“No doubt the first people to use a stone-age dwelling as a primitive schoolhouse thought themselves the originators of a magnificent breakthrough in education. ‘No more cave drawings for us!’ But in so doing, something was lost: the ability of children to touch, to smell, to walk, to climb, to experience. Learning became primarily theoretical, pictures and representations of the world instead of the world itself. We have only recently begun to see the beauty of educating kids outside the traditional classroom, whether in a garden in Kentucky, a forest in Wyoming, or on a mountaintop in Vermont. In the coming series of articles I will list 11 proven benefits of outdoor learning that show, it’s high time more schools got back to the way we were. [1]
1. Better grades:
Here’s one that ought to make every educator snap to attention. A 2006 academic paper pointed to a 2000 study of schoolchildren in California as evidence that outdoor education improves kids’ grades. After studying on an outdoor curriculum basis, students from 11 schools scored higher than students of traditional systems in 72% of assessments in everything from math and science to attendance. The same year, Dennis Eaton published in his book Cognitive and Affective Learning in Outdoor Education his finding that students’ cognitive abilities are better developed outside the classroom than in.”
http://www.bachelorsdegreeonline.com/blog/2012/11-proven-benefits-of-outdoor-learning/
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape10/PQDD_0005/NQ41587.pdf
Beáta Romhányi, ICT teacher and International Award Leader