Benefits of Outdoor Education: Blog Post 3

My goal this week was to find more evidence that communicated the benefits of outdoor learning while supporting self regulation and social and emotional awareness. I stumbled upon an interesting article, titled, Introducing a fifth pedagogy:experience-based strategies for facilitating learning in natural environments. 

The study was designed to explore pedagogies in the context of learning in natural environments in Queensland. In depth interviews and observation data were collected from students, classroom teachers over a lengthy period. I focused on the findings that mentioned emotions or focused on the student's perspectives as I am hoping to gain more insight on the self regulation in the outdoor context. Below are the points I found most relevant. 

"Students mostly reported positive rather than negative feelings, and high intensity rather than low intensity feelings. The higher intensity positive emotions, such as excitement, interest and surprise, were most commonly associated with learning events.

Teacher‐directed learning was more likely to be associated with low negative emotions (e.g., felt nothing, bored) than experience‐based learning; and experienced‐based learning was more likely to be associated with low positive emotions (e.g., feeling happy, calm) than teacher‐directed learning" (Ballantyne & Packer, 2009). 

As educators, we know that keeping tasks engaging and providing our students with choice helps them become more invested in their learning process. I found it very interesting that the students were able to easily evaluate their feelings during the teacher led vs. experience led activities. Initially I had thought that students would probably find any outdoor learning more fun than being in their classroom and record positive feelings overall when being outside. Though I learned, if the setting changes to from inside to outside, but the teacher is still spending most of the time leading a conversation or lecturing, students will not be experience those desired low positive emotions (happy, calm) regardless of where they are.

If I notice that many students have high energy and we are about to transition to something else, I ask them to take some deep breaths and notice how they feel after. Most reply with  "calm or tired." I feel like a takeaway from reading this article for me will be to try to incorporate more check ins throughout the school day regardless of our location to help students practice labelling their emotions. Modelling is so important, so I will also use myself as an example and state what might be making me feel frustrated or excited and what I am going to do to help myself feel more settled. 

The goal is not to never have any negative emotions, but to practice labelling all emotions and trying to understand the cause behind them. The more often students are asked to acknowledge their emotions, the more they will be able to notice what impacts their emotions and hopefully use appropriate strategies to help them stay regulated. 

Sources: 

Ballantyne, Roy, and Jan Packer. “Introducing a Fifth Pedagogy: Experience‐based Strategies for Facilitating Learning in Natural Environments.” Environmental Education Research, vol. 15, no. 2, Apr. 2009, pp. 243–262, doi:10.1080/13504620802711282.

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