Learning outdoors: lifelong learning

This project was applied because after COVID-19 pandemic, all the schools within the project believed that students should be more in contact with nature and cultural environments. It is alarming the time that our children spend in front of a screen. Therefore, we all trusted that this project will help us to discover and improve new scenarios where learning can take place. Once the project is finished, we appreciate the real chance to share different experiences and points of view regarding outdoor learning. Having the opportunity to experience a great variety of activities and dynamics related to outdoor learning has allowed us to improve the conditions in which learning takes place. All these moments have allowed us to discuss and reflect about the pedagogical aspects in order to elaborate the teachers’ guide to introduce or improve outdoor education. Moreover, we had been in contact with other international teachers, so we all had the chance to talk and discuss educational issues. Students also had this contact, so they had the occasion to communicate with them in English in a real context. Apart from that, students have had the moment to discover more about Europe and the importance of this open-mindedness.

Regarding the previous needs of each school, the main goal to achieve by implementing this project is the elaboration of a teacher's guide about learning outdoors. This guide will allow us and other schools and teachers to introduce or improve outdoor learning, meaning that teachers can enrich their resources and knowledge and therefore, make valuable changes in their methodology. All the content of the guide will help every teacher who reads it to plan and implement outdoor activities to enhance cross-curricular learning. All these improvements will also upgrade the learning experiences of the students, having real opportunities in real environments and giving each individual child the opportunity to learn according to their needs. Another important aspect is to appreciate and respect the environment near the schools and also around their own city in order to offer students new scenarios and places where they can learn. If students know their surroundings (both: natural and cultural) they will appreciate them and, therefore, they will really understand its value and the necessity to protect and take care of it.

There have been different activities implemented during the project. All these activities were already planned in the project, but they have been adapted according to the different necessities, always taking into account the best options either for achieving the project and also for our students and teachers. Five international meetings have been made, starting May 22 and finishing June 23. The first meeting was in Belgium, then we met in Greece (Oct 22), the third one was in Finland (Feb 23) followed by Portugal (Apr 23) and the last one in Spain (June 23). In each meeting, a great amount of activities were planned. These activities were planned with the intention of putting into practice the agreements achieved in previous meetings and, therefore, to improve them if necessary. Apart from the activities with students, the planning included pedagogical meetings to reflect on academic aspects and reach agreements to include in the guide. Between each meeting, connections were possible by using Google Meet and Drive and also postal correspondence. These contacts were also related to the topics considered necessary for each meeting. Finally, the dynamics carried out were published in Instagram and website of the project.

The main result of this project is the elaboration of a teacher’s guide, a document that includes the bases for outdoor learning in order to improve and enhance cross-curricular learning and key competences achievement. This guide includes an introduction about learning outdoors, the purpose of the guide and different sections which are a result of the dynamics done in each meeting. Therefore, the content of the guide is: teachers’ role, materials and resources, security and safety, methodology when learning outdoors, activities classified by group of ages, assessment and the conclusion. Teachers will have the opportunity to learn and know more about this teaching methodology and, therefore, to develop greater confidence in providing children with more open-ended activities. At the same time, teachers can extend their understanding of how children learn in a broader range of contexts and the advantages this gives in developing self-esteem and basic academic skills. To conclude, this guide will support outdoor planning and will help us continue implementing this project in the long-term. Apart from that, the guide will be shared with the rest of the community and other schools through our project web and also the Platform results