Sharing Good Practice
AN UNDER-USED RESOURCE
OUTDOOR LEARNING
BY MAARIT ROSSI
Parachute, laskuvarjo
T
oo often learning happens
inside the school building.
As educators, we do not
pay enough attention to the
possibilities that outdoor learning
presents. Outdoor learning is possible
in many subjects, there is also great
opportunities for cross curricular
learning outdoors. Think of how
outdoor learning lends itself to greater
involvement of partners and members
of the local community as well as
businesses including factories and
other organisations.
Social learning during the
breaks
well become. The American Academy
of Pediatrics recommends play as
essential to children’s development,
because it contributes to the cognitive,
physical, social, and emotional well-
being of children. Through play,
children experiment and test out
possibilities. Play allows children
to pretend, to explore different
alternatives, to problem solve and to
be creative. new foreign language vocabulary
to stick. Exercise can help you focus
and stay on task. Just 10 minutes of
play, like bouncing two balls at the
same time, improved the attention of
a large group of German teenagers.
Sitting still all day, every day, can be
dangerous. We have to rethink the
structure of the school day but also
what is happening inside and outside
the classrooms!
Research also shows that different
activities make your brain work better.
German researchers found that walking
or cycling during learning helped Phenomenon-based learning
This may be the easiest way to start
to adding outdoor learning to the
curriculum. During the school day
students need time to build and
practice their social skills, if they are
old enough, allow them to go off and
interact with each other socially during
their breaks. There should be minimal
interference from members of staff. If
we don’t give this opportunity to them
then they may want to interact socially
during the lessons. Social interaction
may not be classed as “ learning”
but it is the time when students get
to acquire the all-important social
skills. Create areas where students can
interact socially. The more active those
areas are, the more creative students
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Nov - Dec 2018
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Class Time
In
phenomenon-based
learning
and teaching, holistic real-world