning, outdoor learning can be safer than classroom learning since fields and woods are much better ventilated! Combined with mobile learning, outdoors learning does not need to be cut off from classroom learning! Learners in different places can be connected together to carry out hybrid-outdoors field trips.
It appears that pandemic lockdown and distance-education has created not only a synchronous lesson Zoom fatigue, but also pushed practitioners towards better understanding of the importance of outdoor educational activities.
Another modality associated with the outdoor learning is problem-based learning (PBL) in the form of a quest, discovery and/or investigation. A conventional set of tasks and assignments can be converted to a discovery mission, with semi-structured activities aided by the portable electronic devices. For example, primary school children can investigate the geometry of buildings in their town or measure areas or volumes in their neighborhoods. Outdoor learning offers lots of opportunities for cross-curricular and integrated learning. The young scientist can search for traces of different animals in the woods or collect the plants and later identify them with the mobile app.
Outdoor learning is much used in Phenomenon based learning. In some Finnish schools, every student is required to participate in at least one multidisciplinary phenomenon-based learning module per year. Phenomenon-based learning supports a holistic approach to learning and encourages the collaboration and communication skills critical for 21st century workplaces.
During the pandemic when the movement is limited, the outdoor activity could be organized even in a school yard. Outdoor learning provides space for students to develop collaboration, leadership and communication skills and to adapt to different contexts.
Field trips can support social sciences, entrepreneurial and vocational learning. Students can investigate traffic, industrial development, housing, retail, leisure etc. Mobile devices can be used to assist with planning, communication, data logging, analysis, mapping and recording.
Popular quests and games expand the boundaries of the outdoor learning, and could be considered a part of informal education. Seeking clues by solving some equations, e.g. the coordinates, and then finding AR objects in certain locations could be also become a part of the well-organized blended educational activity.
My colleague Mimoza Anastoska-Jankulovska wrote about gamification and games in education. I would also expand gamification to the outdoor learning activities, making them even more playful. I’d also suggest mixing digital and physical activities in the outdoor games for a more immersive educational experience. Greater use could be made of outdoor electronic playgrounds. to develop skills or to provide a framework for learning. A school Robotics or Engineering club could be challenged to create such smart board or floor for use in the school yard.
Image: WIZEFLOOR
After the Pandemic I expect we will value the outdoor learning much more. I propose to have more teacher training courses to support outdoor learning like the one designed by my colleague.
Do you have experiences of outdoor learning that you would like to share?
Have you managed to integrate classroom learning and outdoor learning?
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