What is Outdoor Learning ?
Outdoor Learning means different things to different people depending on background, context, and educational system. For the purpose of this website and all research and publications contained on this website Outdoor Learning refers to
Outdoor learning engages students in experiences and activities in the outdoors. Outdoor Learning can operate in connection with traditional education (indoors) or separately and can be planned or allow for student exploration and discovery. Outdoor Learning can occur in any outdoor environment from the playground to a forest.
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History of Outdoor Learning
Using the Outdoors as a part of Education has long been shown as beneficial, one just has to look back to influential philosophers in the early 1900s including John Dewey who advocated for children to spend time outdoors as a part of schooling.
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Over the last 100 years, different phases have come and gone regarding the implementation of education in the outdoors, this ranges from Nature Study in the early 1900s, Character building in the 1920s (Scouts, YMCA), and Outdoor Education since the early 1900s. In addition to these other education-based terminologies have been used when describing education that occurs in the outdoors including Environmental Education, Place-based Education, and Nature-Based Early childhood Education.
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Outdoor Learning shares many fundamental components with these aforementioned programs, however, Outdoor Learning does not rely soley on recreation-based activities such as rock climbing, kayaking, or canoeing, it does not need to replace existing classes (instead it can be used to enhance existing classrooms) and It can be successfully implemented in just a few short minutes.
Outdoor learning is simply the act of teaching and learning outside. Joyce, (2012) notes that the use of Outdoor
Learning in schools "has become highly visible in recent years, in the press, in magazines, on television, on the internet" (p.1), which coincides with the increase of schools embedding the outdoors within the programs.
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The average child seldom comes in direct contact with nature. In school he learns a few dates from books, to press a button, to step on an accelerator; but he is in danger of losing contact with primitive realities – with the world, with the space about us, with fields, with rivers, with the problems of getting shelter and of obtaining food that have always conditioned life and that still do. - John Dewey, 1937
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Benefits of Outdoor Learning
There are countless benefits to embedding and implementing Outdoor Learning across various levels of education. Often overlooked when discussing the benefits of Outdoor Learning programs are the benefits for facilitators and teachers when implementing Outdoor Learning programs including many mental health benefits.
Peer-reviewed benefits of Outdoor Learning programs vary and at times similar to Outdoor Education it is important to note that having so many benefits can detract from the acceptance of Outdoor Learning programs. (As many people external to Outdoor Learning see the number of potential benefits and cast it to the side thinking "no way can all this be done")
Examples of research highlighting the benefits of Outdoor Learning in various contexts include but are not limited to
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Increased motivation
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Decreased stress levels
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better mental health
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improved grades
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increases outdoor learning skills
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positive attitudes toward the environment
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Enhances positive outlook on life
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Assists recovery from mental fatigue
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Improves productivity
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Assists ability to cope
The Value of Outdoor Learning, 2006
Nature Contact Maller, Pryor & Townsend, 2008, P.75
COVID and Outdoor Learning
Epidemiologists learned that Coronavirus does not last for extended periods outdoors. Danish schools returned in April after lockdown with recommendations to “hold classes outside so that children can be outdoors as much as possible” (Mulvahill, 2020). In Scotland, the pandemic may “push parents and teachers to embrace the benefits of education in the outdoors” (Brooks, 2020).
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Neill and Foley (2021) find, “COVID-19 also presents opportunities. Higgins (2020) suggests that although the COVID-19 pandemic may be a factor stimulating interest in the role outdoor learning can play in post-Coronavirus school recovery. While “social distancing,” class sizes, limitations of the school estate, etc., may be driving factors, interest in outdoor learning amongst policymakers is palpable, and there is growing recognition of its potential in education, health, and well-being benefits (p.100).
Research and interest in the Outdoor Learning space resulting from COVID-19 continue to grow, below is a section of updated links to contemporary journal articles or news articles relevant to COVID and Outdoor Learning.
News Articles
Outdoor learning spaces necessitated by pandemic now here to stay
https://www.wcax.com/2022/05/23/outdoor-learning-spaces-necessitated-by-pandemic-now-here-stay/
Parents raise funds, build outdoor learning space in battle to keep school open
https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/parents-raise-funds-build-outdoor-learning-space-in-battle-to-keep-school-open
8 to 3: Outdoor classrooms are rare despite COVID-19. That could soon change
https://www.latimes.com/california/newsletter/2021-06-28/outdoor-classrooms-california-8-to-3
Learning Blooms in Outdoor Classrooms
https://www.edutopia.org/article/learning-blooms-outdoor-classrooms
Journal Articles
What future/s for outdoor and environmental education in a world that has contended with COVID-19?https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42322-020-00059-2
Assessing the usefulness of outdoor learning in the early years during the COVID-19 pandemic in Malta
https://www.um.edu.mt/library/oar/handle/123456789/66521
When it matters most: a trauma-informed, outdoor learning programme to support children’s wellbeing during COVID-19 and beyond
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03323315.2021.1915843
What future/s for outdoor and environmental education in a world that has contended with COVID-19?
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42322-020-00059-2
Outdoor teaching as an alternative to Emergency Remote Teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic
https://www.eu-er.com/download/outdoor-teaching-as-an-alternative-to-emergency-remote-teaching-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-12051.pdf
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