How Outdoor Education Can Prepare Students For the Future

Asked naturalist David Polis, and then declared:

“Let them look at the mountains and the stars up above. Let them look at the beauty of the waters and the trees and flowers on earth. They will then begin to think, and to think is the beginning of a real education.”

While increased emphasis is being placed on the importance of digital learning to prepare for the future of our society and career opportunities, a growing community is advocating for another educational paradigm—one in which students disconnect from technology and immerse themselves in nature. Outdoor Education can be widely defined, but generally is a form of experiential organised learning that occurs in an outdoor setting and typically involves “journey-based experiences in which students participate in a variety of adventurous, memorable challenges.” This style of learning has various benefits, from cultivating the relevant emotional intelligence needed for effective leadership, to developing the confidence and competence needed to persevere in stressful situations. Below we delve deeper into five of these benefits and provide examples, accounts, and research to illustrate them.

Increased Motivation to Learn

Although learning within the four walls of traditional classrooms has its uses, students can often become bored and primarily rely on extrinsic motivation to retain the content being delivered to them. When connecting education to the natural environment, students have context in which to place their learning, and the intrinsic motivation of teamwork and ecological preservation as fuel to increase their desire to study and engage with curriculum. In their study “The Effects of Environment-Based Education on Students’ Achievement Motivation,” researchers Julie Athman and Martha Monroe studied 400 9th-and-12th-grade students and found that motivation levels for environment-based education were higher than those in traditional classrooms.

Where does this increased sense of motivation come from? Simon Abramson is the Associate Director for Wild Earth, a non-profit in upstate New York that delivers outdoor education programs to young people and adults. He finds that their programs help to develop confidence and competence in students, which further fuels their learning. “We are using nature as a classroom, and students learn things such as ‘which plants can you eat? How do you make a shelter that is dry and warm, using only sticks and leaves?’ There is a confidence that comes from gaining those skills and realising ‘I can take care of myself and find what I need.’” By making a connection between learning and the real world, students feel an increased drive to understand the content they are studying.

Another example of a program that makes learning relevant via outdoor and environmental education is NYC Outward Bound. In once case study, they have utilised the Gowanus Canal, which is located close to several of the schools where their program operates. In a Salon article titled “Outdoor Learning: Education’s Next Revolution?” Carol Carpenter, the Communications Director for the organisation, explains: “Students learn about the canal’s water quality in science class, about the sociological effects in the humanities classes, and about the canal’s design in art class. We believe in field work, in getting out of the classroom and getting your hands dirty.”

Wilderness and nature-based educational programs have proven to be transformative when it comes to healing and personal development in students and adults alike.

“In today’s world with so much complexity and so many crises coming to a head, that connection to more than just ourselves, more than just people, is very important”

Source
Weezie Yancey-Siegel
Open Colleges