Outdoor Spaces as Sites of Learning

Throughout most of my educational experience, going outside has been seen as a luxury, a reward or fun place to hold class but one that is rarely used, because it's thought of as distracting.  On the few occasions that I have had class outside, we were supposed to act exactly as we did inside, not engaging with the environment around us and forced to ignore all "distractions" from that environment.  We never truly engaged with the place in which we were learning, because learning was seen as only the content of the class itself, not the place in which we were having it.

Although some learning experiences are better suited for indoor classrooms- it's hard to use technological resources outside, for example, or to write extensive notes on a board- I think that there are a lot of ways that being outside can be used as a learning experience instead of just a fun break from the normal routine.  We have talked extensively about how children need to develop a personal connection to the natural world to truly learn and care about it, and that can only happen if children are given the opportunity to explore the outdoors in whatever form it takes in their communities.  Our gardening work with the 5th graders was a perfect example of this.  By engaging with the outdoors in a way that makes sense in their community, through growing food for the community, the students (and us as well) were able to learn about gardening and develop a connection to the earth and seeds.  Ultimately I think that we need to consider the place in which we learn a crucial part of the learning itself, not just a setting or backdrop, and integrate location into the rest of our educational experiences.