Full Description
Moving students' learning from the traditional indoor classroom to outdoor spaces has proven benefits. It expands student engagement and uptake, promotes mental and physical health, and strengthens students' awareness of Indigenous ways of knowing as well as environmental issues. Outdoor Experiential Learning in Canada takes pre- and in-service teachers and outdoor professionals on a journey that elevates their experience and effectiveness when teaching any curriculum content in an outdoor classroom.
With its focus on curriculum and instruction, this book focuses on 'where' students learn, emphasizing using outdoor spaces to teach. This book illustrates all the benefits of outdoor learning and how to be successful when educators teach students outside. The voices and perspectives of professional educators and practitioners from across Canada give readers a broad overview of outdoor learning from a variety of viewpoints, including Indigenous voices that ground the topic and provide a basis for connecting to the earth.
This book is intended to inspire teachers, pre-service teachers, outdoor professionals, and outdoor enthusiasts to take their students and clients outside to learn, connect, and grow.
Contents
Acknowledgements Foreword PrefaceIntroduction
Part 1: Indigenous Ways of Knowing
Chapter 1: The Importance of Holistic Land-based Learning: The Significance of the Indigenous Voices
Chapter 2: Sharing Stories of Teaching and Learning with the Land Tekenón:kwe Yothíthare (Two Kenyen'kehà:ka Women in Conversation)
Chapter 3: Indigenous Land-Based Learning
Part 2: Benefits of Outdoor Learning
Chapter 4: Can We Go Outside? The Benefits of Opening the Doors to an Outdoor Classroom
Chapter 5: Taking Teaching Outside: Learning Within Nature
Chapter 6: The Benefits of Outdoor Education: Engaging in Learning Through a Decolonizing Lens
Chapter 7: Don't Forget About the Teachers: Why Teaching Outdoors Benefits the Whole Class
Chapter 8: Forest Schools and Student Well-Being: Providing Opportunities for a Flourishing Life
Chapter 9: Forest Walking: Exploring Arts & the Environment
Part 3: Feeling Comfortable Teaching Outside
Chapter 10: Working Through Discomforts to Find Comfort in Teaching Outside: Exploring Affective Experiences That Shift The Heart
Chapter 11: Empowering Educators: Unlocking Effective Outdoor Teaching Through Personal Outdoor Exploration
Chapter 12: "But I Don't Know Anything About Nature!" - Overcoming Trepidation: Strategies for Those New to Outdoor Education
Chapter 13: Enhancing Comfort and Confidence in Outdoor Teaching in Montessori Classrooms
Chapter 14: Feeling Comfortable with Teaching Outside: Tips and Tricks of the Trade from a Long-Time Outdoor Enthusiast
Part 4: Childhood Outdoor Experiences
Chapter 15: Going Outdoors to Move from a Humancentric World to a World of Living Systems
Chapter 16: Ecological Autobiographies: An Exploration for Educators and Students
Chapter 17: A Pedagogy of Restlessness: Exploring Practices that Support Restless Meaning-Making
Part 5: Administrators' Role in Supporting Outdoor Learning
Chapter 18: School Trip Preparedness: "If you fail to plan, you will plan to fail."
Chapter 19: Administrators: Essential Co-Creators for Successful Outdoor Learning
Chapter 20: Cultivating Learning Beyond the Classroom: Principals as Advocates for Place-Based Outdoor Education
Chapter 21: Growing a Solution: Support Structures for Integrating School Gardens in Science and Environmental Education
Part 6: Leading Students Outdoors
Chapter 22: The Duke of Edinburgh's International Award and the Adventurous Journey in Secondary Schools
Chapter 23: Cultivating Engagement and Gratitude in Outdoor Learning Environments
Chapter 24: Outdoor Learning: Leading the Class
Part 7: Outdoor Learning Resources
Chapter 25: Get INvolved, Get OUTdoors: Teaching and Learning In-the-Yard (ITY)
Chapter 26: Exploring the Transformative Potential of Outdoor Learning: Utilizing Affordances for Enhanced Educational Experiences and Holistic Growth
Chapter 27: Resources for Successful Outdoor Learning
Contributor Biographies
Index
