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At the Dolphin House Outdoor Learning Centre, we worked in partnership with our friend teacher and RAISE officer Jenn McEwan to map our IDL with the various E's and O's of the CfE, as well as the LfS and Children's Rights principles that underpin our programmes.

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Dolphin House delivers an outdoor learning programme for upper primary pupils. All outdoor learning activities offered provide a framework for addressing the four capacities within a Curriculum for Excellence.

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Drawing from a place-based learning approach and "Learning Outside the Classroom" (Simon Beames, Pete Higgins, Robbie Nicol, 2012) read...

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Drawing from a place-based learning approach and "Learning Outside the Classroom" (Simon Beames, Pete Higgins, Robbie Nicol, 2012) read...

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... Here is a project my friends and colleagues (and last year's post-graduates in Outdoor Education and Sustainability form Moray House) have initiated and to which I had the pleasure to participate as part of our work in South-Ayrshire Council's Health and Wellbeing department.

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Excited to be part of this project with the Dolphin House Outdoor Learning Team and @ActiveSchoolsSA, creating maps to promote local learning outside of the classroom #outdoorlearning

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Excited to be part of this project with the Dolphin House Outdoor Learning Team and @ActiveSchoolsSA, creating maps to promote local learning outside of the classroom #outdoorlearning https://t.co/idcMrgHvQU

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Excited to be part of this project with the Dolphin House Outdoor Learning Team and @ActiveSchoolsSA, creating maps to promote local learning outside of the classroom #outdoorlearning pic.twitter.com/idcMrgHvQU
— Rubbish Paddlers (@RubbishPaddlers) August 16, 2020

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Excited to be part of this project with the Dolphin House Outdoor Learning Team and @ActiveSchoolsSA, creating maps to promote local learning outside of the classroom #outdoorlearning https://t.co/idcMrgHvQU

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Excited to be part of this project with the Dolphin House Outdoor Learning Team and @ActiveSchoolsSA, creating maps to promote local learning outside of the classroom #outdoorlearning https://t.co/idcMrgHvQU

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Excited to be part of this project with the Dolphin House Outdoor Learning Team and @ActiveSchoolsSA, creating maps to promote local learning outside of the classroom #outdoorlearning

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Learning about others' space to understand yours better...

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Learning about others' space to understand yours better...

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Having been born in Quebec and never really been taught about the Premier Nations at school (30 years ago), I searched about current student exchange opportunities in Canada -if any- and was glad to find a few.... We have a lot to learn from the Premier Nations of our country and it's about time we start.

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A group of Toronto students traded lives with teens from Nunavut in an exchange designed to give them a glimpse of challenges facing northern Canadians and the chance to brainstorm creative solutions.

Daily difficulties were front-and-centre during the five-day visit in Iqaluit. The Ontario students learned from their northern peers what it was like to go to school, pay for groceries and live in the harsh conditions.

"There is a lot of poverty in Canada, and suicide, depression. And I feel like it's a lot about accessibility," one student told CTV News.

The teens from both regions then headed back to Toronto together and attended a business competition, organized by the Economic Club of Canada, to pitch innovative ways to improve quality of life in the North.

Many agreed that the answer was to provide access to fresh, healthy and affordable food.

"I don't understand how we continue to let this happen day after day -- let people in the North pay more and then have harder lives," said another student.

The cost of groceries in Nunavut is notoriously high. According to a 2016 report, food in Nunavut costs two to three times the price of the same products sold in southern provinces.

One of the solutions the students brought forward was to invest in a greenhouse. They also identified more opportunities for sports, entertainment and employment as major needs for the community.

The teens pitched their ideas to an audience of business leaders and politicians, including federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau.

"Some of the best ideas come from young people in our country who are thinking without constraints about how we can create opportunities," Morneau said.

The students urged for more money to be put into building sustainable, independent businesses in Nunavut.

"Let's put some domestic investment into the Native business owners and help create the jobs, so it's no longer a band-aid solution," said another student.

The North Meets South exchange program included 25 students from Ontario and 25 from Nunavut. Aside from encouraging entrepreneurial creativity, the exchange was meant to connect students from different backgrounds.

With a report from CTV's Peter Akman in Toronto

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Arctic exchange: Students from Toronto, Iqaluit swap places to tackle problems

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A group of Toronto students traded lives with teens from Nunavut in an exchange designed to give them a glimpse of challenges facing northern Canadians and the chance to brainstorm creative solutions. Daily difficulties were front-and-centre during the five-day visit in Iqaluit.

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Love this book! We use it at the Outdoor Education residential centre where I work in South-Ayrshire and love all the related resources offered by the John Muir Trust. 

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Love this book! We use it at the Outdoor Education residential centre where I work in South-Ayrshire and love all the related resources offered by the John Muir Trust. 

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The book has so much potential for interdisciplinary outdoor education activities and for the learning to be sustained back in the classroom and at home.

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The John Muir Award encourages people of all backgrounds to connect with, enjoy and care for wild places.

The Trust's John Muir Award is an environmental award scheme focused on wild places. It is inclusive, accessible and non-competitive, though should challenge each participant.  The Award encourages awareness and responsibility for the natural environment through a structured yet adaptable scheme, in a spirit of fun, adventure and exploration.

It's open to all who can understand and meet the Award Criteria. It is ideally suited for those participants working at the later stage of primary education and beyond. Adults are welcome to get involved too - on their own, in groups, or alongside younger participants. We have created a Family Award that welcomes involvement as a family unit and can include all ages and abilities.

The John Muir Award Team are here to support your Award activity. If you have questions about your John Muir Award please read our FAQs.

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The John Muir Award encourages people of all backgrounds to connect with, enjoy and care for wild places. The Trust's John Muir Award is an environmental award scheme focused on wild places. It is inclusive, accessible and non-competitive, though should challenge each participant.  The Award encourages awareness and responsibility for the natural environment through a structured yet adaptable scheme, in a spirit of fun, adventure and exploration.

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Reference to 10 ways of seeing Landscape from lecture 2. 

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Reference to 10 ways of seeing Landscape from lecture 2. 

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Meinig - Beholding Eye

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The Story of the Blue Planet by Andri Snær Magnason. Illustrations by Áslaug Jónsdóttir.

"A Seussean mix of wonder, wit and gravitas." The New York Times.

Published in more than 30 countries:

Brimir and Hulda are best friends, living on a beautiful blue planet where there are no grown-ups, life is wild and free, and each day is more exciting than the last. Until, one day, a rocket ship piloted by a strange- looking adult named Gleesome Goodday crashes on the beach. He promises to make life a hundred times more fun-with flying- powder, and coated skin so that no one ever has to bathe again-and even nails the sun to their sky. But Hulda and Brimir soon discover that their endless fun has consequences they could never have imagined. Could it be that Gleesome Goodday is not everything he seems?
Prizes:
An extraordinary adventure of magic and generosity, and a beautifully simple tale of selfishness and sacrifice, The Story of the Blue Planet will delight and challenge readers of every age.

UKLA Award (United Kingdom Literacy Award) 2014/ Green Earth Honor Award 2013 / Winner of the Icelandic Literary Prize. / The Janusz Korczak Honorary Award. / The National Theatre Prize for New Plays. / Nomination for the IBBY International Honour List 2001 for illustrations. / The West Nordic Literature Prize 2002. / Nomination for the Nordic Children's Book Award. / Nomination for The Reykjavik Educational Council Children's Book Prize. / Nomination for the IBBY Award. / Nomination for 5 DORA awards -Toronto 2005. / Published in 25 languages / Staged in 5 countries.

The Story of the Blue Planet has been published in the following countries: France (Gallimard), Italy (RCS Libri/Fabbri Editori); Spain (Omega), Denmark (GAD), Sweden (Kabusa), Faroe Islands (Bókadeildin), Greenland (Atuakkiorfik), Estonia (Eesti Raamat), Yugoslavia (Izdavacka Kuca Draganic); Thailand (Image Publishing). Serbia (Draganic), South Korea (Seoul media), Greece (Patakis), Norway (Karviland), Finnland, (Pieni Karhu), Japan (Gakken), Germany (Leibziger kinderbuchverlag). China ( Bjkpress) , Lithaenia (Zara), Hungary (Romania) by Koronia, See here for English publication by Seven Stories Press. Available also in Canada, UK, Ireland and Australia.
THE PLAY
See here for website in Brazil, by Hedra, the Norwegian publisher is Commentum and look here for more UK information from Pushkin Press.

The play BLUE PLANET was produced by YPT in Toronto in April 2013. In Finland in the city theaters of Lahti and Vaasa have performed the play and the city theater of Lucerne in Switzerland.
Read older reviews about The Story of the Blue Planet.
More about Icelandic Children's Literature.

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The Story of the Blue Planet by Andri Snær Magnason. Illustrations by Áslaug Jónsdóttir. "A Seussean mix of wonder, wit and gravitas." The New York Times. Brimir and Hulda are best friends, living on a beautiful blue planet where there are no grown-ups, life is wild and free, and each day is more exciting than the last.

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The story of the Blue Planet - Andri Magnason

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The story of the Blue Planet - Andri Magnason

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You might enjoy this book - it is a children's story that draws in a number of issues in a metaphorical way - climate change, sacrifice, relationships, morality etc. He wraps these issues and challenges up in a really simple story, which means that you could work with this story as a way into any one of this complex topics.

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In most children's books, from "Little Bear" to "The Jungle Book," nature exists as a kind of utopia, a lush playground with anthropomorphized animals. It's rare to find stories that realistically depict the natural world - as a beautiful but fragile realm under siege. Is it because Dr. Seuss so brilliantly impugned the human race's ecological crimes in "The Lorax" that another masterpiece in the genre has seemed beyond reach? Because our children are so screen-addicted and nature-starved, we fear further exiling them from the outdoors with tales of environmental peril? Or maybe it's because such stories would expose any grown-up who travels by aircraft or uses Ziploc baggies as an environmental offender. Whatever the reason, eco-lit needs more attention, and devotees will be pleased to discover a new addition from the Icelandic author Andri Snaer Magnason, who writes with a Seussian mix of wonder, wit and gravitas.

"The Story of the Blue Planet" follows Brimir and Hulda, best friends on a small planet that resembles Earth in every way but one: It is inhabited only by children who never grow old. It is a beautiful place where "wind swayed the grass and flowers, while waterfalls tumbled from high mountains" and the children sleep in grassy beds under the stars. It is also filled with lions and tigers and bears, and the kids scavenge fruit, club baby seals for their meat and suckle milk from she-wolves. They enjoy it all. "Each day was so full of danger and excitement that no grown-ups could have lived there without getting gray hair and withering away from stress and worry," notes the droll narrator. In the tradition of Roald Dahl and Maurice Sendak, Magnason's story celebrates the ferity and fearlessness of childhood as an idealized state.

But one day a grown-up - the traveling salesman known as Jolly-Goodday - comes crashing down on the blue planet in a spaceship and offers to make the children's already-fun lives exponentially more so. He sprinkles them with powder vacuumed from the wings of butterflies that, when activated by the sun, gives them the ability to fly. The children are instantly hooked, but become so greedy for flight they agree to Goodday's planet-altering plan: He nails the sun to the sky and banishes clouds for their 24-hour flying pleasure. For each of these services he extracts his pound of flesh: a drop from the "well of youth in their hearts" that seemed limitless.

As their youth erodes, the children become increasingly divided and competitive. One day during a flying race Brimir and Hulda soar too high and are swept by air currents to the other side of the planet. They discover children are living in everlasting shadow - the plants and trees are shriveled without sun, and everyone will soon die from lack of nourishment. Brimir and Hulda realize that controlling nature for the benefit of a few has imposed a grave cost on the many, and they set out to reverse the harm wrought by Goodday.

Magnason's writing is lean, swift and often lyrical (owing in part to an impressive translation by Julian Meldon D'Arcy), and for the most part he manages not to be didactic. While the metaphors are not subtle - a reader can easily surmise that the power of flight might stand for video games, that Goodday is doing the equivalent of shilling your Wii, and that the stuck sun and choked rains signify climate change - Magnason generally manages to temper his morality tale with enough wit and levity that it doesn't feel heavy-handed. Toward the end the author careens into territory that makes the story feel cluttered. He satirizes the flaws of foreign aid (Goodday suggests sending the sickly children on the dark side of the planet packages of food, blankets and shoes), and of democracy.

But the book, over all, is immensely satisfying - a major contribution to the sparsely populated eco-lit genre, and one that could entice other authors to contribute. Magnason's story touchingly reminds us of the Dahlian principle that adults are "complicated creatures, full of quirks and secrets"; and that children "are the music makers . . . the dreamers of dreams." And further - that these dreamers may also be our best hope of unsticking the sun from the sky, of making the rains fall normally again and of repairing a real-life planet damaged by grown-ups.

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In most children's books, from "Little Bear" to "The Jungle Book," nature exists as a kind of utopia, a lush playground with anthropomorphized animals. It's rare to find stories that realistically depict the natural world - as a beautiful but fragile realm under siege.

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Delighted that you know this work already - yes, it may need to be adapted for different ages. I love the spirit and ethos of it and was just about to say there is. a soundtrack but you are already onto that!

https://www.thelostwords.org/spell-songs/

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I got very excited when you mentioned Robert Mcfarlane and The Lost Words! I was actually looking through their beautiful educational resources this week! Some of the activities themselves are perhaps a little too sophisticated for my SBL P2's (though definitely adaptable!) but I was so impressed with their depth and the way they cover some important issues so sensitively and creatively.

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I got very excited when you mentioned Robert Mcfarlane and The Lost Words! I was actually looking through their beautiful educational resources this week! Some of the activities themselves are perhaps a little too sophisticated for my SBL P2's (though definitely adaptable!) but I was so impressed with their depth and the way they cover some important issues so sensitively and creatively.

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I actually discovered this project through the beautiful accompanying album. 'The Lost Words Blessing' that opens it particularly spoke to me and soundtracked my summer:

https://open.spotify.com/track/1c5Pmoh8KWedGYlu4wipPN?si=J8afRCahTUSyJ93sH-TcyQ

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The Lost Words Spell Songs Explorer Pack

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2019 Journal Article -- Place-based transformative learning

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2019 Journal Article -- Place-based transformative learning

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Really fascinating article that captures a lot of what this week is premised upon. Worth a read and a follow up on the papers they reference as some great work captured in this one paper.

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Highlights

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Sustainability requires shifts in consciousness: a transformative learning process.

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Transformative learning is a place-based phenomenon.

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Connection, compassion and creativity emerged as key themes.

Abstract

Based on a critical literature review, the article argues that transformative learning (TL) that fosters a shift in consciousness towards a more ecological approach is an inherently place-based phenomenon. In this article we build a place-based approach to TL based on a literature review. Our theoretical framework is grounded in three key themes which emerge from the literature: (re-) connection, (self-)compassion and creativity. (Re-)connection involves all processes that evoke an experience of the interconnected nature of all life. (Self-)compassion, acting to alleviate suffering or doing the least harm, naturally follows a sense of interconnection. Creativity is the materialisation of a sense of interconnection and compassion or the means through which these can be experienced. This theoretical framework can be used empirically to research the extent to which people involved in place-based sustainability initiatives develop an ecological consciousness. Empirical research can then be used to further develop and anchor this framework, and seek the kind of practices that can evoke experiences of connection, cultivate the human ability for compassion and give space for creative living.

View Abstract

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Place based transformative learning: a framework to explore consciousness in sustainability initiatives

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Sustainability requires shifts in consciousness: a transformative learning process. * Transformative learning is a place-based phenomenon. * Connection, compassion and creativity emerged as key themes. Based on a critical literature review, the article argues that transformative learning (TL) that fosters a shift in consciousness towards a more ecological approach is an inherently place-based phenomenon.

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Learning our Way to a Sustainable Future

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Can the coronavirus pandemic be viewed as a 'fire drill' for what is likely to follow from the climate and biodiversity emergencies?

In issue 84 of Teaching Scotland, GTC Scotland's Ken Muir asked: "Does the [Covid-19] crisis we are enduring demonstrate sufficiently why Learning for Sustainability, essential for the wellbeing of all, is such an integral part of our Professional Standards?"

This provokes three related questions:

1. What is it that the crisis can demonstrate regarding sustainability?

2. In what way is this sufficient to commit teachers/educators to address it?

3. How do we respond to ensure our learners flourish, now and in the future?

Sustainability

An understanding of sustainability begins with the realisation that we evolved in a complex, interdependent, biodiverse world with its associated environmental conditions (including climate). Any significant disruption will have implications for the stability of these natural systems, their long-term future, and that of all living things on the planet. Our sustainability is inextricably linked with these systems; we are part-of not apart-from nature. While we may know this, it is easy not to be mindful of it. There are so many urgent issues to respond to; particularly if you are a teacher trying to support young people as we emerge from the pandemic.

Finding evidence of our multiple and interconnected impacts on the sustainability of our planet is not difficult. For example, the executive director of the International Energy Agency recently urged policymakers to respond, saying that we have "six months in which to change the course of the climate crisis and prevent a post-lockdown rebound in greenhouse gas emissions that would overwhelm efforts to stave off climate catastrophe".

The impact of human activity on others is also of fundamental concern, amplified through the lens of Covid-19. Poverty, gender equality, hunger, human rights and social injustice are vital aspects of a bigger whole that need to be addressed to secure a sustainable future for our young people and the natural world on which we ultimately depend.

Addressing all these concerns together through 'green and just solutions' is our best chance of a sustainable future. The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), provide a vision and framework for a world where people, planet and prosperity are in balance. We have seen tantalising glimpses of the potential this holds during lockdown.

Building a better world

It is tempting to see the coronavirus as a one-off; a consequence of the wet markets of Wuhan, and nothing to do with the big challenges of sustainability. However, in 2015 it was established that similar diseases (AIDS, SARS and Ebola) originated from animal populations "under severe environmental pressures", and that "most emerging infectious diseases are driven by human activities".

Similarly, given the well publicised age-related incidence and death rates of Covid-19, we might see this as a particular threat to older people with underlying health conditions. However, it seems that air pollution has a significant impact on mortality, and this is particularly significant for people in poorer neighbourhoods in our cities, often from BAME communities.

To return to Ken's question, while the sustainability emergency we face has not changed because of coronavirus, the interdependency of environmental and social justice issues such as poverty, equity and health, and their role as both contributing factors and symptoms of this wider crisis in the natural world is evident. Lise Kingo, Executive Director of the UN's sustainable business organisation, has argued that "(t)he coronavirus pandemic is 'just a fire drill' for what is likely to follow from the climate crisis".

Consequently, it seems unthinkable that Learning for Sustainability (LfS) would not remain a central pillar of the Professional Standards and Scottish education policy, and that teachers would not respond. However, in the coming months teachers may be addressing urgent challenges: online learning, social-distancing, health-related issues etc. While LfS could be seen as a distraction, it is an entitlement of learners and underpins what it means to be a teacher in Scotland. So how should we respond?

Responding to the 'fire drill'

It is entirely understandable that in the coming months schools will focus on literacy, numeracy, health and wellbeing and examinable subjects. However, recent Scottish Government-commissioned research has highlighted the broader educational benefits of LfS in supporting and enhancing the curriculum.

It emphasises the role of outdoor learning, stating that "there is increasingly strong evidence that experiences in nature can boost academic learning, including in subject areas unrelated to the outdoor context", supporting health and wellbeing, stress-reduction, improved mental health and confidence of young people. This suggests a valuable role for LfS and the outdoors in supporting effective blended learning over the coming months and beyond.

Given the need for innovative and compassionate responses to Covid-19 recovery, approaches focusing on environmental and social justice are urgent. Curriculum for Excellence has sustainability at its heart9 and embedding this approach into all learning and teaching can support learners to develop the knowledge, skills and values to support our journey towards a more sustainable future.

This may also help learners and their communities to develop a thoughtful national identity, grounded in 'place', and to understand, commit to and play their part in responding to the twin climate and biodiversity emergencies and the inspiring aims of the UN SDGs in Scotland. This is vital for our young citizens as they make sense of their choices, and continue their studies or enter employment in hopefully a 'green, just (and healthy) recovery'. This really would be a new normal worth working towards.

CASE-STUDY: LfS IN LOCKDOWN

Transformational teaching embedding LfS is already under way. Teachers who have recently achieved GTC Scotland Professional Recognition in Learning for Sustainability through the 'Making Connections' CLPL programme, continued to embed sustainability in their day-to-day teaching during lockdown.

Bonar Bridge Primary School teacher Lisa MacKenzie set a challenge to enable learners and their families to explore the SDGs and consider how they relate to their lives. Learners were asked to lead the conversation and discussion, make decisions about what change was within their reach, create their own action plan with steps towards their 'change', supporting their family to join in.

Lisa said: "Pupils and their families embraced the challenge and set themselves targets to work towards one or some SDGs. Actions ranged from using reusable shopping bags (Life Below Water, Clean Water and Sanitation) to planting trees for a future coppice (Climate Action, Life on Land) and growing herbs and vegetables (Zero Hunger). Pupils have been thinking for themselves and making plans and challenges within their reach now, not just in the future.

"These plans are also personal to their family, something they believe in and wanted to change. We will bring together the plans, progress and updates from each family and produce a collective wall display, share good news on our website and at assembly and, more importantly, reconfigure what needs to happen next and how we can use the new-found knowledge and skills of our pupils and families to support this."

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Peter Higgins is Professor of Outdoor, Environmental & Sustainability Education at Moray House School of Education and Betsy King is Development Manager at Learning for Sustainability Scotland. With contributions from Kirsten Leask and Beth Christie.

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Learning our way to a sustainable future

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In issue 84 of Teaching Scotland, GTC Scotland's Ken Muir asked: "Does the [Covid-19] crisis we are enduring demonstrate sufficiently why Learning for Sustainability, essential for the wellbeing of all, is such an integral part of our Professional Standards?" This provokes three related questions: 1. What is it that the crisis can demonstrate regarding sustainability?

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This website is a great example of the ways in which people are actively engaging in the shape and development of their places and spaces. These talks are currently happening and show what is possible following the change in use in response to Covid. It will be interesting to see how this and similar projects evolve - will change happen?

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Parks and green spaces are vital in helping to address the loss of plants and wildlife in our cities and play an important role in tackling the climate climate emergency.

They help to slow down the effects of flooding, provide a nautural way of controlling tempreatures and are home to a host of animals and plants.

Covid-19 has also highlighted the value of our parks and greenspaces in Edinburgh. As well as a place for daily exercise during lockdown, they have provided many people with a calm space away in which they could reconnect with the world around them.

This embedded content requires Javascript

City of Edinburgh Council Biodiversity Officer Susan Falkner and biodiversity student Ben Murphy share ways in which they connect with nature in Edinburgh as part of our Edinburgh Talks Climate series.

And we would like to know how you feel parks and greenspaces could lead the way to achieve a more sustainable future.

How can Edinburgh's parks and green spaces be used to tackle the climate emergency?

How has covid-19 changed the way you use parks and greenspaces in the city?

What would encourage you to use your parks and greenspaces more?

How can we make our parks and greenspaces more sustainable and environmentally friendly?

Browse the ideas by topic

Community gardens Community management More green spaces Non-commercial use Re-use

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Parks and green spaces - how would you like to use them after lockdown?

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Parks and green spaces are vital in helping to address the loss of plants and wildlife in our cities and play an important role in tackling the climate climate emergency. They help to slow down the effects of flooding, provide a nautural way of controlling tempreatures and are home to a host of animals and plants.

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Learning for Sustainability Scotland - UN Regional Centre of Expertise 

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Learning for Sustainability Scotland - UN Regional Centre of Expertise 

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The UN Sustainable Development Goals are at the centre of everything we do - as is the case with much of the work of our members. We work with our members and partners to strengthen the SDGs in Scotland and beyond.

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Kuo et al - Outdoor learning research study.

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Kuo et al - Outdoor learning research study.

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Landscape and Human Health Laboratory, Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, United States

Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN, United States

Department of Pediatrics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States

Children & Nature Network, Minneapolis, MN, United States

Do experiences with nature - from wilderness backpacking to plants in a preschool, to a wetland lesson on frogs-promote learning? Until recently, claims outstripped evidence on this question. But the field has matured, not only substantiating previously unwarranted claims but deepening our understanding of the cause-and-effect relationship between nature and learning. Hundreds of studies now bear on this question, and converging evidence strongly suggests that experiences of nature boost academic learning, personal development, and environmental stewardship. This brief integrative review summarizes recent advances and the current state of our understanding. The research on personal development and environmental stewardship is compelling although not quantitative. Report after report - from independent observers as well as participants themselves - indicate shifts in perseverance, problem solving, critical thinking, leadership, teamwork, and resilience. Similarly, over fifty studies point to nature playing a key role in the development of pro-environmental behavior, particularly by fostering an emotional connection to nature. In academic contexts, nature-based instruction outperforms traditional instruction. The evidence here is particularly strong, including experimental evidence; evidence across a wide range of samples and instructional approaches; outcomes such as standardized test scores and graduation rates; and evidence for specific explanatory mechanisms and active ingredients. Nature may promote learning by improving learners' attention, levels of stress, self-discipline, interest and enjoyment in learning, and physical activity and fitness. Nature also appears to provide a calmer, quieter, safer context for learning; a warmer, more cooperative context for learning; and a combination of "loose parts" and autonomy that fosters developmentally beneficial forms of play. It is time to take nature seriously as a resource for learning - particularly for students not effectively reached by traditional instruction.

Introduction

The intuition that "nature is good for children" is widely held, and yet, historically, the evidence for this intuition has been uncompelling, with a distressing number of weak studies and inflated claims. Now, however, an impressive body of work has accrued and converging lines of evidence paint a convincing picture.

This integrative mini-review (see Supplementary Material for methods) summarizes what we know about the role of nature experiences in learning and development. It draws on a wide array of peer-reviewed scientific evidence, ranging from research in the inner city, to the study of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, to neurocognitive and physiological explorations. Our overarching question was, "do nature experiences promote learning and child development?"

Throughout our review, we took care to distinguish between evidence for cause-and-effect relationships and evidence for associations; causal language (e.g., "affects," "boosts," "is reduced by") is used only where justified by experimental evidence. Where converging, but not experimental, evidence points to a likely cause-and-effect relationship, our language is qualified accordingly (e.g., "seems to increase"). Table 1 summarizes recent advances in this area and explains how those advances contribute to our confidence in a cause-and-effect relationship between nature and learning and development.

Table 1. Do nature experiences promote learning? Advances in methodology and evidence.

What emerged from this critical review was a coherent narrative ( Figure 1): experiences with nature do promote children's academic learning and seem to promote children's development as persons and as environmental stewards - and at least eight distinct pathways plausibly contribute to these outcomes. Below, we discuss the evidence for each of the eight pathways and then the evidence tying nature to learning, personal development, and the development of stewardship.

Figure 1. Nature-based learning: exposures, probable mechanisms, and outcomes. This Figure summarizes the state of the scientific literature on nature and learning. The items and pathways here emerged from our review as opposed to guiding our review; thus each item listed has been empirically associated with one or more other items in the figure. Relationships for which there is cause-and-effect evidence are indicated with an asterisk; for example, "more able to concentrate" is asterisked because experimental research has demonstrated that exposure to nature boosts concentration. Similarly, "increased retention of subject matter" is asterisked because experimental research has demonstrated that exposure to nature in the course of learning boosts retention of that material. Here and throughout this review, causal language (e.g., "affects," "increases," "boosts," "is reduced by") is used only where experimental evidence (the gold standard for assessing cause-and-effect) warrants. Where converging evidence suggests a causal relationship but no experimental evidence is available, we use qualified causal language (e.g., "seems to increase"). The green box lists forms of nature exposure that have been tied with learning, whether directly (nature -> learning) or indirectly, via one or more of the mechanisms listed (nature -> mechanism -> learning). In this review, "nature" includes experiences of nature not only in wilderness but also within largely human-made contexts. Thus a classroom with a view of trees offers an experience of nature not offered by its counterpart facing the school parking lot. This review encompassed experiences of nature regardless of context - whether through play, relaxation, or educational activities, and in informal, non-formal and formal settings. The blue boxes show probable mechanisms - intermediary variables which have been empirically tied to both nature and learning. For example, the ability to concentrate is rejuvenated by exposure to nature and plays an important role in learning. Natural settings may affect learning both by directly fostering a learner's capacity to learn and by providing a more supportive context for learning. The purple box lists learning outcomes that have been tied to contact with nature. In this review, "learning" encompasses changes in knowledge, skills, behaviors, attitudes, and values. A database of articles found in the three phases of the review process (ending in 2018) is available at: https://goo.gl/FZ1CA9.

Nature May Boost Learning Via Direct Effects on Learners

Five of the eight plausible pathways between nature and learning we identified are centered in the learner. Learning is likely to improve when a learner is more attentive ( Rowe and Rowe, 1992; Mantzicopoulos and Morrison, 1994); less stressed ( Grannis, 1992; Leppink et al., 2016); more self-disciplined ( Mischel et al., 1988; Duckworth and Seligman, 2005); more engaged and interested ( Taylor et al., 2014 for review); and more physically active and fit (for reviews, see Álvarez-Bueno et al., 2017; Santana et al., 2017). Evidence suggests that contact with nature contributes to each of these states or conditions in learners.

Nature Has Rejuvenating Effects on Attention

The rejuvenating effect of nature on mentally fatigued adults (e.g., Hartig et al., 1991; Kuo, 2001) and children has been demonstrated in a large body of studies, including field experiments ( Faber Taylor and Kuo, 2009) and large-scale longitudinal studies ( Dadvand et al., 2015). Students randomly assigned to classrooms with views of greenery perform better on concentration tests than those assigned to purely "built" views or windowless classrooms ( Li and Sullivan, 2016). Nature's rejuvenating effects on attention have been found in students going on field trips ( van den Berg and van den Berg, 2011), Swedish preschoolers ( Mårtensson et al., 2009), children in Chicago public housing ( Faber Taylor et al., 2002), and 5 to 18-year-olds with ADHD (e.g., Kuo and Faber Taylor, 2004), using measures of attention ranging from parent and teacher ratings ( O'Haire et al., 2013) to neurocognitive tests ( Schutte et al., 2015).

Nature Relieves Stress

The stress-reducing effects of nature have been documented in adults in a large body of controlled experiments (see Kuo, 2015; Supplementary Material for review) and the available evidence points to a similar effect in children. Nature has been related to lower levels of both self-reported and physiological measures of stress in children ( Bell and Dyment, 2008; Chawla, 2015; Wiens et al., 2016). Recently, an experimental study showed that a window view of vegetation from a high school classroom yields systematic decreases in heart rate and self-reported stress, whereas built views do not ( Li and Sullivan, 2016). Further, students learning in a forest setting one day a week showed healthier diurnal rhythms in cortisol in that setting than a comparison group that learned indoors - cortisol dropped over the course of the school day when lessons were held in the forest but not in the classroom - and these effects could not be attributed to the physical activity associated with learning outdoors ( Dettweiler et al., 2017).

Contact With Nature Boosts Self-Discipline

In adults, the effects of viewing scenes of nature on self-discipline have been demonstrated experimentally using tests of impulse control ( Berry et al., 2014; Chow and Lau, 2015). In children, nature contact has been tied to greater self-discipline in children from inner city Chicago ( Faber Taylor et al., 2002) to residential Barcelona ( Amoly et al., 2014) and in experimental ( Sahoo and Senapati, 2014), longitudinal ( Ulset et al., 2017), and large-scale cross-sectional studies ( Amoly et al., 2014). These benefits have been shown for neurotypical children as well as for children with ADHD ( Sahoo and Senapati, 2014) and learning difficulties ( Ho et al., 2017). The types of self-discipline assessed include delay of gratification ( Faber Taylor et al., 2002) and parent ratings of hyperactivity ( Flouri et al., 2014), and the types of "nature" include not just "greenness" but contact with horses in animal-assisted learning ( Ho et al., 2017). Note that impulse control effects are not always statistically significant (e.g., Amoly et al., 2014; Schutte et al., 2015). Nonetheless, in general, impulse control is better during or after children's contact with nature.

Student Motivation, Enjoyment, and Engagement Are Better in Natural Settings

Student motivation, enjoyment, and engagement are better in natural settings, perhaps because of nature's reliably positive effects on mood (e.g., Takayama et al., 2014). In previous reviews ( Blair, 2009; Becker et al., 2017) and recent studies (e.g., Skinner and Chi, 2014; Alon and Tal, 2015; Lekies et al., 2015), students and teachers report strikingly high levels of student engagement and motivation, during both student-elected and school-mandated nature activities. Importantly, learning in and around nature is associated with intrinsic motivation ( Fägerstam and Blom, 2012; Hobbs, 2015), which, unlike extrinsic motivation, is crucial for student engagement and longevity of interest in learning. The positivity of learning in nature seem to ripple outward, as seen in learners' engagement in subsequent, indoor lessons ( Kuo et al., 2018a), ratings of course curriculum, materials, and resources ( Benfield et al., 2015) and interest in school in general ( Blair, 2009; Becker et al., 2017), as well as lower levels of chronic absenteeism ( MacNaughton et al., 2017). Encouragingly, learning in nature may improve motivation most in those students who are least motivated in traditional classrooms ( Dettweiler et al., 2015).

Time Outdoors Is Tied to Higher Levels of Physical Activity and Fitness

While the evidence tying green space to physical activity is extremely mixed (see Lachowitz and Jones, 2011 for review), children's time outdoors is consistently tied to both higher levels of physical activity and physical fitness: the more time children spend outdoors, the greater their physical activity, the lesser their sedentary behavior, and the better their cardiorespiratory fitness ( Gray et al., 2015). Importantly, cardiorespiratory fitness is the component of physical fitness most clearly tied to academic performance ( Santana et al., 2017). Further, there is some indication greener school grounds can counter children's trend toward decreasing physical activity as they approach adolescence: in one study, girls with access to more green space and woodlands, and boys with access to ball fields, were more likely to remain physically active as they got older ( Pagels et al., 2014). This pattern is echoed in later life: in older adults, physical activity declines with age - but among those living in greener neighborhoods the decline is smaller ( Dalton et al., 2016).

Nature May Boost Learning by Providing a More Supportive Context for Learning

In addition to its effects on learners, natural settings and features may provide a more supportive context for learning in at least three ways. Greener environments may foster learning because they are calmer and quieter, because they foster warmer relationships, and because the combination of "loose parts" and relative autonomy elicits particularly beneficial forms of play.

Vegetated Settings Tend to Provide Calmer, Quieter, Safer Contexts for Learning

Both formal and informal learning are associated with a greater sense of calmness or peace when conducted in greener settings ( Maynard et al., 2013; Nedovic and Morrissey, 2013; Chawla et al., 2014). Problematic and disruptive behaviors such as talking out of turn or pushing among children are less frequent in natural settings than in the classroom ( Bassette and Taber-Doughty, 2013; Nedovic and Morrissey, 2013; O'Haire et al., 2013; Chawla et al., 2014). Further, in greener learning environments, students who previously experienced difficulties in traditional classrooms are better able to remove themselves from conflicts and demonstrate better self-control ( Maynard et al., 2013; Ruiz-Gallardo et al., 2013; Swank et al., 2017). The social environment of the classroom has long been recognized as important for learning ( Rutter, 2000). Calmer environments have been tied to greater student engagement and academic success ( Wessler, 2003; McCormick et al., 2015).

Natural Settings Seem to Foster Warmer, More Cooperative Relations

Images of nature have prosocial effects in adults (e.g., Weinstein et al., 2009) and greener settings are tied to the development of meaningful and trusting friendships between peers ( White, 2012; Chawla et al., 2014; Warber et al., 2015). Maynard et al. (2013) theorize that natural settings provide a less restrictive context for learning than the traditional classroom, giving children more freedom to engage with one another and form ties. Indeed, learning in greener settings has been consistently tied to the bridging of both socio-cultural differences and interpersonal barriers (e.g., personality conflicts) that can interfere with group functioning in the classroom ( White, 2012; Cooley et al., 2014; Warber et al., 2015). Finally, learning in nature facilitates cooperation and comfort between students and teachers, perhaps by providing a more level playing-field wherein the teacher is seen as a partner in learning ( Scott and Colquhoun, 2013). More cooperative learning environments promote student engagement and academic performance ( Patrick et al., 2007; McCormick et al., 2015).

Natural Settings May Afford "Loose Parts," Autonomy, and Distinctly Beneficial Forms of Play

In his "theory of loose parts," Nicholson (1972) posited that the "stuff" of nature - sticks, stones, bugs, dirt, water - could promote child development by encouraging creative, self-directed play. Indeed, teachers' and principals' observations suggest children's play becomes strikingly more creative, physically active, and more social in the presence of loose parts (e.g., Bundy et al., 2008, 2009). Interestingly, it appears that nature, loose parts, and autonomy can each independently contribute to outcomes (see Bundy et al., 2009; Niemiec and Ryan, 2009; Studente et al., 2016, respectively), raising the possibility of synergy among these factors. Although the effects of loose parts play on child development have yet to be quantitatively demonstrated ( Gibson et al., 2017), the potential contributions of more creative, more social, more physically active play to cognitive, social and physical development seem clear.

Outcomes for Learning and Development

In school settings, incorporating nature in instruction improves academic achievement over traditional instruction. In a randomized controlled trial of school garden-based instruction involving over 3,000 students, students gained more knowledge than waitlist control peers taking traditional classes; moreover, the more garden-based instruction, the larger the gains ( Wells et al., 2015). Further, among the over 200 other tests of nature-based instruction's academic outcomes, the vast majority of findings are positive (for reviews, see Williams and Dixon, 2013; Becker et al., 2017) - and here, too, the most impressive findings come from studies employing the largest doses of nature-based instruction (e.g., Ernst and Stanek, 2006). Findings have been consistently positive across diverse student populations, academic subjects, instructors and instructional approaches, educational settings, and research designs.

Interestingly, both the pedagogy and setting of nature-based instruction may contribute to its effects. Hands-on, student-centered, activity-based and discussion-based instruction each outperform traditional instruction-even when conducted indoors ( Granger et al., 2012; Freeman et al., 2014; Kontra et al., 2015). And simply conducting traditional instruction in a more natural setting may boost outcomes. In multiple studies, the greener a school's surroundings, the better its standardized test performance - even after accounting for poverty and other factors (e.g., Sivarajah et al., 2018)-and classrooms with green views yield similar findings ( Benfield et al., 2015; although c.f. Doxey et al., 2009). The frequency of positive findings on nature-based instruction likely reflects the combination of a better pedagogy and a better educational setting.

In and outside the context of formal instruction, experiences of nature seem to contribute to additional outcomes. First, not only do experiences of nature enhance academic learning, but they seem to foster personal development - the acquisition of intrapersonal and interpersonal assets such as perseverance, critical thinking, leadership, and communication skills. While quantitative research on these outcomes is rare, the qualitative work is voluminous, striking, and near-unanimous (for reviews, see Cason and Gillis, 1994; Williams and Dixon, 2013; Becker et al., 2017). Teachers, parents, and students report that wilderness and other nature experiences boost self-confidence, critical thinking, and problem-solving (e.g., Kochanowski and Carr, 2014; Truong et al., 2016) as well as leadership and communication skills such as making important decisions, listening to others, and voicing opinions in a group (e.g., Jostad et al., 2012; Cooley et al., 2014). Students emerge more resilient, with a greater capacity to meet challenges and thrive in adverse situations ( Beightol et al., 2012; Cooley et al., 2014; Harun and Salamuddin, 2014; Warber et al., 2015; Richmond et al., 2017). Interestingly, greener everyday settings may also boost positive coping ( Kuo, 2001) and buffer children from the impacts of stressful life events ( Wells and Evans, 2003).

And second, spending time in nature appears to grow environmental stewards. Adults who care strongly for nature commonly attribute their caring to time, and particularly play, in nature as children - and a diverse body of studies backs them up (for review, see Chawla and Derr, 2012). Interestingly, the key ingredient in childhood nature experiences that leads to adult stewardship behavior does not seem to be conservation knowledge (knowledge of how and why to conserve). Although knowledge of how and why to conserve, which could presumably be taught in a classroom setting, has typically been assumed to drive stewardship behavior, it is relatively unimportant in predicting conservation behavior ( Otto and Pensini, 2017). By contrast, an emotional connection to nature, which may be more difficult to acquire in a classroom, is a powerful predictor of children's conservation behavior, explaining 69% of the variance ( Otto and Pensini, 2017). Indeed, environmental attitudes may foster the acquisition of environmental knowledge ( Fremery and Bogner, 2014) rather than vice versa. As spending time in nature fosters an emotional connection to nature and, in turn, conservation attitudes and behavior, direct contact with nature may be the most effective way to grow environmental stewards ( Lekies et al., 2015).

Conclusion and Implications

Do experiences with nature really promote learning? A scientist sampling some of the studies in this area might well be dismayed initially - as we were - at the frequency of weak research designs and overly optimistic claims. But a thorough review reveals an evidence base stronger, deeper, and broader than this first impression might suggest: weak research designs are supplemented with strong ones; striking findings are replicated in multiple contexts; the research on nature and learning now includes evidence of mechanisms; and findings from entirely outside the study of nature and learning point to the same conclusions.

Robust phenomena are often robust because they are multiply determined. The eight likely pathways between exposure to nature and learning identified here may account for the consistency of the nature-learning connection. Certainly it seems likely that increasing a student's ability to concentrate, interest in the material, and self-discipline simultaneously would enhance their learning more than any of these effects alone. Moreover, in a group setting, effects on individual learners improve the learning context; when Danika fidgets less, her seatmates Jamal and JiaYing experience fewer disruptions and concentrate better; when Danika, Jamal, and JiaYing are less disruptive, the whole class learns better. These synergies - within and between students - may help explain how relatively small differences in schoolyard green cover predict significant differences in end-of-year academic achievement performance (e.g., Matsuoka, 2010; Kuo et al., 2018b).

An important question arose in the course of our review: is nature-based instruction effective for students for whom traditional instruction is ineffective? Although this review was not structured to systematically assess this question, the benefits of nature-based learning for disadvantaged students were a striking leitmotif in our reading. Not only can nature-based learning work better for disadvantaged students ( McCree et al., 2018; Sivarajah et al., 2018), but it appears to boost interest in uninterested students ( Dettweiler et al., 2015; Truong et al., 2016), improve some grades ( Camassao and Jagannathan, 2018), and reduce disruptive episodes and dropouts among "at risk" students ( Ruiz-Gallardo et al., 2013). Nature-based learning may sometimes even erase race- and income-related gaps (e.g., Taylor et al., 1998). Further, anecdotes abound in which students who ordinarily struggle in the classroom emerge as leaders in natural settings. If nature is equigenic, giving low-performing students a chance to succeed and even shine, the need to document this capacity is pressing. In the United States, where sixth graders in the richest school districts are four grade levels ahead of children in the poorest districts ( Reardon et al., 2017), this need is urgent.

Fully assessing and making use of the benefits of nature-based instruction can serve all children. The available evidence suggests that experiences of nature help children acquire some of the skills, attitudes, and behaviors most needed in the 21st century. "Non-cognitive factors" such as perseverance, self-efficacy, resilience, social skills, leadership, and communication skills - so important in life beyond school ( National Research Council, 2012) - are increasingly recognized by the business community and policy makers as essential in a rapidly changing world. And for generations growing up in the Anthropocene, environmental stewardship may be as important as any academic content knowledge.

We conclude it is time to take nature seriously as a resource for learning and development. It is time to bring nature and nature-based pedagogy into formal education - to expand existing, isolated efforts into increasingly mainstream practices. Action research should assess the benefits of school gardens, green schoolyards and green walls in classrooms. Principals and school boards should support, not discourage, teachers' efforts to hold classes outdoors, take regular field trips, and partner with nearby nature centers, farms, and forest preserves. Teachers who have pioneered nature-based instruction should serve as models and coaches, helping others address its challenges and take full advantage of its benefits.

Author Contributions

All authors co-wrote and edited the manuscript. MK provided leadership for decisions of content, framing, and style and led the creation of the Figure and Table. MB created the SoNBL literature database on which this review is based. CJ serves as the principal investigator of the Science of Nature-Based Learning Collaborative Research Network project; in addition to initiating this project and substantially shaping the Figure and Table, she solicited feedback from Network members.

Funding

This literature review was conducted under the auspices of the Science of Nature-Based Learning Collaborative Research Network (NBLR Network) supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. NSF 1540919. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments

We thank the members of the NBLR Network for their diverse contributions of expertise, skills, resources and passion for connecting children to nature: Marc Berman, Judy Braus, Greg Cajete, Cheryl Charles, Louise Chawla, Scott Chazdon, Angie Chen, Avery Cleary, Nilda Cosco, Andrea Faber Taylor, Megan Gunnar, Erin Hashimoto-Martell, Peter Kahn, Sarah Milligan Toffler, Robin Moore, Scott Sampson, David Sobel, David Strayer, Jason Watson, Sheila Williams Ridge, Dilafruz Williams, and Tamra Willis.

Supplementary Material

The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00305/full#supplementary-material

References

Reardon, S. F., Kalogrides, D., and Shores, K. (2017). The Geography of Racial/Ethnic Test Score Gaps (CEPA Working Paper No.16-10). Available at: Stanford Center for Education Policy Analysis: http://cepa.stanford.edu/wp16-10
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Do Experiences With Nature Promote Learning? Converging Evidence of a Cause-and-Effect Relationship

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Do experiences with nature - from wilderness backpacking to plants in a preschool, to a wetland lesson on frogs-promote learning? Until recently, claims outstripped evidence on this question. But the field has matured, not only substantiating previously unwarranted claims but deepening our understanding of the cause-and-effect relationship between nature and learning.

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Christie & Higgins (2020) Education Outcomes of Learning for Sustainability:  Brief Review of Literature. Scottish Government Report.

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Christie & Higgins (2020) Education Outcomes of Learning for Sustainability:  Brief Review of Literature. Scottish Government Report.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The review examines literature relating to the educational outcomes of Learning for Sustainability ( LfS), as understood in terms of policy development within and across Scotland. The review is intended to inform further research and also be of value in policy development. Additionally, this overview can inform developments related to curricular reform in Scottish education, and support and foster understanding of process and outcomes relevant to recent growth in LfS (and outdoor learning) throughout the UK and internationally.

The LfS policy context in Scotland is globally unique in that it brings together education for sustainable development ( ESD), global citizenship and outdoor learning as an integrated holistic concept (Scottish Government, 2012). It is an entitlement of all pupils, a professional registration requirement of the General Teaching Council for Scotland ( GTCS) ( GTCS, 2019), and currently a priority in Scottish education. This approach was research-informed (see Christie and Higgins, 2012a/b and Higgins and Christie, 2018) and has been internationally celebrated through UNESCO recognition and academic review ( e.g. Evans et al 2017).

Whilst the review focuses on the significance of LfS and the relationship between educational outcomes, it is difficult to distinguish these exact processes and approaches and extrapolate direct correlation between these two issues. As such we outline our understanding of LfS, attainment and educational outcomes within this opening section and conduct our review using these definitions as guiding parameters. Where possible we make such distinctions between causation and correlation clear in the review and provide both summaries of knowledge and areas for further investigation.
1.2 Definitions
Following a previous review of literature appropriate to Scotland (see Christie and Higgins, 2012a) we define the term 'sustainability' as used in the title from concepts such as 'sustainable development' and 'education for sustainable development'. Depending on the literature, these terms are often used synonymously and in reference to 'environmental education'. For the present review, we consider sustainable development and education for sustainable development as related concepts, in other words 'education for sustainable development' is the process by which one learns how to act in a sustainable way and therefore contributes to 'sustainable development'. Environmental education is a related concept that refers to the process involved in learning about broader environmental issues (for example systems, concepts, conservation); an outcome of which may be greater knowledge and understanding of 'sustainable development' and pro-environmental behaviours (that is 'environmentally friendly' behaviour).

For the purposes of this review and to provide a sense of the contested nature of terms used in the field, we refer to one of the most widespread early definitions of sustainable development: defined in Our Common Future, generally known as 'The Brundtland Report', (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987, p. 16). This defines sustainable development as "the ability to make development sustainable to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". This is a rather anthropocentric and contested view, in that the Earth and its whole biological community need to be respected as part of an interdependent ecological network. In light of this, we propose that the 'others' referred to in the UNESCO definition (below) must include all life on Earth. Indeed, this tension is one of the reasons for the development of the unique conceptualisation of LfS in Scotland - as outlined below.

With regard to education for sustainable development, UNESCO states that ESD 'aims to help people to develop the attitudes, skills and knowledge to make informed decisions for the benefit of themselves and others, now and in the future, and to act upon these decisions' ( UNESCO, 2010, para 3). This again is anthropocentric and so more recently Martin et al (2013) have proposed a succinct definition that goes some way to at least resolving the issue of the inclusion of diversity of life on Earth - ESD can be thought of as 'a process of learning how to make decisions that consider the long-term future of the economy, ecology and equity of all communities' (Martin et al, 2013).

It must also be noted that we acknowledge the tension between those who see 'individual behaviour change as the "holy grail" of the environmental movement' and those who claim that 'social structures are the main problem and who advocate collective social action' (Kenis and Mathijs, 2012: 45).

As referred to in the opening paragraph, LfS is a term derived from the One Planet School working group and report (Scottish Government, 2012), and it is currently a priority in Scottish education. It can be understood as an organising concept that relates to global citizenship, sustainable development education and outdoor learning (Scottish Government, 2016). The policy permeates Initial Teacher Education ( ITE), GTCS professional standards ( GTCS, 2019) and the school inspectorate process through How Good Is Our School? [4 th Edition] ( HGIOS4) (Education Scotland, 2015a). The definition drawn from the original One Planet School report describes LfS as: 'a whole-school approach that enables the school and its wider community to build the values, attitudes, knowledge, skills and confidence needed to develop practices and take decisions which are compatible with a sustainable and equitable society' (Scottish Government, 2012). It is concerned with every level and type of learning and the provision of quality education for all. The five headline recommendations, accepted by the Scottish Government (2013) are that:

all learners should have an entitlement to Learning for Sustainability;

every practitioner, school and education leader should demonstrate Learning for Sustainability in their practice;

every school should have a whole-school approach to Learning for Sustainability that is robust, demonstrable, evaluated and supported by leadership at all levels;

school buildings, grounds and policies should support Learning for Sustainability;

a strategic national approach to supporting Learning for Sustainability should be established.

When we refer to LfS within this review we are referring to this Scottish definition and this particular educational context. We will also refer to the affordances of this approach, by affordances we are referring to the particular relationships that can arise through the bringing together of the learner, the learning opportunity and the environment or contextual condition in which an educational experience takes place.

The Scottish Attainment Challenge was launched by the First Minister in 2015 (Scottish Government, 2019). It focuses on improvement activity in literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing. It also supports and complements a broader range of initiatives and programmes which aim to ensure that all of Scotland's children and young people reach their full potential.

The £750 million Attainment Scotland Fund consists of a number of different funding streams:
Challenge Authorities
The Challenge Authorities programme provides targeted funding to nine local authorities with the highest concentrations of deprivation. The nine 'Challenge Authorities' are Glasgow, Dundee, Inverclyde, West Dunbartonshire, North Ayrshire, Clackmannanshire, North Lanarkshire, East Ayrshire and Renfrewshire.
Schools Programme
The Schools' Programme supports an additional 74 schools with the highest proportion of pupils living in our most deprived areas outside the nine Challenge Authorities.
Pupil Equity Funding
Pupil Equity Funding is allocated directly to schools and is targeted at closing the poverty-related attainment gap. Every council area is benefitting from Pupil Equity Funding and over 95% of schools in Scotland have been allocated funding for pupils in P1-S3 known to be eligible for free school meals.
Care Experienced Children and Young People
The Care Experienced Children and Young People fund, launched in 2018, provides funding through the Attainment Scotland Fund to all 32 local authorities. This funding stream is designed to enable local authorities, as corporate parents, to make strategic decisions around how best to improve the attainment of care experienced children and young people from birth to the age of 26.

Evaluation and effectiveness of the interventions will be measured via the National Improvement Framework and other measures.

It is beyond the scope of this review to draw direct comparisons between the Scottish Attainment Challenge and LfS policy, however we highlight indicators of potential educational outcomes or factors related to attainment across the three areas of numeracy, literacy and health and wellbeing.

The specific educational outcomes deemed relevant to this review by the Scottish Government are listed below and formed the main analytical framework of the review and report. This structure reflects the four capacities core to Curriculum for Excellence (Education Scotland, 2008):

impact on confidence of learners

impact on the personal and social development of learners

impact on understanding of citizenship

impact on attainment

impact on skills for life and work beyond formal education

impact on closing the poverty-related attainment gap or reducing inequity within education

impact on overall school improvement

Conducting this review was no easy task. First, the definitional debate concerning core terms such as 'sustainability', 'education for sustainable development' etc. referred to above has been - and continues to be - vigorous; with the added complication that at its core are values and action issues, which authors contest with a great and understandable sense of urgency. Second, there is an increasingly multi- disciplinary interest in this area of study; meaning the research is maturing, germinating and spreading across and within many fields. Third, due to this growth,

there are a number of theoretical and methodological starting points translated into a range of qualitative and quantitative approaches, which bring further issues; for example, empirical studies are often critiqued for perhaps losing the more intangible, less mechanistic measures of 'educational outcomes'. Therefore, whilst the picture is broad and wide-ranging, the studies do not always or easily reconcile. Fourth, the studies vary in quality so care is needed when assessing both the technical aspects of the research and the definitions employed; for example, terms such as 'nature', 'outdoors' and 'sustainability' are open to subtle interpretation. To account for this variety, each study considered in this review went through a process of quality control to sift out those studies which related to our purpose here; being mindful that papers not necessarily falling neatly within the parameters of our study could also lend something useful to our research.

Given this unique context and our own specific selection process, we present our findings as knowingly starting from an incomplete basis. What we offer is an analysis and summary of the studies we have gathered as a purposively focused introduction. As such at the beginning of each section we offer a research summary based rather more on correlation than causation and potential directions for future research.
1.3 Methodology
We have provided the philosophical and conceptual rationale for this review through the initial background, context-setting and definitional parameters.

Due to the challenges (as outlined in Section 1.2.5) we decided to opt for a more nuanced approach to data collection rather than a more rapid evidence assessment approach. We were less concerned with the number of studies and reviews conducted, and more concerned with the quality, the definitions and the themes emerging from across and within the studies we felt most related to our research intentions. Therefore, we adopted a three-phase approach which included an analysis of study quality.
Phase 1: Primary, focused review
We adopted a purposive sampling approach where we drew on a number of primary sources such as databases covering journal articles, books, theses and dissertations. This covered national and international material, grey literature, emerging student work and published, peer-reviewed materials. Full details of the indicative primary searches and the analysis of study quality are outlined in detail below.
Phase 2: Secondary, wider review
The primary review unearthed secondary sources such as reference lists within policy documents, literature that came through searches for other projects, or resources that we were aware of through our own work and teaching. Therefore, this phase focused on material drawn from sources beyond the parameters of the primary review.
Phase 3: Consultation
Additionally, we held a consultation phase where we referred to specialist colleagues in the field in Scotland to review our work for completeness (sources used) and accuracy of interpretation. We were also directed to particular articles pertinent to our study, both relevant to the general discussion, context and overview, and to some aspects of the influence of LfS on attainment.
Refining the primary (phase 1) search criteria
Initial searches were conducted through EBSCO Host via University of Edinburgh library, focusing on six databases (see Appendix A for full details) ¹:

1. GreenFILE

2. British Educational Index

3. Academic Search Complete

4. Education Source

5. Humanities International Complete

6. Education Resources Information Centre ( ERIC)

Boolean searches were conducted using a combination of keywords with And/Or operators to produce more relevant results. The keywords used were determined following careful consideration of a number of factors; such as awareness of country-

specific terminology, commonly used terms and the relationship between the And/Or operators.

And - Using the Boolean Operator And will narrow your search results. In this case, using And will retrieve search results containing all keywords, in this case ' educational outcomes', 'school', 'sustainability'. [3]

Or - Using the Boolean Operator Or will broaden your search results. In this case, using Or will retrieve search results containing either of the keywords, in this case 'attainment', 'education for sustainability', 'learning for sustainability', 'outdoor'.

Further research parameters were included to reduce the volume of records returned. The full inclusion criteria are detailed in Table 1 below.
Table 1 Inclusion Criteria

Keywords

"educational outcomes" And "school" And "sustainability" Or "attainment" Or "education for sustainable development" Or "Learning for Sustainability" Or "outdoor"

Date range

Search 1 - 1990-2018 Search 2 - 2013-2018 Search 3 - 2013-2018

Publication/Document Type

Scholarly peer-reviewed publications including academic journals, research reports, government reports, periodicals

Educational Level

School levels covering age range 3-18

Table 2 Search Process Note on the date range included
We conducted searches altering the year from 1990 up until 2018. Whilst the full details, year-by-year, are presented in Appendix B, the following summary in Table 3 and Figure 1 give an indication of the growth in interest and published research in the field. This in turn was significant in our data management processes.

In summary, the total records returned increase from 4,389 in the period up to 1990 to 83,584 records returned by 2018. The detail reveals almost 11,000 records being returned in the period up to 2000 and almost 45,000 records being returned in the past eight years (2010-2018). Over 40% of those records returned (19,063) fall within the three years from 2015-18. This distribution shows the volume of peerreviewed research conducted since 2000 and specifically within the last decade. This demonstrates the potential scale of the literature review and provides the rationale for limiting the literature search to records returned within 2013-2018 only. Additionally, this timeframe dovetails with our previous literature reviews which were published in 2012 (Christie and Higgins 2012a, b).
Table 3 Growth in Recorded Publications 1900-2018 Figure 1 Increase in Search Records (returned Refining the primary database further by narrowing the year search to 2013-2018 1900-2018) Table 4 Impact Factor of Journals Selected
When analysed further, the records returned within 2013-2018 span 50 journals (Appendix C). There may be more publications within the range, however the university database only revealed these titles. Taking that sample, we opted to more closely consider those journals with a high impact factor(see Table 4) and those which we knew held relevant articles. This screening reduced the records returned to 1,392 records returned across 14 journals. We manually reviewed each of these records by title, keywords and abstracts and reduced the total to 76 articles (see Appendix D for a full list of these articles).
Analysis of study quality

British Journal of Sociology and Education

1.504

British Educational Research Journal

1.696

Developmental Psychology

2.934

Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education

1.902

Environmental Education Research

2.595

Environment Research

4.732

International Journal of Educational Development

1.403

International Journal of Science Education

1.325

Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning

No data

Journal of Experiential Education

No data

Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders

3.476

Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment

No data

Journal of School Health

1.935

Journal of Environmental Education

2.472

As a general rule, journal articles were selected on the basis of whether the focus was in line with the parameters of the review as described previously and if they were deemed robust in terms of a clear research/evaluation dimension.

We used three questions to guide this process:

Is the research relevant - does it relate to the specific aims of this study?

Is there a clear, justified methodology?

Is there a clear analysis?

Each paper in the primary database was ranked accordingly using a four-star scale.

Good: positive assessment against all three questions

Fair: positive assessment against most of the questions; no negative assessments

Unclear: unclear quality in accordance with all the questions

Poor: negative assessment against one or more of the questions

Table 5 Results of Analysis of Study Quality (primary search - Appendix D)
See Tables 5 to 7 for details and totals. The star rating appears alongside the papers in the database as held in Appendices D, E and F.
Phase 2: Broad Search: Miscellaneous records and articles
We have based this quality analysis process on a system employed by Gill (2014) who adopted and produced a simplified version of a framework created by Bell et al (2008).
Table 6 Results of Analysis of Study Quality (miscellaneous papers - Appendix E) Table 7 Results of Analysis of Study Quality (personal knowledge - Appendix F)
During the process of refining the formal literature searches (search 1 and 2 described above) and given our expertise and knowledge of the field, we have been able to gather a number of articles and research literature that have informed the formal literature review. These are listed in Appendices D and E and we applied the same star rating process to them.

In summary, 102 journal articles were accessed, and 51 were awarded a 3 or 4 star rating. The full list of journal articles accessed is available within Appendices D, E and F.
Thematic Analysis
It should be noted that there are some key articles that pre-date the period under review and, where appropriate, these are cited in the narrative. There is also additional literature relating to the methodology, general conceptual issues and analysis, and this is cited where appropriate. All references cited in these general discussions (whether from our own broader reading or the literature search conducted for the present study) are included in the reference list of these articles which is included below and before the appendices.

We have adopted a thematic approach to the data analysis. The tender document (Appendix G) outlined the research specification, detailing the seven educational outcomes of interest and the key research questions to be addressed.

The specific educational outcomes deemed relevant to this review by the Scottish Government were:

impact on confidence of learners

impact on the personal and social development of learners

impact on understanding of citizenship

impact on attainment

impact on skills for life and work beyond formal education

impact on closing the poverty-related attainment gap or reducing inequity within education

impact on overall school improvement

The outcomes were related to the research questions posed in the tender document which were:
1.4 Limitations

What kind of impact does LfS have (positive or negative) and what is the level of that impact?

How and why are these impacts achieved? This could include but not be limited to:

the engagement and/or experience of learners studying LfS

the relevance of LfS to 'real world' challenges commonly encountered outside education

the extent to which LfS can support delivery of other areas of the curriculum

the extent to which LfS aids the development of skills and knowledge commonly used beyond education and in later life and work

the influence of curriculum structure on the prevalence of LfS

the knowledge of teachers or education practitioners in the field of LfS

the physical environment of an educational setting

any other barriers or facilitators to the delivery of LfS

This review was restricted to articles written in English. Whilst English is an international norm for academic publications, we acknowledge that this restriction may have excluded pertinent material.

We further acknowledge that by focusing the review through the databases we have identified and by setting the search parameters and refining in the way that we
1.5 Ethical considerations
did, we may not have captured material located in specialist publications of other disciplines. The search will also have been partially limited by the specific terminology used in the context of LfS in Scotland, namely ESD, global citizenship and outdoor learning. However, by including the second phase wider review, we attempted to mitigate for that as far as was possible within time and budgetary constraints.

All data was sourced from peer-reviewed databases existing within the public domain via the University of Edinburgh library system. As University of Edinburgh staff we operate all research under the university's Ethical Guidance Framework.

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Educational outcomes of Learning for Sustainability: literature review

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The review examines literature relating to the educational outcomes of Learning for Sustainability ( LfS), as understood in terms of policy development within and across Scotland. The review is intended to inform further research and also be of value in policy development.

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Dollar Street. This website is great as a resource to stimulate conversation about different cultures, geographies and communities through everyday objects and contexts. Really worth a browse. It is a bank of images of everyday items, beds, houses, toys, hairbrushes etc. and each one holds a story. I have used the toothbrush set of images as a way in to so many issues related to sustainability.

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Loads of Lesson ideas from Juliet Robertson - worth a look now and when you are teaching : )

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Creative STAR Learning | I'm a teacher, get me OUTSIDE here!

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When working outside, I end up using a lot of different surfaces. A stock item in my bag is an old white sheet. I have various sorts and sizes from king-size (ideal for whole class work) down to cot-size (for

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The Ellen McCarthur Foundation

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Circular Economy - UK, USA, Europe, Asia & South America - The Ellen MacArthur Foundation

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Outdoor lesson ideas - using chalk to map out the life cycles of different things.

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Outdoor lesson ideas - using chalk to map out the life cycles of different things.

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This is a good friend of mine (Helena Oladottir) who was working with the Circular economy concepts in an outdoor setting (just outside the university campus) with young people. She was taking the principles of the Circular Economy model (linked to just to the side of here) and by using an object found in the grounds she was working with chalk to work through the process. It was a physical way of engaging with the process and it was place-based in that she was working with objects found in their university grounds. It is in Icelandic but watching what is happening will let you see the different ways to work with this.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKZj4SvMoYo

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We work together on demanding common tasks that demonstrate ways of living with more humanity in our times

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The McDonaldization of Society: Into the Digital Age 9th Edition EBook by George Ritzer

Here is a link to the first chapter of the book:

https://www.corwin.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/3239_4007_ch01.pdf

nd another link to a chapter by Ritzer:
http://fasnafan.tripod.com/mcdonaldization.pdf

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Welcome to Nanook School! We are a kindergarten to grade five elementary school located in the community of Apex, just down the road from Iqaluit, Nunavut's capital.

At Nanook School, we try to create a learning environment where children learn to believe in themselves and others. We offer children the freedom to discover their intellectual potential and create opportunities where our students can view "problems" as challenges searching for solutions.

At Nanook School, we believe our staff must work as a team with our students' parents and guardians to ensure our children's success. We encourage parents and others to visit and/or volunteer with us.

We also believe the school is based in but not confined to the building. We want our students to feel safe to explore, experiment and learn from mistakes. We want our students to feel safe and secure in their learning. We want our students to have fun and to love coming to school.

Welcome!
Cold Weather Closure Policy Handbook 2018-2019 New Calendar 2018-2019

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Welcome to Nanook School! We are a kindergarten to grade five elementary school located in the community of Apex, just down the road from Iqaluit, Nunavut's capital. At Nanook School, we try to create a learning environment where children learn to believe in themselves and others.

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Great article on place-based education - draws on Grunewald / Greenwood, D. A. (2014). A critical theory of place-conscious education. In AERA Handbook on Environmental Education Research. New York: Lawrence-Erlbaum.

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The word "place" comes up a lot in this work, with Forest School being described as a means for learners to gain a "sense of place," an opportunity for the time and space to "belong in a place," an educational philosophy that is "place-based."

Such descriptions are essentially acknowledging Forest School as a way for learners to come to know, understand, and connect with where they live. This makes sense for an approach that takes "place" outdoors, on the land. You could argue that any program or time spent outside with the landscape and amongst the cultural and ecological communities that live in a place is place-based . But there is significance in going deeper than that...

There are stories entwined with place that may not be obvious or easily interpreted as we explore, play in, and learn from our direct experiences of a place in the here and now. There are histories of place that may have been forgotten, left out, or even forcibly erased. Histories that have shaped the place (and us) today. And it can bring more meaning to our understanding and connection with place by bringing them to light to acknowledge what once existed. In the same breath, what we are doing now will also impact the future of a place, the meaning we and others associate with it, and what becomes of that place.

Therefore, one could argue that place is not only based on the here and now, but the past as well as the future.

David A. Greenwood (2014) articulates this broader (and critical) understanding of "place" exceptionally well by encouraging us to ask the following questions when considering programs and approaches that emphasize connection to place:

Asking such questions takes a "play outdoors" approach further and requires us to be more intentional with how we come to understand and interact with a place.

This has become particularly apparent to me as I've been involved in the delivery of Forest School in a variety of different places, including different countries (UK, USA, and Canada), different outdoor spaces (school grounds, urban parks, plantations, new growth forests, ancient woodlands, coniferous/deciduous/mixed forests, etc.), and different socio-cultural communities (extracurricular programs, home educated groups, public schools, urban, suburban, and rural communities - all with wonderful groups of people from a wide variety of backgrounds). I have therefore watched my own practice shift as I adapt to the particular circumstances and relevance to the people and places with which I work.

For example, when formerly delivering Forest School to urban children in a highly managed plantation woodland in the UK, we utilized many tools (loppers, saws, billhooks) to engage with woodland management techniques (like coppicing) and created swords, bows and arrows, and other items that supported the imaginary play that was often inspired by video games the kids enjoyed playing at home. This is contrasted with a different program I currently deliver for rural children in a "wild" and unmanaged forest within their school grounds in New England where we rarely use tools and often engage in imaginary play based on tracking and hunting animals (including Big Foot), as many of the children's families partake in seasonal hunting (and legends of Big Foot sometimes surface around here!).

Not to mention that the two different climates play a major influencing role - sledding in the snow would have almost never been an option for us in the UK! And experiencing the bluebells in spring will never happen for us here in New England. And perhaps more subtly, yet no less important, I'm noticing how the histories and complex cultural values and norms associated with a place bring much significance to the delivery of Forest School. Particularly, the colonial history and subjugation of Indigenous people in North America has had and continues to have a major influence on people's relationships with land and with each other.

And so it's obvious to me that "place" has a direct impact on Forest School programs in what we experience, learn about, and how we play. But in being "place-based" I'm exploring how to go deeper and, in particular, how Greenwood's questions (What happened here? What is happening here? What should happen here?) can be integrated into Forest School...

How can I (we?) acknowledge the "historical, socioecological, and ethical dimensions of place relations " in a way that is also learner-centred, play-based, and inquiry-driven through regular and repeated experiences with the land (Greenwood, 2014, p. 97)?

I have so much to learn about this, but as a start these are some of things I'm working towards to deepen my own and my learner's understanding of and connection to place in Forest School.

Storytelling:

Telling stories orally and reading books that include characters, species, elements, weather conditions, experiences, etc. that are connected to where we are, who was here, and who is here now ("who" includes the "more-than-human world")

Inviting and making space for other members of the community to share their stories

Opportunities/invitations to support play:

Books produced in or about the area (including identification/guide books and storybooks)

Ecologically/culturally relevant materials sourced from things and/or made by people in the area for crafts and/or loose parts

Games that incorporate place-relevant and culturally appropriate roles and guidelines

Compasses and materials for mapping

Tools to help us get closer to what else lives here (binoculars, magnifying glasses, bug pots)

Inviting a variety of representatives from the community to engage with the program (including Indigenous Elders)

Inviting learner's families to visit the program to build connections between our Forest School place and home/family-life

Discussion and dialogue

Maintaining awareness of my own behavior and interactions with place, particular with the "more-than-human" aspects.

Asking myself, how am I interacting with the plants, trees, animals, rocks, sticks, and other elements that live here? What example am I setting for my learners?

These are just a handful of things I came up with inspired by Greenwood's thoughts and questions about place and I know there is so much more. It has been such a useful framework for me in working towards understanding what it can look like to be "place-based" in a way that acknowledges multiple layers of meaning, aims to be sensitive to the past, present, and future of place, whilst also promoting an approach that is learner-centred, play-based, and inquiry-driven through regular and repeated experiences with the land.

If you're interested in learning more about Greenwood's theory of place-conscious education, I'm including some further quotes and reflective questions below. And please, let me know what your thoughts are about place and how you engage with "place-making" at Forest school in the comments below!

To learn about the history of a place, Greenwood invites us to ask, "Who were its original inhabitants, both human and other-than-human? What are the indigenous people's stories of the place? What were - and what are - the indigenous place-relationships, and how did these relationships, and the place itself, change or persist over time" (p. 97). Greenwood also acknowledges cultures, in addition to Indigenous, that "have alternative histories worth remembering and recovering" and invites us to reflect on "the multicultural traditions that shaped places" and how they inform our continued relationship with place "now and in the long run" (p. 98). This is particularly relevant in a North American context (and other contexts that have experienced/are experiencing colonization) and it is also an uncomfortable, contentious, difficult and necessary thing to grapple with.

Some questions to ask:

What do I "know" about this place? What stories do I tell about this place?

What do I not know about this place? What stories do I not tell about this place?

What are other perspectives that are different than mine? Perhaps even conflict with mine? How can I make room for them?

How can I and my learners find out more in a respectful and culturally appropriate way?

How can I build honest, authentic, and reciprocal relationships with Indigenous communities in my area?

Greenwood states, "place conscious learning depends on direct, phenomenological experience with places, the idea being that we don't just learn about places, but that we learn from them first hand. A theory of place that is concerned with the quality of human-world relationships must first acknowledge that places themselves have something to say. Human beings, in other words, must learn to listen (and otherwise perceive)" (p. 98)

Greenwood also describes cultural perspective, with a view that places are "cultural products" and are thus "perceived very differently by different cultural groups who hold different ways of being and knowing. Coming to know a place, therefore, means learning the diverse and competing stories told about it. A critical pedagogy of place is concerned not just with the dominant story, but with all the stories at risk of being silenced or erased, including the voice of the land itself" (p. 98)

Some questions to ask:

Who is here now? What does this place mean to them (including the "more-than-human" world)

How do others come to know this place?

How does my presence acknowledge, interfere with, negate, or enhance the experiences of others?

How can I learn from this place?

What should happen here?

Greenwood emphasizes that, "the ethics implied in the question - What should happen here? - will obviously be shaped by one's experience with a place, by one's assumptions about its value, and one's understanding of the competing claims to its significance and possibilities" and poses "several additional questions [to] help to focus place-conscious inquiry and action" that apply both culturally and ecologically (p.99):

What needs to be remembered?

What needs to be recovered or restored?

What needs to be conserved or maintained?

What needs to be changed or transformed?

What needs to be created?

References:

Greenwood, D. A. (2014). A critical theory of place-conscious education. In AERA Handbook on Environmental Education Research. New York: Lawrence-Erlbaum.

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Exploring what Place-based means in Forest School... | Forest Schooled

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The word "place" comes up a lot in this work, with Forest School being described as a means for learners to gain a "sense of place," an opportunity for the time and space to "belong in a place," an educational philosophy that is "place-based."

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This is a recent book which talks through ways to develop partnerships or participatory practices for sustainable communities. It is in the library so you should be able to access it. what I really like about it is the way it gives practical steps and advice on how to develop and maintain partnerships and research underpinning the value of placemaking with young people.

Louise Chawla one of authors has done a lot of research into place, connection with nature and childhood experience - worth searching her work.

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Generations Working Together is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO), charity number SC045851.

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VIDEO: Gourdon primary school senior citizen club 

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VIDEO: Gourdon primary school senior citizen club 

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P6 & P7 pupils from Gourdon Primary and senior citizens of the village come together to carry out intergenerational learning. The senior citizens club has been running at the school for over 6 years, there was a gap between the generations in the vilage so by creating this club it brings everyone together for greater understanding.

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VIDEO: Walk in our shoes / Act on our issues 

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VIDEO: Walk in our shoes / Act on our issues 

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The materials included help you to create a simple map of your local community, highlighting potential issues for older people with icon stickers, along with ideas and templates for how to use your map to gather local support from the public and decision makers to affect change.

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Generations Working Together is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO), charity number SC045851.

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In another course that I teach we did a lot of work on the Galgael trust. I really recommend watching the video - Birdman of Pollock - it gives the history and background into the development of Galgael.
The photos here are from our visit to the trust.  Following our visit we began to think through ways in which we could work with others (young people, students, others) in that space and really think about it as a site for place-based education that took account of those people living in that place and how we could work with them focusing on social justice, sustainability and transformation of place.

I thought a 6th year placement or a university/ college placement was a great way to bring pupils into the project to learn work skills but also to get involved with some of the issues that the project is working with - community, traditional craft, social enterprise, mental health issues but also to learn how to work as a charitable organisation, secure funding etc.

I'm not sure how it would work with primary age pupils.  But maybe there are ways to get people form Galgael out to schools to develop gardens or build wooden structures for playgrounds or something else a bit more creative but located within schools or a community site rather than the Galgael workshop.

This could be a good intergenerational project that could be tweaked to bring in a range of curricular links.

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1. Click on the pink button in the bottom right hand corner
2. A text box (like this) will open - you can drag it, resize it etc.
3. Add your comment - these are visible to the class and me. Like adding a note to a giant pinboard.
4. Have fun!  (you can leave videos/audio/text)

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This is our space to capture any work that follows on from our teaching sessions...

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This is our space to capture any work that follows on from our teaching sessions...