OUTDOOR LEARNING PROMOTES EDUCATION FOR
A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

1. Learning experiences and education for sustainable development

 

Serious ecological, social, and economic problems make actions and education for sustainable development urgent. UNESCO has published an ambitious and universal agenda to transform our world: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). UNESCO also published the corresponding educational objectives for each SDGs for education for sustainable development (ESD) in 2017 [1]. However, with all its aspects, ESD is a very wide area, and it is often challenging in formal and non-formal education to form multidisciplinary learning entities on sustainability issues. Basic questions are what and how to teach and how to learn to educate responsible citizens being able to ponder sustainability issues and actively participate in local decision-making processes in their own lives. In addition to the social and economic aspects of sustainability, ESD and environmental education (EE) are also concerned about teaching and learning about humans’ relationship with nature and their responsibility for the living world [c.f. 2].

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Because of the wideness of ESD, in this study, we will consider ESD mostly in the frameworks of outdoor education and learning of ecological sustainability in formal and non-formal education, both of which often appear in collaboration between the schools and out-of-school organisations. Outdoor education and ecological sustainability are also traditionally emphasized in EE.

 

The general goal of UNESCO has been to include ESD in the curricula of all levels of education. For instance, in Finland, sustainability issues are included in the curricula of early childhood, primary, and secondary education, and increasingly to the technical and vocational as well as to tertiary levels of education, as documented in the national curricula and the university strategies. However, the fulfilment of such goals is not well known. As for schools, in a large-scale survey sustainability experiences have been found to increase students’ ecological behaviour and increase their motivation to act for the environment in their own lives [3]. This means that the efforts in ESD make the difference: in addition to teaching, whole-school approaches can enhance students’ pro-environmental values and acceptance of sustainability-related school norms (energy and material saving, recycling, etc.). However, there are large differences between subject teachers in their competencies and interest to consider sustainability issues in their teaching with regards to all the dimensions of ecological, economic, social, and cultural sustainability. For instance, teachers that teach biology, geography, home economics, arts, and crafts consider more ecological issues in their teaching, while those in history and social studies focus more on social and economic sustainability issues. This indicates that collaboration between the teachers is essential [4].

 

2. The importance of childhood and adolescent outdoor experiences in enhancing pro-environmental behaviour

 

Kellert and Wilson [5] have stated that humans have an innate need to relate to nature and other living organisms. Connection to nature is known to provide many benefits to the health and wellbeing of humans [e.g. 6]. According to a large body of research on environmental education, both childhood experiences in natural outdoor environments and connectedness to nature are important in enhancing pro-environmental behaviour [7], [8], [9]. Connectedness to nature includes the following three components: 1) the cognitive component describing how integrated a person feels with nature, 2) the affective component describing an individual’s sense of care for nature, and 3) the behavioural component describing a person’s commitment to protecting the natural environment.

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Knowledge of environmental issues is important, but not enough to promote pro‑environmental behaviour. Many personal and social factors, such as affective nature experiences are important for the development of pro-environmental behaviour [10]. According to Rickinson et al. [11], outdoor learning has a more positive effect on learning than indoor teaching alone, giving students opportunities to practice many skills related to outdoor activities and problem‑solving. In outdoor environmental education, nature experiences, skills to sense and make observations of nature and its biodiversity are essential in learning, understanding, and valuing living nature, as well as understanding humans’ being a part of nature and their responsibility for the sustainable future of the whole planet.

 

      3. Outdoor education – collaborative learning in out-of-school environments

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In this paper, we look at outdoor learning both in the frameworks of formal school education and more generally out-of-school learning, both of which can take place in very different physical environments and contexts. Sometimes the definition between formal and non-formal education – the education that does not lead to any examination – is not distinct, for example, when schools are collaborating with nature schools, natural history museums, botanical gardens, and other institutions providing non-formal education for all. The objects and contexts of outdoor education vary from discipline-based education such as biology as a part of science education to much wider frameworks such as EE/ESD, emphasising the development of values, attitudes, motivation, and skills to behave in an environmentally responsible way. For instance, biodiversity education integrates both biology education and ESD. Adventure education can frame school outdoor education, EE, and ESD.

 

3.1. Schools have potential but not enough resources to implement outdoor education

 

In the school curricula outdoor is defined to be a valuable learning environment, however, many issues impede the use of outdoor environments in education. For instance, the schools’ location, hasty timetables, and large groups are mentioned as reasons preventing teaching and learning outdoors in Finland [12]. Besides, many teachers feel a lack of confidence in teaching outdoors, they also worry about safety and responsibility issues [13]. Often outdoor education is dependent on a single teacher’s enthusiasm and commitment to the implementation of outdoor education. However, some schools highlight outdoor learning in their school curriculum.  

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At present, for instance, Finnish schools are to teach multidisciplinary entities integrating different subjects, and for this purpose outdoor learning environments provide great potential [14], [15]. For example, local environments can be studied from the viewpoints of science, arts, languages, history, health education, geography, etc. In general, in the interdisciplinary environ-mental studies (grades 1-6) and biology education in the lower secondary school, outdoor activities have been included in the Finnish national curriculum and implemented in education [12], [4].

 

3.2 Formal and non-formal outdoor education – a collaboration between the schools and out-of-school actors

 

University teacher education

 

Pre-service teacher students can learn some outdoor pedagogy in the regular university class and subject teachers’ education courses. In addition, several university-based educational development programmes use outdoor learning environments in Finland. One example is the development project organised by the LUMA Centre Finland financed by the Ministry of Education. The centre aims to combine Finnish universities’ teacher education units to organise education for children and youth to inspire and motivate them into mathematics, science, and technology through the latest methods and activities of STEAM education. The aim of the centre is also to support the life-long learning of teachers working on different levels of education from early childhood to universities and to strengthen the development of research-based teaching. Depending on the different emphasis of universities, outdoor environments have been used in varying learning activities [c.f. 16]. For example at the Department of Education at the University of Helsinki, the LumaLähetit project organised collaborative projects, in which teacher educators, student‑teachers (mainly class teachers) worked together in planning and conducting projects in comprehensive schools, emphasizing team teaching, inquiry-based approach, multidisciplinary teaching, and learning [17]. In this project, the participants developed, for instance, outdoor activities and small-scale investigations to be carried out in the environments nearby the schools [18].

 

Besides, there are other non-formal programmes especially concerning outdoor learning, for example, Suomen Lasten Metsäretkipäivä (Finnish Children's Forest Trip Day), the purpose of which is to encourage adults, families, those working with children, and others interested in forest trips, to take children on a forest trip and to inform people about the importance, opportunities, and organising of forest trips.

 

Teacher training organised by national and international organisations

 

The Association for Biology and Geography Teachers in Finland (BMOL) has an important role in organising continuing education for in service teachers and in the much-needed social dialogue in society. In 2019 BMOL provided education and materials for teachers and the general public, for example, in the following projects funded by public grants. Climate Greetings from the South emphasized a global approach to climate change with blogs, videos, counter commercials, teaching materials, lectures, and short courses [19]. Teacher’s Guide to Responsible Nutrition provided materials from different sustainable viewpoints for twelve different subjects at school [20]. Hope and action project gives tools and materials for coping with climate anxiety and growing up to become global citizens acting for a sustainable future and the benefit of other humans [21]. The Heroes of Soil project emphasizes the importance of biodiversity in the soil for agriculture, climate change, and the environment in general [22]. Besides, a lot of in-service training and materials are produced through own voluntary work and funding. BMOL, with others, provides inspiration and tasks directly to the students at school in the form of competitions, for example, on knowledge of forests, collections of plants, innovations and nature research, and international Olympiads on biology, geography.

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LYKE-network, the Finnish Association of Nature and Environment Schools, promotes the nature and environmental education in Finland. This is an umbrella organisation for many actors in outdoor education. The network includes centres governed by municipalities, governmental organisations, enterprises, and associations. Now, the LYKE- network includes over 50 centres, for instance, Nature and Environmental Schools, Visitor Centres of national parks, Youth Centres and Camp School Centres. LYKE works mainly with schools and kindergartens. Also, LYKE organises every other year a large event on outdoor learning (Ulos-Ut-Out).

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One common programme collaborating with the schools is the global Green Flag Programme (Eco-Schools) operating in a total of 68 countries around the world. The Green Flag is a sustainable development program for kindergartens, schools, educational institutions, and leisure activities for children and young people. It is coordinated by the Finnish Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE). The programme promotes different aspects of sustainable development in the participating institutions. FEE Finland develops policies and materials for the day care and schools attending the Green Flag program. The Green Flag programme aims to guide the participating institutions to long-term development and further to comprehensive and effective work for sustainability issues. When a participant's project meets the program criteria, it will be rewarded with an international Eco-Schools certificate and a green flag. The flag informs others about environmentally responsible activities.

 

4. The future of outdoor education in the framework of science and sustainability education – a case of biodiversity education

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Traditionally, learning is measured as learning outcomes, such as the development of factual knowledge [e.g. 12]. However, the observable effects of outdoor learning also depend on how the objectives of learning are defined. When studying only knowledge as the learning outcome, outdoor learning as such may not be more effective than learning in a classroom. [13]. It is likely that learning factual knowledge, for instance, different biodiversity levels, such as species, biotopes, and ecosystems in the classroom increase students’ understanding of ecology, but as stated by Dillon et al. [23] fieldwork – when adequately and well planned and implemented  - offers learners opportunities to develop their knowledge and skills in ways that add value to their everyday classroom learning.

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At present, the curriculum for basic education includes objectives for values and skills, not only for knowledge [15].  For instance, one objective is that the learner can make observations and small-scale investigations in the nearby environment. When outdoor field trips are included in learning, the learning experience will be bound to real-world situations. Thus, outdoor learning provides students with possibilities to learn, for example, how to roam safely in a forest, make meaningful nature observations on species, biotopes, ecosystem levels, of biodiversity, make small-scale investigations, collaborate with other students, enjoy the aesthetics of nature, and feel the connectedness with nature.

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It is suggested that outdoor experiences can enhance environmental attitudes and values – which according to the research of EE/ ESD, is important for personal development towards environmental awareness, responsibility, and behaviour [e.g. 7,8,11]. Thus, outdoor education cannot be measured directly as an increase in factual knowledge but as an enhancement of skills, attitudes, and values. Self-efficacy, is a person’s belief that one can carry out a specific task [cf. 3], such as making meaningful observations in his/her environment, seems to be important. The multisensory recognition of biodiversity in the form of species-specific characteristics such as forms, structures, colours, etc., and different types of biotopes can be stimulating for the learners in many ways. Thus, at its best, the outdoor learning experiences enhance the knowledge of local and global biodiversity, as well as the skills to make outdoor observations when recognising different species, biotopes, and ecosystems and most importantly - to understand the importance of ecosystem services for humans when providing food, water and materials as well as many regulating, cultural and supporting services.

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Connectedness to nature, skills to observe and to understand the role of environmental changes and challenges, as well as skills to argue for the importance of biodiversity for the sustainable future of the whole planet, including humans, are important parts in the development of active and responsible citizens, able to take care of each other and act for the living world around us.  

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