Month: February 2018

• • What went according to plan?                                                                                              What I wanted to do in terms of engaging pupils, allowing them to have more exposure outdoor and gaining more confidence in achieving numeracy skills worked well.                                                                                                           
  • What was easier?                                                                                                                           Organizing outdoor learning with S3 elective group twice a month and enforcing basic numeracy skills with them.                                                                                     
•       What surprised you?                                                                                                                     Increased level of confidence and group work and the quality of the discussions I have observed, just by listening to the groups outdoor was amazing.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            What was more difficult?                                                                                                                  Weather not been so friendly, it was bit difficult to take pupils out and carry out activities as planned.                                                                                                                                                                       
• What other things would you tell someone?
• Definitely to give yourself more time to plan. Ensure that risk assessment is already done, checking weather conditions, visiting the outdoor site and support from management.

After going through various thoughts in Learning arithmetic outdoors in junior high school – influence on performance and self-regulating skills           I guess it is worthwhile asking myself following question.

3. In what way (if at all) has my own thinking about Outdoor Education changed since I began teaching Outdoor Education?
4. To what extent does educational theory (or thinking/ or philosophy/ or ideas) guide my present thinking about Outdoor Education?
5. There is a view that the experience of Outdoor Education is sufficiently powerful or valuable that the experience stands on its own. What do I feel or think about this idea?                                                                                                                    Though my answer to all this is my prospective towards raising numeracy skills through outdoor education especially at lower school is very positive. As noted earlier in the update 1, students’ interest and engagement are reported to be positive outcomes (Han and Foskett 2007;Moffet 2011; Waite 2011), but the perception or experience of students’ lack of interest has also been reported (Smith 1999; Han and Foskett 2007; Moffet 2011). In a study by Bentsen et al. (2010), teachers reported a lack of knowledge about students’ attitude towards outdoor teaching. Thus, given the possible potential of outdoor teaching and learning in promoting cognitive and affective outcomes, and the lack of research exploring mathematics learning outdoors in secondary school, this study seek to examine the influence of outdoor teaching and learning on junior high school students’ performance in arithmetic and self-regulation skills (such as motivation, self-concept and anxiety).                                                                                                                                           Extracted from-                                                                                                                 Education -13 –International Journal of Primary, Elementary and Early  Years Education               

After reading through the outdoor learning literature review on teaching styles and change in the attitude through sharing practice in outdoor learning I personally feel in comparison with North America, there is relatively little in the UK literature which focuses on teaching styles, although there is a literature on skills teaching. However, it is reasonable to draw inferences regarding teaching styles from recently enunciated statements regarding the nature of Outdoor Education. The implications are that Outdoor Educators would teach for experiential learning, which here has the meaning of unmediated learning. Two consequences follow from this experiential approach: firstly, students are encouraged to take increasing responsibility for their own learning; and secondly, personal development is facilitated.

Carver (1996) defines four pedagogical principles of experiential education. The first principle, authenticity, can be related to Proudman”s (1995) emotionally based learning. The second principle is active learning, which can be related to Chapman”s (1995) engagement of mind. The third principle, drawing on student experiences, is self-evidently at the  heart of experiential learning. The fourth principle is providing mechanisms of connecting experience for future opportunity. The final principle is related to the major contribution of Dewey (1938), who argued that experience alone is not sufficient to be of educational value, but must also be reflected upon. Similarly, Proudman (1995) argues for a series of working principles. These include a mixture of content and process, an absence of teacher judgment, a re-examination of values, meaningful relationships and challenging students to operate outside their comfort zones”.                                                                       More negatively, Wichmann (1995) points to a number of syndromes that are commonly adopted by teachers when they fail to adopt a deep approach towards Experiential Education. One example is the “cookbook” (1995, p.113) syndrome, where activities are deemed to work if firstly, students do them without losing interest; secondly, they fill a time slot; and thirdly, they have a reputation for working. By posing these syndromes, Wichmann (1995) argues for the necessity of developing criteria for distinguishing practice where the aims of the educational experience have been poorly thought out, from practice where the aims have been subject to careful deliberation.

References                                                                                                                                 Barrett and Greenaway (1995) Why Adventure? A Review of Research Coventry: Foundation for Outdoor Adventure.

Blumenfeld, P (1992) Classroom Learning and Motivation: Clarifying and Expanding Goal Theory Journal of Educational Psychology 84 272-281.

Carver, R (1996) Theory for Practice: A framework for thinking about experiential education The Journal of Experiential Education 19, 1 8-13.

Chapman, S. (1995) What is the Question? In K. Warren, M. Sakofs and Hunt The Theory of Experiential Education (pp. 236-239)