16 August 2023

Discover the advantages of taking your students outside the classroom and how it can help connect their learning to the real world. Joss Rankin is a Senior Lecturer at Flinders University, in Health and Physical Education and Outdoor Education Lead. He shares some of the barriers to outdoor learning and how they can be overcome.

Show Notes

Outdoor learning – Australian Curriculum

Transcript

Intro: Teach is produced on the traditional land of the Kaurna people. The South Australian Department for Education would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land and pay our respects to all Elders, past, present and emerging.

Dale Atkinson: Hello and welcome to Teach, a podcast about teaching and learning in South Australia.

My name is Dale Atkinson from South Australia's Department for Education. And today I am joined by the Senior Lecturer at Flinders University in Health and Physical Education, the Outdoor Education Lead, Joss Rankin. Thank you very much for joining us.

Joss Rankin: Thanks for having me.

Dale Atkinson: Now, outdoor education. What is it?

Joss Rankin: It's a really broad term and it depends in what context sometimes we're talking about it. Outdoor education most commonly is thought of as the subject area at schooling and it's to do with learning in outdoor spaces, um, it's connections with environment, it's an understanding of cultural perspectives of those spaces that we're in and often connected with the adventure activities.

So when we think of outdoor education sometimes we might say I went kayaking or I went bushwalking or mountain bike riding. And that's a nice starting point sometimes, but yeah, outdoor education more broadly definitely connects with activity, people, environment and cultures.

Dale Atkinson: So my recollection as a child of outdoor education was, as you say, some of those outdoor activities and learning the skills around those outdoor activities. But what are we trying to link them to when we take kids outside?

Joss Rankin: Yeah, great question. When we take kids outside and we're learning in the outdoors, we can think about what the broad range of outcomes are that we might actually be looking to achieve. So when we talk about outdoor education in the Australian Curriculum, it's, it's not actually a subject area independently on its own from foundation through to year 10.

So we can actually look at it as experiences embedded in other subject areas, or we can look at it as a pedagogical approach. So if you're talking about that idea of developing skills related to the outdoor activities, often it's because we do have that subject in existence, although it's not on its own learning area, we might utilise outdoor education as a subject for the achievement of outcomes in a range of areas. So the outcomes can be connected to things like our cross-curriculum capabilities, our cross-curriculum priorities, or if we're using it to achieve outcomes in other learning areas like mathematics or geography or science, we can view it as a pedagogical approach and we might talk about that more specifically as outdoor learning.

So the way we go about the teaching and learning as opposed to the subject that has its own defined outcomes specifically.

Dale Atkinson: What are the advantages of taking children outside in terms of that pedagogical approach?

Joss Rankin: It's a really big question. And it's one I explore a lot with my students. And if we can think about, I guess, the domains of learning. So if we think about we can achieve outcomes that are physical, cognitive outcomes, social outcomes, affective outcomes, that question of what are the benefits, we can actually start to now categorize them into those domains of learning. I've got a colleague at Flinders at the moment, Kate Ridley, that's looking at what are the reasons in which we might embed movement generally in learning outside of Phys Ed or outside of outdoor education.

And there's really strong mental health outcomes that are being shown through research. We can also look at those social interaction outcomes. It's an interesting one because that, that idea of social competence is a cross curriculum capability, but it's not necessarily something that's always explicitly taught.

There's this misunderstanding that maybe because we've got people to work in groups that will develop those social outcomes, but those in a sense are skills themselves and students need to have challenges and experience what it's like to work with others and disagree and come up with common understandings and hear opinions.

So what are the advantages or what are the outcomes that we might achieve? We can look across that spectrum of there are personal advantages. There are advantages for social interactions. There are advantages for affect and stimulating different emotions, whether that be joy or being uncomfortable or a range of those sorts of things.

And I think for me, one of the biggest advantages of taking students outdoors is we often talk about this idea that we want students to connect learning with the real world and what better place to go for the real world than out into it.

Dale Atkinson: So what's happening in a young person or a child's brain that's different when they're in the classroom, as opposed to when they're outdoors?

Joss Rankin: When they're outdoors, we've got an opportunity to stimulate what we might refer to as embodied learning. So we don't have to be outside to stimulate embodied learning, but inherently doing things in different spaces that allow people to move and collect and share and show, um, encourages people to embody their learning.

And when we go right back to, say, John Dewey in the 40s talking about some of those foundational educational theories, we actually understand really clearly now that through embodiment, our mind makes sense of our experiences. So by engaging my body in what's going on, I make sense of what I'm learning in relation to me.

And a really simple example, I was talking about this with someone last night, is that I can tell you that a rose thorn is sharp. And you can understand that it is, and I can tell you that it's going to hurt, and you can think, okay, well, maybe I don't want to do that, but there's going to be a little bit of intrigue.

And until you go and touch that rose thorn, you don't understand what it feels like necessarily. And I think that's the example that comes to my mind because I have a three-year-old child at the moment. And, and I've said that many times, mate, that's sharp, watch out. And he'll go, yep, daddy, I won't touch it. And inherently then I'll hear the scream.

Dale Atkinson: That's the difference between sort of knowledge and experience, isn't it?

Joss Rankin: Yeah. This ability for people to have an experience with the knowledge that we're trying to engage them with and make sense of it in their own life world.

Dale Atkinson: I would imagine for educators sometimes the idea of moving a learning experience from indoors where there's a controllable environment and known parameters for these kids and taking that outdoors is a challenge. What is it that teachers should be thinking about and being brave with to make that step?

Joss Rankin: Yeah, it's a really good point. It's not necessarily the standard to take our learning outside.

If we think about the space that I work in, in, tertiary education, a lot of the lessons that training teachers experience are in indoor places. So in their training, they are getting used to and getting comfortable with classrooms and tables and the ability to bring a PowerPoint up. And it's often also been their experience coming up to that point.

So it's this cycle of what appears normal and what do I feel comfortable with? And the challenges often are that going outside is different. So the weather is unpredictable. The equipment isn't in beautifully aligned boxes on a shelf. I'm not a hundred percent sure that students are going to stay in a particular space like they might stay on the floor or at a desk.

They don't necessarily always do that anyway, but here's that idea of we're trying to create students who are inquisitive, are creative, want to know answers, want to challenge ideas, and the outdoor environment presents us with that. So I think the question was around what should we kind of be aware of in, in facing those challenges.

And you mentioned the word brave, and I think being brave is a really big part of it because uh, things won't always go exactly the way that I've planned. But if they have, we're working in a teaching and learning environment that is always predictable. And if I'm asking students to be creative and to challenge ideas, I actually don't want to end at that predictable point because we haven't created something new, we haven't challenged an idea because we've got to exactly where I thought we would get to. So if we've got an idea around the outcome that we'd want to achieve, not necessarily the product of that outcome, that can be one thing that helps that level of comfort to go, I understand where I want this learning episode to go, this day to go, this week to go, with how students engage and reminding ourselves that the content, the answer or the end point, that's just one little piece of the puzzle in terms of the outcomes that we are actually trying to achieve. And layering what we're doing outside with a range of other outcomes in the first place and just starting simple.

I want students to interact, and I want them to be inquisitive about a concept to start with. That might be what helps us feel a little bit safer and a little bit braver to do this.

Dale Atkinson: So if you're an educator who, um, is considering this for the first time or has had some experiences that weren't necessarily great in terms of taking the kids outdoors, what's a great way in for them?

Joss Rankin: I think start simple. Just have one idea or one concept that you want to play with and talk with a peer, a colleague, about how you're going to use this as a pedagogical approach. So for instance, if you're working with a group of students on the concept of number or sorting, maybe just start with using the outdoor spaces or natural pieces of equipment in the first place.

So maybe actually you bring a piece of the outdoors in rather than spending $150, $200 of your classroom budget on perfectly aligned blocks that have 10 of each colour and these sorts of things. Go outside and collect a bunch of things that are presented to you. Grab some rocks, grab some sticks, grab some leaves, grab some blades of grass, grab some rubbish potentially as well and look at those concepts just with that equipment and realise that actually the environment presented you with the opportunity to use those things as equipment and to, to explore the concepts. The idea of working with a colleague can be nice because they can be there as a critical friend as well. And when things don't work perfectly, like it gets a little bit windy and blows the kids equipment away, you can just take a second to have a laugh with each other as opposed to panic and look at how that actually has now changed the parameters for the way that the student understands that concept. One of their groups has blown away. Maybe that presents a conversation about the properties of that leaf or that stick or that whatever it might have been.

So start simple. Just go, what is the concept I'm working with? Can I use things from the outdoors and bring that in to start with? Or do I feel brave enough to go and use the spaces as well?

Dale Atkinson: And in wellbeing terms, what is the experience that young people are having, children are having when they're going outdoors, how does that aid with their wellbeing?

Joss Rankin: There's a range of really simple and really complex outcomes. So a few things that go on in the brain when we move, we actually stimulate new areas of the brain connected with, you know, releasing endorphins and these sorts of things that just generally make us feel a little bit better. I think there are greater opportunities in the environment to be able to connect socially.

I think structured classrooms sometimes can be a little bit restrictive in the amount of people we can engage with. And if we can promote good social interactions, we feel better about ourselves. In those groups and those translations into making friends in the classroom to connecting those ideas with what I do when I'm on the playground becomes really interesting as well.

There's also that idea that simply being in green spaces actually promotes well being too. So there's little bits and pieces that all start to come together in terms of simply being outside, being amongst green spaces and natural environments, embedding movement into what we do to stimulate a good sense of wellbeing, promoting social interactions, and seeing myself as a learner in the real world.

It's amazing how often we might explore a concept on a playground with a child and then go for a walk at lunchtime and see if any of those kids are trying to continue to explore that learning. They don't always, but it's quite interesting to see how often they will replicate those ideas if they realise that they exist in those places that they play as well.

Dale Atkinson: Yeah, what an incredibly affirming type thing that is for an educator. You're obviously out and about in schools quite a bit and engaging with teachers. Are there some activities and some behaviours that have just blown you away in terms of like, wow, that is the most incredible thing. That is what all educators should be doing.

Joss Rankin: Yeah, there's some really great stuff that educators are doing. When there's a permission to explore and try something that might not work, there's a real sense of freedom. And I've seen some really interesting things that have been set up. And for me, some of the biggest wow moments have actually been about the reactions of the children.

When you ask that question, my first memory isn't necessarily of a particular activity, but it's of the response. And I remember doing some work with some schools down south and we were looking at these ideas of embodiment, the way that we might express our understanding through our movements. And we were doing a lot of things with musical patterns.

So a representation of repeating patterns and looking for those patterns in the music and then representing them with coloured dots. So for instance, every time we heard a clapping stick, there'd be a red dot. Every time we heard the kick drum, there'd be a blue dot, making that visual representation of what the repeating pattern was and how that translated to the music. And we were having some conversations with the children at the end and there was a really interesting conversation with, I think it was a year two student and he said, I really like body learning. I said, do you mate? What do you like about body learning? He said, oh, people don't usually come and choose to be in my group and play with me, but when we do body learning, they do. And I get a chance to work with my friends. And it was just one of those moments where you go, oh, this is for this kid about feeling connected and feeling safe at school, and it was a really interesting one.

Dale Atkinson: That's such a powerful thing in terms of the nexus that we're all going after in schools between, you know, learning social safety, wellbeing, what an experience that would be for the young man.

Joss Rankin: Yeah.

Dale Atkinson: Incredible. Now, what sort of conversations, you know, say you're working in an environment where outdoor education is not facilitated, uh, encouraged, isn't something that has been habitually in, in place. What sort of conversations should educators and teachers be having with their leadership teams around how to bring this into place? What are the main selling points?

Joss Rankin: I think the starting point is to define some of the differences and understandings. So if we're talking about saying, hey, I think outdoor education would be really valuable in this environment, and we get a response that says, no, I don't think so. I think explore that a little bit further.

So there's a little bit of work to do in defining the differences between outdoor education as a subject and outdoor learning as an approach to explore a range of outcomes from a variety of learning areas. Embodied learning as a pedagogical approach. And then we can also talk about cultural responsiveness.

So an understanding of different ways of going about learning. And if we can explore those differences in the first place, we might actually find that the initial no is a response to something like risk aversion. I don't want us to do outdoor education because we don't have the skills, we don't have the risk management, the prior experience with bushwalking or kayaking.

And we can say, ah, actually what I'm talking about is the ability to use outdoor learning as a pedagogical approach for these reasons. So step one could just be defining those differences and clarifying what we're actually talking about. And then step two might be looking for opportunities to engage with it.

So maybe you do have a really resistant group who don't want to explore that. So maybe test some ideas at lunchtime. Go and engage with children on the playground or in the sandpit and prompt them with a few questions. What are you doing? What are you exploring? What are you noticing? And then start to record some of that information for yourself and look at the ways that they are engaging with ideas.

And I'm going out on a limb here and saying I think actually we'll have some realizations along the way because over and over and over again, we see these positive outcomes from outdoor learning, from embodied learning, from an ability to be creative and explore ideas.

Dale Atkinson: Where can teachers go for more information?

Joss Rankin: Lots of different places, thankfully. The Australian Curriculum actually has this really hidden little space of information. We're very good at finding the learning outcomes connected to areas, the capabilities and the priorities. But if you type in and search for Australian Curriculum connectors, these are pedagogical approaches that can be used to explore the outcomes across the curriculum.

Outdoor learning is one of the Australian Curriculum's curriculum connectors. And that's a really good starting point for going, what is outdoor learning? How can it be applied to our curriculum to achieve learning outcomes? And it's also got a little bit of a research bank that starts there. If you want to get more interested in particular areas, you can search for things like forest schools as a concept.

And there's a lot of stuff that comes out of the UK that looks at this idea of outdoor learning from an early learning setting or what they refer to as forest schooling in some instances, but also revisiting some of that stuff that's through kind of initial teacher education around John Dewey's concepts of embodied learning and what that actually allows students to do.

 But thankfully that initial in through the Australian Curriculum, I think is a really strong one because it's, it's part of what we, we've got as our curriculum.

Dale Atkinson: That's great. We'll include some of those links in the show notes. Joss Rankin, Senior Lecturer at Flinders University, Health and Physical Education. Thank you very much for your time.

Joss Rankin: Thanks for having me.