Forest Schools and Outdoor Education - Report Example

Forest Schools and Outdoor Education Student's name Code & Course Professor's name University City Date FOREST SCHOOL INITIATIVE History and Enactment It is a learning initiative that involves acquiring learning experiences in a woodland environment. It is an inspirational process that presents young children with opportunities to develop and achieve confidence by learning in a local woodland environment. According to (Knight, 2013, p. 47), it is a learning initiative that developed from a Danish model in 1999. Moreover, the concept of learning in a natural environment was copied from the ideas of McMillan, Montessori, Froebel, and Rousseau in the 18th century. The four advocated that learning in a natural environment would enable children to retain ten times more of what they have learned in class. For healthy development, children need to use their sensory stimulation and movements to gather natural experiences. In this manner, the Forest school serves to promote these aspects by stimulating and encouraging curiosity and enhancing out-door plays that are sensory child-led (Autry, 2001, p. 289). Another school of taught tracks the origin of Forest School to Scandinavia, where formal education was not supposed to be taught to children who were less than seven years old. After that, the concept spread to Britain and the first training course conducted in Wales in 2000 (Knight, 2013, p. 56-70). This meeting enabled different developers to implement the initiative in their local areas with the guide of training modules for the leaders. However, more of its development and enactment in Wales is centered on the Bridgewater nursery nurses as from 1993.The Bridgewater nursery nurses caught the attention of various educational practitioners and requested to know their view on the then educational practices (Adkins & Simmons, 2002, p. 101). It was later revealed that Bridgewater developed the Forest Schools initiative as a response to neutralize educational frustrations that were created by the rigid curriculum which would not probably realize the set objects in the next ten years. According to Wattchow & Brown (2011, p. 111) the value was attached to this initiative thereby enabling local authorities and the Forest Education Initiative to adopt and implement the change in the existing curriculum. Enactment procedures were thoroughly followed before this initiative was fully initiated into the education system. Local education authorities were given the mandate to manage the learning activities and the government agencies in Wales were involved in the implementation of the policy. The incorporation of such agencies was to ensure that levels of primary, secondary and tertiary education were supplied with adequate facilities that would facilitate physical training and social recreation. The 1944 Education Act was established to ensure that the policy implementation procedures functioned effectively. Evidently, the Enactment Model was applied as the implementation of this policy involved various stakeholders. The context of influence, production and practice were reflected in the policy objectives. Strategies were laid to ensure that the program ran smoothly and efficiently. Factors which Influenced its Design The Forest School emerged as a social movement in Wales. There was discontent in the political and social situations back then, and thus an urge to respond to a naturally fit approach. The urge to educate children using naturally available resources led to a series of social movements which surrounded aspects of ‘natural play,' ‘land rights,' ‘wood culture,' ‘environmentalism' and learner-centered education (Beard & Wilson, 2013, p. 56).In its enactment, the Forest School initiative was enacted in Wales as an out of class learning approach that would help children to acquire learning experiences from their local environment to increase their learning capacity, self-belief, enthusiasm, confidence, emotional well-being, problem solving and communication skills. Based on the experience from Scandinavia and other places where it had successfully worked, the Forest School initiative was assumed to be a comprehensive learning approach that would enable children to improve their self-esteem and confidence thus creating an impact on their mental and emotional well-being. There was a need to nurture responsible children who would be effective and efficient assessing risks in a more sensible and informed manner. The natural environment presented educational developers with this opportunity since it is from it that children would easily learn to make informed decisions. The initiative would enable children to enjoy recreation and achieve social and personal development. This would further stretch national educational standards to a notch high at primary school. Children needed to be more independent and develop working skills in the woodland so that they would be able to interact well with their natural environment in their future lives. There was a need to conduct education reforms that would incorporate environmental studies in the previous curriculum. To effectively do this, an initiative like the Forest School was necessary. The role it played in facilitating curriculum reforms was centered on creating access to the natural environment and educating children in a setting with learning and teaching resources for out of classroom studies (Maynard, 2007, p. 379-391). By so doing, the curriculum will help to create a constructive link between the environment and the mind of the child. Every activity and play event pulls the child's mind closer to the environment and as such, instigating environmental acceptance. Benefits Children were normally taught traditional craft skills until the time they learn to play. The availability of natural forests and the fact that nature is part and parcel of everyday experience made it possible to nature children out of their ecosystem. The natural environment is the teacher, and the natural medium for expression are the play acts. According to Connolly & Haughton (2017, p. 117), bemusement is what regards the child's cultural obsessions of safety and health. In this initiative, children are organized into teaching groups that complement learning in the school grounds environment and the traditional classroom. The timetable and the workbook are not essential elements in this initiative. Instead, sessions are structured in a way that meets the learning experiences to be acquired from the local woodland environment according to the child's imagination and interests. Supposedly, Forest School learning is a supportive learning intervention which is fostered to enhance real learning in a tangible context. With the traditional craft skills that support learning experiences, children are taught how to use natural materials such as small hand tools to accept responsibility, take challenges without hesitation and to carry out an effective assessment of risks within the natural environment. Lack of access to nature has been was a debatable issue in the past. Before the adoption of outdoor learning initiatives such as the Forest School, the previous generation conducted learning that was centered on their immediate environment. As freely as they interacted with their environment and learned concepts and skills through it, a primary issue has been that their children have not been subjected to the same and the result is the development of children who are not environmentally conscious Kelly (2010, p. 171-185). In ecologically sustainable societies, green spaces and woodlands provide an opportunity to promote and enhance out of class learning activities that are geared towards establishing unique emotional and physical impact on the social and cultural parts of children. Significantly though, success in educating children with health problems such as autistic spectrum has been attributed to this learning initiative (Alice et al. 2016).Contact with nature is important in educating a child. This initiative could not be successfully implemented in the recent past as educational stakeholders considered safety and security concerns of children while conducting outdoor learning activities. There were fears of children being subject to potential attacks from strangers and arguments of physical abuse(Moseley et al. 2002, p. 9-15). However, as much as these potential risks exist, they are outnumbered by physical health and social benefits. This approach involves child-led learning activities which are geared towards motivating children based on their interests and talents (Ball, 2005, p. 15). Children are fascinated and inspired by outdoor learning activities after undergoing through different experiences in the local woodlands. As Brookes (2003, p. 49-62) noted, children who come from areas where there is little contact with nature are presented with a unique learning opportunity their innate curiosity is neutralized. In this manner, they can work out problems and make decisions based on their interests thus making them environmentally receptive (Connolly & Haughton, 2017, p. 105). With this kind of learning, children can discover new things, through curiosity that in turn drives exploration. At the first time, children learn how to give appropriate responses to various risks. This is enhanced through asking questions that derive a clear justification on how and why things are the way they are in the natural environment. As part of the Forest School approach, children are engaged in a series of interesting forest games that presents them with unique opportunities to challenge and upgrade their imagination (Connolly & Haughton, 2017, p. 117). Those who are not familiar with woodlands learn to interact freely, and the ‘alien' thought is detached from them. Patience and observation are among the skills that the initiative builds in the children as they progressively participate in the learning activities. Evaluation of Success The Forest School initiative has been an effective learning approach for nurturing self-confident and environmentally competent children in Wales. This has been made possible by the integration of efforts among the Forestry Commission Wale, Forest Education Initiative, and the Forest School Wales. Many people have made claims to having made over the initiative, and it has been viewed as a popular framework for teaching children. In a Forest School, the teacher's relationship with children is fundamentally different. Unlike classroom learning where the teacher leads students, the child is the leader in Forest School. The curriculum is not provided for, and variability in age and ability divide the students into units while in the woodland environment (Davis-Berman & Berman, 2002, p. 305-310). As reports by O'Brien (2009, p. 45-60) indicate, the community was able to better learning experiences using this learning initiative. It enhances the realization of parent's goals as confident and independent children were mentored by use of forest play activities that could not be taught in the classroom. As such, Connolly & Haughton (2017, p. 123) asserts that the definition of Forest School initiative reflected how woodland experiences would be used to shape the general outfit of a child in his/her future life. A range of unavailable activities has raised concerns about the extent to which children should interact and generate social experiences from their immediate environments. A perception that children would not be able to adapt and interact well with their local environment and use the spaces and opportunities therein appropriately has now been withheld with the provision of this learning approach. By conducting studies in woodlands, it will be less likely that children will miss emotional and physical benefits that are presented by the natural environment (Alice et al. 2016).The benefits of this initiative are qualified by studies that have been conducted to evaluate its effectiveness in shaping a responsible child. An example of such study is the one conducted by Ball (2005, 23-32) in which he concluded that Forest School is an outdoor learning activity that implicates affective, interpersonal, cognitive and behavioral impacts on a learner whose learning is conducted in the local woodlands. It is a highly structured and sophisticated learning initiative that requires adequate skills and knowledge from teachers to conduct it effectively. However, Beard & Wilson (2002) argues that the sole objective is to instill confidence and build the virtue of independence in children as they endeavor in their studies. To meet the children's broad spectrum of needs, the initiative requires services from different stakeholders (Maynard et al. 2013, p. 282-299). For instance, the services of craftspeople, movement therapists, play workers, musicians, and leaders have been incorporated to ensure that the initiative works successfully. Funding, support, and advice have been channeled to the local Forest Education Initiative to support its development. Through the initiative, some successful forest projects have been established to ensure that learning resources are well tended. These forest projects have not only changed the lives of the children but also the organizational structure of the surrounding communities. However, there is a wide range of challenges that oppose its enactment and successful realization of the desired benefits. As Murray (2006) postulated after conducting an evaluation research, children who are exposed to this learning initiative get difficulties in adapting to the woodland environment, and as such, fewer learning outcomes are realized. Weather is also a problem in this learning initiative. More often than not, woodland settings are characterized by constant unpredictable rains (O’Brien & Murray, 2007, p. 249-265). Recurrent rains would mean that children could get muddy, wet and physically uncomfortable. As a recommendation stated by Woodhouse & Knapp (2000, p. 46), practitioners’ advice to parents is to ensure that their children are sufficiently clothed. Additionally, lack of adequate teacher cum leadership training facilities also proved a challenge in the successful operation of this initiative. This deprives teachers of important knowledge and skills in conducting and managing out of school studies. Reference List Autry, C.E., 2001. Adventure therapy with girls at-risk: Responses to outdoor experiential activities. Therapeutic Recreation Journal, 35(4), p.289. Adkins, C. and Simmons, B., 2002. Outdoor, Experiential, and Environmental Education: Converging or Diverging Approaches? ERIC Digest. p.101. Alice et al. (2016): Does engagement in Forest School influence perceptions of risk, held by children, their parents, and their school staff? Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03004279.2016.1140799 Ball, S.J., 2005. Education policy and social class: The selected works of Stephen J. Ball. Routledge. Beard, C. and Wilson, J.P., 2013. Experiential learning: A handbook for education, training and coaching. Kogan Page Publishers. UK. pp. 56. Brookes, A., 2003. A critique of Neo-Hahnian outdoor education theory. Part one: Challenges to the concept of “character building”. Journal of Adventure Education & Outdoor Learning, 3(1), pp.49-62. Connolly, M. and Haughton, C., 2017. The perception, management and performance of risk amongst Forest School educators. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 38(2), pp.105-124. Davis-Berman, J. and Berman, D., 2002. Risk and anxiety in adventure programming. Journal of Experiential Education, 25(2), pp.305-310. Kehily, M.J., 2010. Childhood in crisis? Tracing the contours of ‘crisis’ and its impact upon contemporary parenting practices. Media, Culture & Society, 32(2), pp.171-185. Knight, S., 2013. Forest school and outdoor learning in the early years. Sage. UK. pp. 56-70. Maynard, T., 2007. Encounters with Forest School and Foucault: a risky business? Education 3–13, 35(4), pp.379-391. Maynard, T., Waters, J. and Clement, J., 2013. Moving outdoors: further explorations of ‘child-initiated’ learning in the outdoor environment. Education 3-13, 41(3), pp.282-299. Moseley, C., Reinke, K. and Bookout, V., 2002. The effect of teaching outdoor environmental education on preservice teachers' attitudes toward self-efficacy and outcome expectancy. The Journal of Environmental Education, 34(1), pp.9-15. Murray, R., 2006. A marvelous opportunity for children to learn: a participatory evaluation of Forest School in England and Wales. Forest Research. UK. O’Brien, L. and Murray, R., 2007. Forest School and its impacts on young children: Case studies in Britain. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 6(4), pp.249-265. O'Brien, L., 2009. Learning outdoors: the Forest School approach. Education 3–13, 37(1), pp.45-60. Wattchow, B. and Brown, M., 2011. A pedagogy of place: Outdoor education for a changing world. Monash University Publishing. UK. pp. 111. Woodhouse, J.L. and Knapp, C.E., 2000. Place-Based Curriculum and Instruction: Outdoor and Environmental Education Approaches. ERIC Digest.pp. 46. Read More