The Importance of Place for Learning and Teaching

"The Importance of Place for Learning and Teaching – an Outdoor Educational Perspective" bygger på interview med lærere, som arbejder i førskole, skole og gymnasie, samt nogle rektorer - og fokuserer deres opfattelser af sted, læring og undervisning i et utomhuspædagogisk perspektiv.
 

The study describes how 19 teachers linked to preschool and comprehensive school experience the importance of place for learning and teaching in an outdoor educational context. The methodological approach is phenomenographic. The semi-structured interviews are based on pictorial material intended to illustrate different physical learning environments. Nine categories and four place-related perspectives can be distinguished. The result shows that there is sometimes a didactic uncertainty around places for teaching and learning outside the classroom walls. The availability of different places in the outdoors, a woodland environment and natural materials are seen as meaningful complements in teaching. Town settings, parks and industrial landscapes are to a lesser degree perceived as learning environments. The study shows the experience of teachers using other contexts for learning and teaching than the classroom. Outdoor education is experienced as a place-related toolkit with opportunities to integrate different subjects and anchor teaching in the real world.