“Because if you just read stuff out of a book, it’s not really enjoyable and you don’t really remember it. But if you go there then you’ll enjoy yourself, you’ll have great fun and it’ll stick in your mind” (Secondary School student).
.....enhanced environmental and geographical literacy, improved critical skills and thinking, better decision making and problem solving abilities and affective knowledge. The research location supporting cognitive benefits tended to be more predominantly in school grounds, museums, gardens and urban spaces. By far the most substantial longitudinal research that has been conducted in the cognitive domain in out-of-classroom learning has been the evaluation of the EIC (Environment as an Integrating Context) education model developed and evaluated by SEER (State Education & Environment Roundtable).... Research by Ernst and Monroe (2007) affirms the SEER findings and contributes to evidence around the relationship between environment based education and acquisition of critical thinking skills.
The Thinking through Art project (ISGM 2007) is a study of 135 third, fourth and fifth graders from five elementary schools who engaged in museum multi-visits. The students were tested for critical thinking skills using a rubric that was refined over a three-year period against a control group. The report states: “The data from the performance assessment part of the study consistently showed that students in the ISGM multiple visit programme out-performed a group of comparison students who did not participate in any type of art museum/school programme. Students in the ISGM programme not only used more critical skills, they used a variety of critical thinking categories as measured by the rubric (2007: 38).”
every experience matters
An evidence based research report on the role of learning outside the classroom for children’s whole development from birth to eighteen years. Dr Karen Malone
This report was commissioned by Farming and Countryside Education (FACE) in support of the UK Department of Children, School and Families Learning Outside the Classroom Manifesto.
