Why? Making the case
Learning outside the classroom is about raising young people's achievement through an organised, powerful approach to learning in which direct experience is of prime importance. This is not only about what we learn, but most importantly, how and where we learn.
Education is more than the acquisition of knowledge. It is about improving young people’s understanding, skills, values, personal and social development.
Learning outside the classroom can help to achieve this, not simply as an end in itself — but as a vehicle to develop young people's capacity and motivation to learn.
Why work in this way? Because research suggests that there is a need to engage learners with the world as they actually experience it. Problem-based learning, real-world learning, experiential learning – all these learning models emphasise young people’s problem solving and critical skills using real-life problems and experiences beyond the normal classroom walls. Real-world learning is about bringing the world into the classroom and the classroom into the world. It is aboout bringing the benefits of formal and informal education together.
A commitment to learning from direct experience reinforces what good educationalist have always known: that the most meaningful learning occurs through acquiring knowledge and skills through real-life, practical or hands-on activities.
A recent review of research on learning outside the classroom and its impact on children and young people's development found a number of wide-ranging benefits. The evidence clearly indicates that by experiencing the world beyond the classroom, young people:
- attain higher levels of knowledge and skills
- improve their physical health and increase their motor skills
- socialise and interact in new and different ways with their peers and adults
- show improved attention, enhanced self-concept, self-esteem and mental health
- change their environmental behaviours and their values and attitudes.
Find out more about this review and other research studies which reinforce and illustrate the wide-ranging benefits for young people here.
There are a number of benefits associated with learning outside the classroom. Click here to view a suggested list produced by Dr Karen Malone.
The recently published Ofsted Report into learning outside the classroom also highlights its positive benefits and impact on raising achievement. The report is to be published early October.
Click here to link to a presentation about an evidence-based review of the impact of learning outside of the classroom on the development of young people from birth to 19 years of age.
The rest of this section ‘makes the case’ for learning outside the classroom in more detail by considering its impact across a number of different areas. Click on the headings below to explore some of the key arguments that support the development of frequent, continuous and progressive learning experiences outside the classroom for all the young people.