Outdoor Learning, A Pathway to Transformational Learning? Or Another Educational Gimmick?

Abstract

Outdoor learning is one of the newest terminologies and implementations of using the outdoors as a part of education. This paper provides an in-depth overview to answer the question, is outdoor learning a pathway to transformational learning or another educational gimmick? To answer this question, this paper will focus on six fundamental sections. This paper begins by highlighting the ambiguity throughout history in defining education outside the classroom, with more than 75 different terminologies used to refer to education in the outdoors. The second theme is that despite this contemporary emergence, outdoor learning has a long and varied history within education, with modern elements of outdoor learning being traced back thousands of years in indigenous cultures. Then being refined throughout the 21st century before settling on the current contemporary form of outdoor learning. The third theme of this paper looks at the benefits of outdoor learning, summarized into six critical sections. These benefits include health and well-being, social-emotional and cognitive development, academic and behavioral benefits, memory benefits, increased positive attitudes towards the environment, and positive teacher benefits. The fourth theme of this paper reviews the barriers and challenges to implementing outdoor learning within schooling, with four primary barriers being identified. These barriers include outdoor learning having no formal status in teachers' educational practice, a lack of teacher confidence in their outdoor teaching expertise, difficulty in starting an outdoor learning program, and physical restraints such as school grounds and weather. The penultimate theme of this paper reviews critical considerations that must be addressed when implementing an outdoor learning program; this includes cost, student numbers, transportation, insurance, time, framework, skills, assessments, the curriculum, and training. The final theme of this paper unpacks the effects of COVID-19 on outdoor learning within all levels of schooling. Initially seen as a method to return to school by being outdoors, outdoor learning has since demonstrated to educators worldwide that it deserves to be embedded as an everyday part of education even after the pandemic subsides.