Learning Outside the Classroom
While creating learning opportunities inside the classroom is very important, it is equally important to provide outside the classroom learning experiences as well. These outside experiences are often referred to as field trips, and typically allow students to engage in more experiential learning than they would in the classroom. Field trips can range from simply moving your class outside on a nice day to an Easter break trip to Europe. Students should all experience learning beyond the classroom; it is an essential part of personal, cognitive, and social development for youth.
There are a variety of benefits that are clearly visible to youth’s learning and development outside the classroom. These real world experiences allow youth to interact with an environment that they understand better than the classroom, one that allows them to develop and use skills that they feel are useful and applicable in their journey to becoming active and responsible citizens (lotc.org). Field trips offer multiple chances for experiential learning, and making connections to what has been learned in the classroom to the real world. Learning outside the classroom also allows children who do not typically succeed in a traditional classroom setting to have experiences with achievement (lotc.org). Learning in a different environment than the classroom allows students to bond with each other, as well as other members of the community and the teacher.
Learning outside the classroom does not have to be a great undertaking; sometimes just moving the class outside on a sunny day to break up routine and provide a new environment to work in is worth doing (Douglass). When creating out of classroom learning experiences for students it is important to consider the how relevant it is to the learning that happens within the classroom. “Make it pedagogically sound; any field trip should ‘make sense’ from a learning standpoint (Douglass).” It is important to connect both in and out of class learning together.
Some questions to consider include:
-What activities will my students be engaged in that will connect with the knowledge they have already gained?
-How will I assess and evaluate them? Am I going to assess and evaluate them?
-How will my students be accountable for what they have learned?
-What will I do when we get back to extend, clarify, or close this learning?
(Douglass)
Classroom Environments 