Feature

Learning outside the classroom

Kongkon Karmaker

EVERY young person should experience the world beyond the classroom as an essential part of learning and personal development. Learning outside the classroom is, “The use of places other than the classroom for teaching and learning.” These are often the most memorable learning experiences, help us make sense of the world around us by linking feelings and learning.

They stay with us till adulthood and affect our behaviour, lifestyle and work. They influence our values and the decisions we make. Education is more than the acquisition of knowledge. Improving young people's understanding, skills, values and personal development can significantly enhance learning and achievement. Learning outside the classroom is not an end in itself. Rather we see it as a vehicle to develop the capacity to learn.

There is strong evidence that good quality learning outside the classroom adds much value to classroom learning. It can lead to a deeper understanding of the concepts that span traditional subject boundaries and which are frequently difficult to teach effectively using classroom methods alone. It provides a context for learning in many areas: general and subject-based knowledge; thinking and problem-solving skills; life skills such as co-operation and interpersonal communication.

In recent years, teachers have been exploring 'learning how to learn' to raise achievement. What we see, hear, taste, touch, smell and do give us six main “pathways to learning”. Young people are intensely curious and should be given the opportunity to explore the world around them.

The potential for learning is maximized if we use the powerful combination of physical, visual and naturalistic ways of learning as well as our linguistic and mathematical intelligence.

It is clear that to be successful and meaningful, better provision needs to be made for learning through experience in the world outside the classroom.

By helping young people apply their knowledge across a range of challenges, learning outside the classroom builds bridges between theory and reality, schools and communities, young people and their futures. Quality learning experiences in 'real' situations have the capacity to raise achievement across a range of subjects and to develop better personal and social skills.

Learning outside the classroom provides a powerful route to the 'Every Child Matters' outcomes, in particular enjoying and achieving, staying safe and being healthy. Much learning outside the classroom will take place as part of programmes that support personalised learning and complement the strategy for young people set out in 'Youth Matters'.

When does learning outside the classroom take place? It can happen at any time in the normal school day, before and after school, during weekends and holidays.

Where does it take place? The simple answer is that a wide range of environments can be used anywhere outside the classroom. Some commonly used places are: the school grounds, the local environment, places further afield and residential places.

Who should be involved? A recent public consultation has highlighted the value of learning outside the classroom. This can involve everyone who sees the benefits to young people. That means government, headteachers, teachers, parents, local authorities, community and voluntary organisations, curriculum subject bodies, businesses and all those agencies that provide external support to schools.

(The writer is the Dinajpur correspondent of The Daily Star)

Book Review

Book information
· Wireless by Charles Stross
· Published by: Orbit/Ace

WORLD building is at the heart of great science fiction, but it can be tricky at less than book length. Charles Stross is a master of the art, however, and he manages to squeeze some fascinating worlds into the stories collected in Wireless.

In "Missile Gap", the surface of an alternate Earth still trapped in the cold war has been peeled off and stretched across a vast disc a million years in the future. Humans survive the process and go exploring with an impressive resilience, but their new world is far stranger than they can comprehend. "A Colder War" takes a wildly different turn, replacing the nuclear arms race with a quest for control of the powers of unspeakable evil, whereas "Trunk and Disorderly" is just plain fun, a P. G. Wodehouse romp with a trip to Mars and a drunken dwarf mammoth. You've got to read it.