Learning Outside the Classroom

In the UK, teachers are increasingly being encouraged to support and undertake outdoor learning. Despite such support there is a paucity of research that has considered how outdoor learning can be implemented and offered on a regular basis by teachers. The lack of empirical research that has centralised the role of the teacher is at odds with the interest in this topic and the need for theory-driven guidance suited to teachers. Research is reported that aimed to support the provision of outdoor learning opportunities for children aged between three and eleven at nine settings (pre- or primary schools) in Scotland and England. A set of flexible guidelines that link theory and practice were used by 14 teachers. This article focuses on teachers’ reports of their activity. The incorporation of outdoor learning within conventional teaching and learning approaches is found to be feasible and the implications for practice and future research are explored.

Learning outside the classroom help students interpret their society, nature, and the world through concrete
experiences. Although learning outside the classroom is usually used for environmental education, it is very
important for the social studies course which aims to train students as active members of a democratic society.
The purpose of this study is to understand social studies teachers’ views on learning outside the classroom regarding
the social studies course. 15 social studies teachers from low, middle, and high socio-economic levels
schools in Eskişehir participated in this qualitative study. The data of the study were obtained from semi- structured
interviews and analyzed using descriptive analysis. According to findings of the study, the social studies
teachers believed that content of the social studies course was suitable for learning outside the classroom.
History and geography topics, local administrations, environmental issues, cooperation, and professions were
mentioned as the main subjects for learning outside the classroom. Outside learning activities were exemplified
as organizing trips in and out of province, and going to the cinema, interviewing with experts and resource
people, or inviting them to the school. Teachers experienced problems about time and students’ behaviors as
well as economic problems, and bureaucratic obstacles regarding outdoor learning.

Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice - 13(3) • 1836-1841
©2013 Educational Consultancy and Research Center

Forest School was introduced to the United Kingdom in 1995 and since then has
developed at a significant rate. A growing body of research has explored the holistic
benefits to children of partaking in a Forest School programme. Creativity within
educational programmes has also been the subject of renewed interest over recent
years. Concerns exist that the current outcome driven education system in the
United Kingdom is not conducive with the development of a creative disposition.
Drawing on data from two complimentary research methods, this qualitative study
attempts to identify key features of a creative environment and ascertain whether
these features are a significant part of Forest School practice. An expert interview
was conducted with a Local Authority Early Years Consultant, and twenty two Forest
School practitioners completed questionnaires. Thematic analysis identified a
number of emergent themes that contribute to a creative environment.
This research indicates that a creative environment is rich in open-ended
opportunities and is child-led. This study has also identified that the role of the adult
is of paramount significance in the development of a creative disposition in young
children. Furthermore, it is suggested that the Forest School environment possesses
many of these distinct features accompanied by a theoretical underpinning that
supports the development of a creative disposition.

This article investigates the validity of the suggestion that internet television can facilitate EFL learners’ acquisition of formulaic sequences (FSs). A quantitative study was conducted to examine the extent to which FS use on internet television reflects FS use in the everyday speech of English-speaking communities. The study compares the distribution of FSs in a 7.68 million-word corpus of internet television (the iTV corpus) with that in the spoken component of the British National Corpus (BNC). The results confirm the validity of using internet television as a resource for the acquisition of FSs that are highly frequent in everyday speech. The fact that the frequency at which FSs appear on internet television is directly proportional to that in everyday speech suggests that internet television might help EFL learners establish an accurate intuition about the frequency of use of FSs, which is shown to be missing by previous corpus studies. The article also provides suggestions about the choice of internet television programmes based on the extent to which the distribution of FSs in each iTV subcorpus is similar to that of the spoken component of the BNC.

Gardening creatively makes an engaging STEM / Science Club project all year round.  A list of organisations such as the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) and Science and Plants in Schools (SAPS) that provide help for school pupils and teachers is provided along with examples of school gardens that have been particularly successful.

Learning outside the classroom help students interpret their society, nature, and the world through concrete
experiences. Although learning outside the classroom is usually used for environmental education, it is very
important for the social studies course which aims to train students as active members of a democratic society.
The purpose of this study is to understand social studies teachers’ views on learning outside the classroom regarding
the social studies course. 15 social studies teachers from low, middle, and high socio-economic levels
schools in Eskişehir participated in this qualitative study. The data of the study were obtained from semi- structured
interviews and analyzed using descriptive analysis. According to findings of the study, the social studies
teachers believed that content of the social studies course was suitable for learning outside the classroom.
History and geography topics, local administrations, environmental issues, cooperation, and professions were
mentioned as the main subjects for learning outside the classroom. Outside learning activities were exemplified
as organizing trips in and out of province, and going to the cinema, interviewing with experts and resource
people, or inviting them to the school. Teachers experienced problems about time and students’ behaviors as
well as economic problems, and bureaucratic obstacles regarding outdoor learning.

Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice - 13(3) • 1836-1841
©2013 Educational Consultancy and Research Center

For second language (L2) learners, proficiency in the language of schooling is a prerequisite for educational success. This is particularly challenging for recently-arrived L2 learners attending special newcomer classes, who lack opportunities for authentic spoken or written communication with native speakers. Well-designed out-of-school programs, with the potential for, for instance, authentic communication, autonomy and collaboration, might serve to increase newcomers' opportunities for practice in the L2. Moreover, outside-school environments might offer additional language learning potential.  In this dissertation, we have investigated in five experimental studies if and how inside-school and out-of-school settings may promote newcomers’ L2 writing and speaking skills.

Os jardim zoológicos atraem centenas de milhares de visitantes todos os anos por todo o mundo – muitas delas crianças. No Reino Unido, centenas de milhares de crianças em idade escolar visitam jardins zoológicos todos os anos. Entende-se, pois, que o jardim zoológico seja uma instituição chave na interacção pública com animais vivos e com a educação ambiental. No entanto, os jardins zoológicos foram recentemente alvo de críticas no plano ético, nomeadamente de que os jardins zoológicos teriam um impacto educacional mínimo ou até negativo. Enquanto que existem alguns estudos que demonstram resultados positivos para visitantes adultos, no caso de visitantes infantis, existe muito pouca investigação já existente para responder a tais críticas. Para responder a estas críticas, conduzimos um estudo usando métodos mistos de questionários, que incluíram uma componente visual central criada com o intuito de acompanhar as mudanças nas representações infantis de animais ao longo de uma visita escolar ao jardim zoológico. Especificamente, o estudo investiga o desenvolvimento de novas ideias sobre animais, habitats e o jardim zoológico dentro de uma amostra de estudantes visitantes do Jardim Zoológico londrino ZSL. Os resultados indicam o potencial de palestras centradas na visita a um jardim zoológico em permitir transformações conceptuais relativas à ciência ambiental. Simultaneamente, a nossa investigação realça o papel vital das representações culturais já existentes de diferentes animais e habitats, que são ao longo da visita, confrontadas com novas ideias.
http://www.psychologyandsociety.org/__assets/__original/2010/08/Wagoner_Jensen.pdf

This is the introduction to issue 7(4) of SiSAL Journal, which is a special issue on Japan. The author comments on some issues likely to arise in the Japanese context in the coming years along with some practical ways to respond. The article also includes a brief summary of each contribution to the special issue.

In ihrem Beitrag sucht die Autorin eine Antwort auf die Frage, inwiefern Kunstmuseen in Polen als auserschulische Lernorte der Vermittlung von Fremdsprachen dienen. Anhand von Recherchearbeit im Internet und Interviews mit Mitarbeiter(n)Innen der Bildungs- und Vermittlungsabteilungen in groseren Kunstmuseen in Polen ergab sich ein vergleichender Uberblick uber ein Angebot, das sich als vielfaltiges Spektrum prasentiert. Einerseits ist die Tatigkeit der Museen auf dem Gebiet der Fremdsprachenvermittlung in ihre Rolle als Ort des interkulturellen Austausches eingebettet und Fremdsprachenkurse sollten als eine ausstellungsbegleitende Masnahme den Zugang zu einer fremden Kultur erleichtern. Andererseits dienen die in musealen Raumen ausgestellten Objekte dem Austausch und der Auseinandersetzung in der Fremdsprache. To what extent do art museums in Poland serve as venues for out-of-school learning of foreign languages? This contribution seeks to answer that question. Online research and ...

The aim of this chapter is to provide anyone working with visitors to informal
learning settings with knowledge and ideas to help provide high quality learning
experiences through better social interactions using questioning. Questions can be
among learners and between learners, and (in the case of younger visitors) any
number of adults. Good questions come from listening to provide further points in
dialogue that challenge thinking and promote deeper learning. In informal spaces
such as museums and galleries the challenge, for people not trained and experienced
as teachers, is often to interact without reproducing the formalities of the
classroom. Providing worksheets of closed questions can deaden the experience and
excitement and limit meaningful free exploration. What is needed are careful
strategies, sympathetic to informal learning environments, but capable of stimulating
the sort of ‘breakthrough behaviours’ that lead to deeper engagement.

In ihrem Beitrag sucht die Autorin eine Antwort auf die Frage, inwiefern Kunstmuseen in Polen als außerschulische Lernorte der Vermittlung von Fremdsprachen dienen. Anhand von Recherchearbeit im Internet und Interviews mit Mitarbeiter(n)Innen der Bildungs-und Vermittlungsabteilungen in größeren Kunstmuseen in Polen ergab sich ein vergleichender Überblick über ein Angebot, das sich als vielfältiges Spektrum präsentiert. Einerseits ist die Tätigkeit der Museen auf dem Gebiet der Fremdsprachenvermittlung in ihre Rolle als Ort des interkulturellen Austausches eingebettet und Fremdsprachenkurse sollten als eine ausstellungsbegleitende Maßnahme den Zugang zu einer fremden Kultur erleichtern. Andererseits dienen die in musealen Räumen ausgestellten Objekte dem Austausch und der Auseinandersetzung in der Fremdsprache. To what extent do art museums in Poland serve as venues for out-of-school learning of foreign languages? This contribution seeks to answer that question. Online research and interviews with employees of the education and collections departments of the largest art museums in Poland have produced a comparative overview of a diverse spectrum of offerings. Above all, the investigation reveals that a museum is understood as a foreign language learning venue in two distinctive ways. On the one hand, the activities of museums in the field of foreign language teaching are embedded in their role as places of intercultural exchange. Foreign language courses organised with the museums' participation should therefore be seen as elements accompanying the exhibition in order to facilitate access to a foreign culture. On the other hand, regular foreign language courses are organised in museum rooms, whereby the objects exhibited serve as a starting point for discussions in the foreign language. In this way, museums provide an additional motivational factor for learning a foreign language. Although the role of a museum as a foreign language learning location is understood differently in Poland, current projects confirm recognition of art museums as venues of foreign language learning.

Learning outside the classroom help students interpret their society, nature, and the world through concrete
experiences. Although learning outside the classroom is usually used for environmental education, it is very
important for the social studies course which aims to train students as active members of a democratic society.
The purpose of this study is to understand social studies teachers’ views on learning outside the classroom regarding
the social studies course. 15 social studies teachers from low, middle, and high socio-economic levels
schools in Eskişehir participated in this qualitative study. The data of the study were obtained from semi- structured
interviews and analyzed using descriptive analysis. According to findings of the study, the social studies
teachers believed that content of the social studies course was suitable for learning outside the classroom.
History and geography topics, local administrations, environmental issues, cooperation, and professions were
mentioned as the main subjects for learning outside the classroom. Outside learning activities were exemplified
as organizing trips in and out of province, and going to the cinema, interviewing with experts and resource
people, or inviting them to the school. Teachers experienced problems about time and students’ behaviors as
well as economic problems, and bureaucratic obstacles regarding outdoor learning.

Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice - 13(3) • 1836-1841
©2013 Educational Consultancy and Research Center

The field of self-access learning has existed since the 1970s and a typical centre has looked more or less the same for five decades. However, a fundamental shift is occurring which will affect our work in significant ways in the coming years. Specifically, we are currently experiencing a rapid disruption in how learning environments are imagined. In the past, students had access to classroom instruction and (if they were lucky) a self-access centre which supported outside class learning. This model is now becoming outdated as students have any number of learning environments available to them - both physical and virtual (Benson, 2016; Benson, Chávez Sánchez, McLoughlin, Mynard, & Peña Clavel, 2016). In addition, learning opportunities exist via an increasing number of devices and everyday objects and tools (Reinders, 2016). So what does this mean for our field? Well, although these changes force us to reevaluate our place in language education, they can bring opportunities as well as challenges. In order to accommodate the changing needs of our students in such a rapidly shifting environment, we need to pay particular attention to several elements of self-access learning (Benson et al., 2016; Mynard, 2016). In this talk, I will consider three such elements: Social opportunities, the emotional side of learning, and the development of autonomous learning through our advising and teaching.

References

Benson, P. (2016, August). Language learning beyond the classroom: Access all areas. Presentation given at the 4th International Conference on Self-Access held at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico City.

Benson, P., Chávez Sánchez, M., McLoughlin, D., Mynard, J., & Peña Clavel, M. (2016). New scenarios in autonomy for foreign language learning: Conference summary and reflections. Studies in Self-Access Learning Journal, 7(3), 287-296. Retrieved from https://sisaljournal.org/archives/sep16/benson_et_al/

Mynard, J. (2016, August). Taking stock and moving forward: Future recommendations for the field of self-access learning. Presentation given at the 4th International Conference on Self-Access held at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico City.

Reinders, H. (2016, September). The Internet of things. Presentation given at Kanda University of International Studies, Japan.

This article explores the potential of a residential Continuing Professional Development (CPD) model to promote sustained constructive dialogue between science educators, both on knowledge and pedagogy, and impact on teaching practice in a wide geographical area. It is based on a science education initiative shared by the local authorities in Scotland. These wider outcomes tend not to be planned for or evaluated in many CPD projects. This article examines these impacts and the model designed to deliver them through 'training the trainer' approaches and enhanced career progression. Although the residential training of trainers model may seem relatively expensive, this article argues that it may be more cost-effective due to its greater impact on teaching than other CPD models. It encourages collaboration, dialogue and ongoing evaluation, and creates opportunities for teachers and researchers to build longer term collaborative networks in an attempt to explore actual, and not merely predicted, impacts of training on pedagogy and professional development .