Fresh Air, Fresh Education

A learner’s brain structure, concentration, memory, and mood all improve when we spend more time outdoors (Kühn, et al., 2021). Educators can engage and connect learners while contributing to positive change and long-term knowledge retention, self-confidence, concentration, comprehension skills, in addition to better social interaction, and physical skills (Fägerstam, 2012; Palavan et al, 2016). One way? Simply by stepping outside of their four walls, now and again (Anaya-Zamora, 2021). 

Numerous contextualised learning activities, strategies and resources can be applied to incorporate multiple learning outcomes. Educators can reimagine the commonly [mis]understood theory, “Play-based learning” to relate it to their own teaching and learning environments. ‘Play’ at various ages can be more clearly defined as ‘experiment’, ‘discovery’, ‘trial’, or ‘practice’ for generational benefits of all learners, including adults. Whether it is learning about nature or learning in nature, students, at any age, can develop a holistic appreciation of the environment and their ecological world through each delivery stream, learning area, or unit, depending on the willingness and motivation of their teacher. 

If educators combine education and the environment, students develop a greater connection to their environment. Friedrich Froebel, ‘creator of the kindergarten’ implied that learning through creative experimentation of objects and ideas supported meaning-making and a deeper connection to the world (Tovey, 2020). Educators today, across all settings can support learners’ understanding of the complex sustainable choices required in motivating and transforming self and society (UNESCO, 2020). The Education for Sustainable Development (ESD for 2030) comprise five priority action areas, including two achievable targets for teachers: “Transforming learning environments” and “Empowering and mobilising youth”. As educators explore the opportunities for their curriculum’s theory to be delivered in an outdoor environment, health benefits, cross-curricular learning, creativity and social interaction opportunities are better supported (Kahle, 2023). There are benefits for not only students, but teachers, as well with a natural exposure nature and physical activity associate with stress relief, and pro-environmental behaviours (Kuo, et al., 2018) that contribute to solutions towards the innumerable 21st Century sustainability crises and development of [future] human behaviours (UNESCO, 2020). 

Design thinking offers a fresh perspective on tackling this challenge. By fostering empathy, ideation, and prototyping, designers and innovators can develop solutions that target the root causes of food loss and waste. From improved storage facilities to innovative packaging solutions and streamlined distribution networks, design-driven interventions hold the promise of reducing food loss and waste at various stages of the supply chain.

An educator, whether in Primary, High, or Tertiary institutions, can facilitate learners finding the hypotenuse on a worksheet, a whiteboard, a PowerPoint, down the hallway, or out on the oval using ropes. Development of active and memorable learning is not confined with four walls and makes no sense (Broda, 2011), often leading to boredom or disengagement. 

Education outdoors is not merely Outdoor Education but is a unique exploration of memorable ways to take desk-based learning out to the oval, playground, or adjacent park, for an English, History, Science, Language, Religion, or Maths class, to incorporate nature by having students learn while exploring, breathing fresh air, and developing a sense of responsibility. Educators not integrating education outdoors, Anaya-Zamora (2021) suggests, “hinder learning opportunities for students to experience both sustainability and real-life applications.

Whether integrating a multi-sensory garden, or objects, learning can move from the PowerPoint outdoors but what, I hear someone asking, about the weather? Too hot? Too cold? Too wet? Too bad. Okay, let’s meet halfway. Bring outdoors inside. Pot plants, props (branches, leaves), or something that supports the learning of the day. German paediatrician Hedwig Von Restorff (1933) demonstrated enhanced knowledge retention by differentiating stimuli. Simply put? If something stands out, it gets remembered. An educator trying, for instance, to get learners outdoors or bringing outside inside, learning beyond worksheets or slideshows, supports students with a greater chance of remembering the theory – visually, kinaesthetically, aurally, and olfactorily. 

Research continues to demonstrate and remonstrate that classroom confinement is not always conducive to the excitement of learning. Mann et al., 2022, suggest that learning outdoors can offer socio-emotional, academic and wellbeing benefits, and should be incorporated into every schooling experience. Howard Gardner’s (1983) seminal Multiple Intelligences include respect to the ‘Naturalistic’ thinker, the person who has an affinity with nature. Education outdoors will not only assist these individuals, but also by including structured activities and challenging learning intentions outside of the classroom, many more students can, inadvertently, have the opportunity to learn something in a unique and curious way. The use of clear criteria, optimised peer-support, and increased teacher-student opportunities e.g., feedback (Hattie, 2023) must remain core to the learning experience, whether indoors or outdoors. The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) website suggests that learning outdoors can be instrumental in students learning more about self-reliance, team and community engagement, leadership, managing personal risks and experiencing safety in nature while learning to value and enjoy the outdoors for health and wellbeing purposes (ACARA, 2023). Kuo, et al., 2018

How? Examples include, but are not limited to asking or conducting the following, for instance:

•    Multi-sensory garden
•    Fibonacci’s fantastic fun with fern fronds  
•    Is CO2 heavier than fresh air? Calculators out…  
•    Relocating rooms? “What can we [learn] on the way?”
•    Too hot inside? “Bring your books with you and let’s go sit under a tree”. 
•    Use rhymes, mnemonics, and alterations to connect theory with nature, e.g., “Why send fracking packing?”
•    “How much cement did Building 2 need for its slab if the slab is 200mm thick? Rope? Tape measure? Notepads? In pairs? Let’s go”.
•    Day 1 – (PPT) “The emergency assembly point is… actually, change of plan. Everyone on your feet. Grab your bags. Let’s go and find it”
•    Plan your menu in class. “How much is it on the internet (in class)? Compare (at the market) “Let’s go and source and cost the ingredients”. 
•    Vous parlez Francais? Depechez vous. Go, label your outdoors: A Garden? A Jardin; A Wheelbarrow? Une brouette; A wall? Un mur; A steppingstone? Une dale; A statue? Voila.

Taking advantage of the research, planning some fresh air into some of your classes may be the difference between a student engaging, not giving up, and becoming enthused and inspired with the material. 

•    Yes, create engaging activities.
•    Yes, quality of content is paramount. 
•    Yes, delivery style and proper planning is essential. 
•    Yes, relationships and class dynamics are important. 
•    Yes, use technology, and linking to the world is absolutely necessary.

Hopefully, as this article implies, all of these, in addition to ideas to increase oxygen flow, movement, connection to nature, and incorporation of unique learning environments can all contribute to student and teachers’ moods, memories, connections, concentration, and performance. 

John Blake
Director of School Learning - Eastern College Australia
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-blake-38701236/ 
For more information and to register for John’s sessions in the Sustainability & Wellbeing conference, and the Workshop Space at GESS Dubai, visit: https://www.gessdubai.com/node/1599