Outdoor Learning Research

Insight into forms and functions

Sue Waite

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9780367664183
• eBook ISBN: 9780429791000
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

The term 'outdoor learning' covers many forms of practice outside the classroom, including Forest School and outdoor play. Outdoor learning has been rapidly growing as a topic of interest for educators and parents over the last ten years, and research published in this field is also increasing. Despite the fact that we are inextricably part of the natural world, there is concern that contemporary children have become disconnected from nature and that their opportunities to access natural environments are declining. Given compelling evidence that time spent in natural places has multiple benefits for human health and wellbeing and pro-environmental behaviour (Bourn et al., 2016), there is an impetus to find ways to increase children's exposure to and attachment to nature through their education.

The chapters in this book were originally peer-reviewed articles published in Education 3–13: International Journal of Primary, Elementary and Early Years Education. They are amongst the most popular in the journal, reflecting the demand for more evidence of outcomes and high-quality information about how best to implement outdoor learning for children in this age group. The authors report qualitative and quantitative studies and consider implications of the findings for children and their development, and for the integration (or not) of natural environment contexts within school practices. Gathering this body of evidence together in a single volume enables important messages about outdoor learning's various purposes, processes and outcomes to be more readily accessed by practitioners, policy makers and researchers.

Teaching and learning outside the classroom: personal values, alternative pedagogies and standards

Sue Waite

The article reports on a recent survey of 334 settings in a county in the South West of England and five case studies exploring current practice and aspirations for learning outdoors for children between the ages of 2 to 11. Practitioners’ aspirations for outdoor learning appear to go beyond providing fresh air and ‘letting off steam’ and include alternative pedagogies and enrichment for the curriculum. This paper critically evaluates the implications of personal values associated with the outdoors including freedom and fun; ownership and autonomy; authenticity; love of rich sensory environment and physicality for pedagogical practice. Yet, barriers to the full exploitation of the potential of outdoor learning remain and some of the tensions reported between personal values and the drive for improving standards continues in the UK are examined.

Introduction

In this paper, I look at how demands for attention to standards and practitioners’ personal values compete in realising alternative pedagogies suited to outdoor contexts. I critically evaluate the pedagogical value of enjoyment, a form of ‘desire’, which implies positive affective and motivational qualities. Positive affective elements featured in outdoor learning are then explored. Focusing on provision taking place outside for children aged between 2 and 11 years in a rural county in England, I examine what practitioners aspire to achieve in outdoor learning (their values for outdoor learning) and the extent to which they appear to offer alternative pedagogy (as exemplified in their reported activities). Finally, I summarise the tensions they experience in offering alternative pedagogies in the prevailing context in English education.

Educational policy context

An individual autonomous approach to teaching widespread in the 1960s and 1970s gave way to a more centrally determined structure with the advent of the National Curriculum in 1988 in the UK. Since then, a series of education strategies (e.g. DfEE 1998, 1999) have been implemented with a common tendency to address instances of poor teaching by a homogenisation of teaching approaches. The dominant pedagogy, if it can be so described, includes high levels of structure, teacher-led learning and prescribed whole-class activities; it represents a teaching method rather than a pedagogy informed by values and context. More directive and directed teaching methods were introduced as part of a back to basics drive to raise standards but have been criticised as reflecting a technicist approach to teaching and learning (Pring 2001; Alexander 2004). Furthermore they imply a view of knowledge as transmissible at odds with socio-constructivist ideas about the co-construction of knowledge as a mediation between what is offered and what is received. An instructivist model of teaching (Duffy and Jonassen 1991), exemplified by scripted teaching in the US and whole class didactic teaching in the Literacy Strategy in the UK, oversimplifies complex relationships where learning is constructed in interactions through class discussion, collaborative working, and activities that are relevant and contingent to the learners’ prior knowledge and experience (Vygotsky 1962). More recently and still within an overarching agenda of standards and school improvement, another initiative was launched within the Primary National Strategy, ‘Excellence and Enjoyment’ (DfES 2003) and related subsequently developed continuing professional development materials (DfES 2004). They were intended to support new approaches to learning and teaching built upon local identification of priorities for improvement and the engagement of staff and students in learning through enjoyment (Waite, Carrington, and Passy 2005; Passy and Waite 2008). The underlying assumption is two-fold in that learning is seen as occurring through interaction between individuals within specific communities (Lave and Wenger 1991), hence situated and local. But it is further refined by the role that teachers are given in providing creative and stimulating facilitation for learning, a co-constructivist approach (Vygotsky 1962). In an earlier research project (Waite, Carrington, and Passy 2005) evaluating the Excellence and Enjoyment CPD materials, the head teacher of an inner city school had purchased professional DJ record decks to engage his primary school pupils in positive attitudes to school and learning. His love of music was caught by rather than taught to the pupils through their mutual enjoyment. Their shared co-construction of meaning and motivation for learning to be a DJ had wider reaching effects on the engagement in learning of pupils in his school, illustrating a facilitative role of ‘desire’ in the co-construction of learning and teaching.

Resultant changes in learning and teaching may therefore provide a means of incorporating driving up of standards through a re-awakening of joy in learning (Waite and Rea 2007). However, these twin aims of excellence and enjoyment are seen both in support and conflict by staff. The weight on standards accorded by the priority of ‘Excellence’ over ‘Enjoyment’ in the title of the document (DfES 2003) set against the positioning of learning before teaching in the text, with its implied change in emphasis to learning of children rather than teaching methods, suggests that some ambivalence remains around whether enjoyment is really advocated as the route to desired improvement. Is emotion being harnessed to the plough of standards, a daunting enough prospect in itself, or as Hartley suggests, merely providing consumer glossiness to the performance of educational production, a ‘personalised standardisation’ (2006, 13). Teachers remain caught between perceived risks of resisting a system judged by narrow assessment criteria and an apparent warrant to embrace self-determination and develop ways to enthuse learners in their particular context (Webb and Vuillamy 2007; Passy and Waite 2008). Alexander (2004) argues that the government’s interventionist approach to education understandably makes teachers wary.

So although broader aims for pedagogy, including affective concepts such as enjoyment and well being, are beginning to be seen by some as supportive of improvement, do they, in practice, necessarily lead to alternative forms of pedagogy from those previously recommended (Alexander 2004)? Research would suggest that teachers still experience conflict in adopting creative approaches while performance remains a strong factor in the judgement of schools (Woods et al. 1997; Waite, Carrington, and Passy 2005). One might anticipate that conflict will be greater when perceived aims for teaching and learning narrow to a subject-based curriculum after the early years foundation stage (DfES 2007) which is premised on a higher degree of choice for teacher and child in how the curriculum is enacted.

Learning and enjoyment

Nevertheless, there is evidence that enjoyment and autonomy of choice contribute to improved learning and the application of that learning. For example, Erk et al. (2003) found words stored in a positive emotional context were remembered better than those in neutral or negative contexts, so that what children wish to learn and enjoy learning will be better retained than what they have no choice about. Furthermore, Immordino-Yang and Damasio (2007) argue that emotional content not only reinforces memory but also makes learning accessible to important social uses. Their studies of adults with brain damage show that, although they have cognitive awareness of facts, without an emotional element they are unable to use that information to make successful judgments and decisions in their life. (See Waite (2007) in this journal for further discussion of the role of affect in memory.) Spitzer (2006) reminds us that the brain is always learning and that it is not just in designated contexts such as the classroom that this occurs. Play, especially for younger children, is an essential mode of learning, but children and staff may not always recognise alternative modes as ‘learning’ unless they share characteristics of the formal. In Waite and Davis (2007), children in nursery classes aged 4 and 5 taken to Forest Schools identified factual knowledge or skill gains but not creative benefits such as storytelling or child-initiated practical science activities as ‘learning’. It is as if the mediation of a teacher has become integral to their perception of learning and that natural experiential learning of earlier childhood has been displaced by the structure of classroom practice. So, if assessment in the later years of primary schooling remains tied to tightly defined cognitive outcomes, broader learning opportunities may not be recognised, acknowledged or encouraged by practitioners. Yet, perhaps these opportunities for enjoyment and diverse learning outcomes might continue to be made available in outdoor contexts.

Outdoor contexts for teaching and learning

Children’s experience of enjoyment in the outdoors is widely reported (Millward and Whey 1997; Armitage 2001; Waite and Rea 2007). Policy for learning outside the classroom in England has recently been set out in the Learning Outside the Classroom Manifesto (DfES 2006) and benefits such as physical (Pellegrini and Smith 1998) and emotional and social well being (Perry 2001) are claimed. Learning outdoors is an expectation within the early years foundation stage for children from birth to five (DfES 2007) but Rickinson et al. (2004) argue that there is a lack of consensus about what ‘outdoor education’ comprises. One current debate is whether learning outdoors is or should be of the same kind as that more usually encountered inside (Rea 2008), thereby providing a seamless experience for children (DfES 2007). However, Edgington (2002) suggests that the sheer scale of the outdoors necessarily changes the sort of learning experiences children have. Furthermore, part of the allure of the outdoors may lie in the departure from the familiar context of the classroom and traditional forms of learning (Broderick and Pearce 2001; Rea 2008). Certainly Waite and Davis (2007) noted how free play and child-initiated exploration of the natural environment appeared to engage children to a greater extent than adult-led activities in Forest School. The children demonstrated high levels of involvement, which are considered to signal that deep learning is taking place (Pascal and Bertram 1997). There are indications, therefore, that learning is affected by the outdoor context, but does being outside necessarily change the pedagogy employed in that context to one which incorporates greater choice and enjoyment for learners?

Research context

The research reported in this paper followed earlier work for a local authority evaluating the impact of Forest Schools for children aged 3–5 years (Waite and Davis 2007). It sought to contextualise those previous findings by exploring the role that outdoor learning had or might have from the perspective of mainstream settings for children aged 2–11 years within a rural county. The research had two parts:

• Postal surveys to all childminders (n = 898, r = 77, rr = 9%), ‘preschools’ i.e. play groups and day nurseries (n = 427, r = 120, rr = 28%) and primary schools (n = 439, r = 128, rr = 29%) in the county regarding their provision and aspirations for outdoor learning (Waite, Davis, and Brown 2006a). A further nine questionnaires were received from out of school clubs which have not been included in this paper. [n = number, r = respondents, rr = response rate]

• Case studies of five settings, a childminder, play group, day nursery, foundation stage and primary school¹ to explore provision and aims in more detail (Waite, Davis, and Brown 2006b).

The survey (in two forms to address provision for 2–5 and 6–11 age groups) provided an overview of practice and principles regarding outdoor learning from 334 settings (19% response rate overall). Sections of the survey were as follows: background information about the respondent and setting; the physical environment; current policy and practice; aspirations for outdoor learning. Schools had the highest rate of response (29%), while only 9% of childminders replied. This may be partly attributed to difficulties in obtaining up to date contact details for this somewhat shifting workforce. Higher response rates might have been achieved by using the Childminders Association rather than local authority as the distributors of the survey.

Case studies were selected from survey responses and through discussion with local authority early years advisors based on responses that showed interesting and innovative practice in outdoor learning. They included a childminder, preschool, day nursery, foundation stage class and primary school. Mapping, observation, documentary evidence, interviews with staff and children and photographic records were used to gather information and attitudes within different types of setting, producing rich narratives from a variety of perspectives.

Analysis involved:

(1) entry into SPSS for the quantitative elements of the survey;

(2) content analysis derived from repeated reading of open ended comments in the survey, interview and document material by at least two members of the team independently who provisionally identified and then met to agree themes present within the qualitative data; and

(3) entry into N6 (qualitative software) to facilitate the storage and manipulation of the agreed themes.

In the followin...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Citation Information
• Notes on Contributors
• Preface
• Introduction: Outdoor Learning: exploring possibilities for educational enrichment
• 1 Teaching and learning outside the classroom: personal values, alternative pedagogies and standards
• 2 ‘Memories are made of this’: some reflections on outdoor learning and recall
• Part I International perspectives about outdoor learning
• Part II Embedding outdoor learning in education for children aged 3–13
• Part III Purposes and pedagogies of outdoor learning
• References
• Summary Table
• Index