Introduction
Outdoor education at every level is increasingly becoming less employed in schools. The school systems place more focus on in classroom content, such as math or English, than sending the students outside to explore. Some schools do not have the space or equipment to conduct this type of education. Outside of school, children play videogames instead of wandering in forests or discovering insects and plants. The definition of play for children has changed due to this shift in child activities. Even child play in playgrounds or backyards has decreased over the years.
There are several factors to why outdoor education and play has decreased. Evans (2000) has stated, “children are less involved in outdoor play today because their …show more content…
The research for this topic is fairly new, but it has shown to increase student success. When looking at the benefits of outdoor education, four themes emerged from the literature. The benefits below have been organized according to themes that were present in several studies. These themes include knowledge retention, psychophysiological benefits, connecting subjects, and environmental awareness and protection through the use of outdoor …show more content…
For the classroom, it is more important the students retain the knowledge of the content. This study displays the importance of outdoor education in the classroom in order to gain student retention. Although this was specifically for a science classroom, this type of education can be implemented in other subjects. Chow et. al ( 2010) states, “Student understanding and retention can be enhanced and improved by providing alternative learning activities and environments. Education theory recognizes the value of incorporating alternative activities (games, exercises and simulations) to stimulate student interest in the educational environment, enhance transfer of knowledge and improve learned retention with meaningful repetition” (p. 259). Using a memorable learning style through outdoor education can aid in the students’ remembering the content more
Outdoor education at every level is increasingly becoming less employed in schools. The school systems place more focus on in classroom content, such as math or English, than sending the students outside to explore. Some schools do not have the space or equipment to conduct this type of education. Outside of school, children play videogames instead of wandering in forests or discovering insects and plants. The definition of play for children has changed due to this shift in child activities. Even child play in playgrounds or backyards has decreased over the years.
There are several factors to why outdoor education and play has decreased. Evans (2000) has stated, “children are less involved in outdoor play today because their …show more content…
The research for this topic is fairly new, but it has shown to increase student success. When looking at the benefits of outdoor education, four themes emerged from the literature. The benefits below have been organized according to themes that were present in several studies. These themes include knowledge retention, psychophysiological benefits, connecting subjects, and environmental awareness and protection through the use of outdoor …show more content…
For the classroom, it is more important the students retain the knowledge of the content. This study displays the importance of outdoor education in the classroom in order to gain student retention. Although this was specifically for a science classroom, this type of education can be implemented in other subjects. Chow et. al ( 2010) states, “Student understanding and retention can be enhanced and improved by providing alternative learning activities and environments. Education theory recognizes the value of incorporating alternative activities (games, exercises and simulations) to stimulate student interest in the educational environment, enhance transfer of knowledge and improve learned retention with meaningful repetition” (p. 259). Using a memorable learning style through outdoor education can aid in the students’ remembering the content more