As September approaches, education officials across Canada are struggling to find the best ways to open our public schools this fall. It’s an incredibly difficult task to figure out what will be safe, as no one is 100 per cent sure what will happen next in the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic.
One thing is certain, though — students and teachers will be better off if they get outside more during school time.
Outdoor education is an idea whose time has come. It’s a simple idea. Education ministries, school boards and individual schools should all focus on offering more school time, content and activity outside, using the outdoors more to teach and learn.
Outdoor learning not only brings obvious health and safety benefits — physical distancing is easier outside — it also offers new opportunities to improve education for the 21st century.
Research bears this out. A recent report by the Children and Nature Network, part of a global educational movement with participants in 60 countries, documents how getting students outside more enhances learning and academic performance and is good for physical and emotional well-being.
The report found that more outdoor learning contributes to lower rates of diabetes, heart disease and other chronic diseases, reduces anxiety and depression and engages students in their schoolwork. Among other findings, the network reports that 88 per cent of children it studied are more engaged in schoolwork if they get outside more and 68 per cent are better able to concentrate.
The network also found that 65 per cent of students are better behaved when they enjoy more outdoor education. Parents who have encouraged their kids to play outside after being cooped up during the pandemic will understand this; think of the potential when learning is added to the joy of getting some fresh air and sunshine.
It’s true that in Canada there are some limits to outdoor education — the long days and warm weather will give way to dark winter skies, ice and snow. But that’s where creativity will be key.
Even if it means bundling up, more time spent educating students in the outdoors can still be a part of the curriculum in every school across Canada. A study done by educators in Scotland, where the weather can also be grim, notes that, “there are not many things you can’t teach outdoors, you just have to think creatively.”
Indeed, creative thinking is the key for teachers, principals and administrators to make the most of this unprecedented opportunity to use the outdoors more often and longer during school time. In fact, there is already a large body of practical curriculum guidelines and planning templates prepared by teachers and academic experts in Canada and internationally.
Our organization, Learning for a Sustainable Future (LSF) is a national charity that has been working for nearly 30 years to help integrate sustainability education into school systems across Canada. We provide all kinds of free resources that support learning outside.
For example, LSF created the series Learning Inside Out to support parents and teachers during COVID-19, with a special emphasis on outdoor activities. In addition, we have a comprehensive Resources for Rethinking (R4R) database of free, readily available lesson plans and resource documents — it’s growing all the time with content vetted by experienced teachers and connected to provincial and territorial curriculum outcomes across Canada.
Teachers can also get help from Connecting the Dots, a guide available online and in print that offers strategies and ideas they can incorporate into their lesson plans for environmental, citizenship and sustainability learning. We also offer training to help teachers take their students outdoors.
Post-secondary courses are also available in universities and colleges — mostly online right now — for teachers who seek practical ideas making the most out of the coming school year by getting their students outside more during school time.
Obviously, learning outdoors is ideal for environmental and sustainability education. But in these new, uncharted pandemic times, there’s lots of opportunity for students to learn all kinds of other subjects outside, at any age.
Sometimes it’s just a matter of taking a lesson that was taught previously indoors and taking the class outside. At other times, outdoor education makes use of the surroundings — looking at plants and wildlife, walking through a neighbourhood and understanding its history, learning about Indigenous people and their relationship to the land where a school or a new community now stands.
The COVID-19 crisis has been shocking and brutal for students, teachers and families who have seen their school routines interrupted, proms and grad ceremonies cancelled and the protocols for the coming school year still up in the air in many places. Students, parents, teachers, administrators and governments will all continue to grapple with details about what’s safest and best for the coming year.
But one thing is certain — it’s better to get outside.
Pamela Schwartzberg is president and CEO of Learning for a Sustainable Future.
