Learning inside a classroom is the most common and typical method of schooling being used by schools today. Nevertheless there are many activities which take place outside the classroom which learners can benefit from. These range from school trips, day visits, work experience and practical activities such as sports day. Although more and more opportunities and experiences to learn outside the classroom environment are being provided, it’s not something being used to its full potential.
Forest school
Originating from Sweden in the 1950’s, forest schooling has been operating in the Uk since the 1990’s and later took to Wales in 2002. Forest schools are system of learning outdoors away from the usual class dynamic. The system tends to students all ages where the environment does the teaching.
The forest school operates through a series of sessions a term, during these sessions numerous activities are carried out relating to survival and essential skills and the National Curriculum. From experience and research it is proven that the forest schooling has a lot of benefits. It helps builds the students health, physically through activity and mentally through building upon their confidence and self-esteem; social skills, working on activities independently or as a team; it could also be used a place of escape for children experiencing problems at home.
Overall, outdoor learning can have its advantages and disadvantages. Whereas some believe this type of learning is helps stimulate the learner and is more beneficial and effective . Many believe this way of teaching and learning are only except able under particular conditions, such as teacher surveillance and some reinforcement being used. This particular worry is linked to whether this independent and experiential learning can work for students in higher education. (Donna.M.Qualters, 2011)
More older students may look at this type of learning as an escape from the classroom or a break from learning. I have experienced a situation like this on a week held at my secondary school for year 9 called “motivation week”.One of the weeks activities was held at a local park, where there was a mission to find the location of all 24 letters of the alphabet to reveal the number that went along with them. On the day of our forms turn, it was a very miserable rainy day, so only two girls out of the whole form turned up with a change of clothes, the rest got to sit in the bus cheering the rest along. So I do believe this opportunity may not suit all students . However, I do believe it effective way of learning through a system where the students are unknowingly learning the national curriculum and essential skills through exploring independently to a certain degree and experimenting. I also believe forest schooling should be introduced to more schools.
References
Donna.M.Qualters. (2011). New directions for teaching and learning. Experiential Education: Making the Most of Learning Outside the Classroom: New Directions for Teaching and Learning, Number 124 , 111 (124).
Related
When doing a little research, I found a blog called “prestonlodge.net – life skills ”. It's blog used by the students and teachers as a diary of experiences of learning which have taken place over a number of years outside the classroom environment.
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