Dirty Teaching

Juliet Robertson, Ian Gilbert

• Verlag: Independent Thinking Press
• Jahr: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781781351499
• Thema: Education
• Thema: Education General

One of the keys to a happy and creative classroom is getting out of it and this book will give you the confidence to do just that. Drawing on academic research, Juliet explains why learning outdoors is so beneficial and provides plenty of tips and activities to help you to integrate outdoor learning into your teaching practice, providing a broad range of engaging outdoor experiences for your students.

There is no need for expensive tools or complicated technologies: all you need is your coat and a passion for learning - oh, and you'd better bring the kids too!

Topics covered include: forest schools, learning outside the classroom, outdoor education, nature activities, caring for the environment, play in schools, investigative play, urban outdoor activities, problem solving, creative thinking and strategies for supporting curriculum objectives.

For all primary practitioners who want to shake up their usual classroom routine and discover the benefits of teaching outdoors.

Dirty Teaching was a finalist in the Non-Fiction People's Book Prize Winter 2014 collection.

CHAPTER 1

The Golden Principles of Teaching Outdoors

As teachers, we have beliefs and values that determine how we teach. They shape what we say and do. When working outside over the past few years, I have found it helpful to:

• Take a sustainable and rights-based approach.

• Value free play and playful learning.

• Provide a nurturing, natural environment.

• Develop children’s creative capacities.

For me, these are golden principles because they stand the test of time and change in education. I use them to ensure that I think about the wider purpose of learning outdoors and its contribution to providing children with the best possible education. It is an essential part of making a difference to every child I teach.

Whilst the future may be uncertain, with uncertainty comes opportunity, especially in a rapidly changing society. Therefore, I believe it is our responsibility to help children develop a growth mindset and acquire the practical skills, compassion and empathy in order to live harmoniously and help one another.

A sustainable and rights-based approach

The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The next best time is now.

Chinese proverb

We need to consider the environmental impact of any outdoor lesson, as we do with any other aspect of our teaching. Over the years, we should be making our school grounds and local spaces into better places as a result of our stewardship. If we have a right to use a place, we have a responsibility to care for it.

My belief is that children need outdoor experiences to understand big issues such as climate change. This includes opportunities to experience wild or semi-wild spaces. As they get older, getting involved in collaborative, action-based projects in the local community may also be relevant. It demonstrates that we can all play our part in looking after ourselves, our communities and our local places and wildlife. Families should be included so that children see close agreement between school and home about the importance of sustainability, and participate in discussions and action in both places. Very often, children will initiate this if they are part of the ethos and approach at school.

We know children need the space and time to play freely outside in nature. Yet, it needs to go hand in hand with a developmentally appropriate progression of wider experiences that encourage children to care for nature and to have a basic understanding of natural processes. This was picked up by Nicol et al. when reviewing outdoor learning research:

Simply ‘being outdoors’ is not sufficient for young people to express an ethic of care for nature or develop an understanding of natural processes. These things seem to be learned when they are an explicit aim of experiential activities and when they are mediated in appropriate ways.1

Adults need to model appropriate behaviour and attitudes too. Sustainable development education is a much deeper matter than remembering to pick up litter or save energy. Make sure you know what sustainability means and how you can incorporate your country’s guidelines for sustainable development education into your class routines and practice.

The rights-based approach is two-fold. Firstly, it creates a more child-centred, reflective and positive framework for considering how to teach the big concepts and ideas behind sustainability. It dovetails neatly into the Rights Respecting Schools Award2 and recognises that the UN Convention on the Rights of a Child3 needs to underpin educational practice.

Secondly, most countries have laws about what the public can or cannot do when out in the countryside. It is all too often forgotten that responsibilities go hand-in-hand with rights. For example, in Scotland there is a public right to beachcomb on the foreshore. This is the tidal section between the high-water mark at the top of the beach and the water line. However, with this right comes various responsibilities, such as:

• Being able to identify your finds so that you know what you are taking and can make a sensible decision as to whether it is okay to pick it up or not.

• Gathering finds sustainably and only removing a very small sample, or just taking photos.

• Knowing and understanding the tidal system on a particular beach.

• Behaving in a manner that does not disturb other users or wildlife.

In this example, a sustainable and rights-based emphasis shifts the health and safety concerns about tides and good practice when working near water into a more positive context of knowing and respecting the environment.

Idea 1.1 Know your rights

Find out about the laws in your country relating to access rights. Have a think about how these can be used to develop children’s understanding of how to care for the countryside and as a positive framework for outdoor activities. Think about:

• What behaviours will need to be modelled by adults?

• Are there any games, stories or activities that can be used to reinforce key points or issues? I find these approaches more effective than simply a discussion before going outside.

• What routines can be set up which would help to embed a sustainable and rights-based approach?

Value free play and take a playful approach to learning

If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play.

John Cleese

We have a paradox in schools. We accept the value of play, especially in the Early Years, but the idea of play in the primary sector and beyond often does not feel like a legitimate use of the precious time available.

For some children, school playtimes may be the only informal outdoor play opportunities available to them on a regular basis. It is a time for children to recharge their batteries between lessons. Some children find their lives are full of structured activities, such as music lessons and sports classes, or spend lots of time doing sedentary activities, such as playing computer games. Others may live in places where going out to play is not possible.

As part of developing learning outdoors, you can demonstrate that you value playtimes and facilitate daily outdoor free-play opportunities, regardless of the weather, season and the ability of a child to play with others or complete their work.

There are many different types of play. However, it is ‘free play’ which we need to encourage during breaktimes. Play is often described by play experts as happening when children choose what they want to do and how they want to do it. It is child-initiated and child-led with no external goals or rewards.4 This is how children learn to socialise, develop independence, improve their physical coordination and enjoy themselves without adults directing proceedings. It is how they learn about grit and resilience, power and control, to apologise and make friends.

A lot happens at breaktimes. As educators, we can look for opportunities to capitalise upon this and to acknowledge the contribution of playtimes to the rest of children’s time in school. Children appreciate creative, as well as physical, play opportunities – particularly in nature-rich outdoor spaces. I often hear teachers and children comment positively about such experiences and h...