Landscapes for Learning: Creating Outdoor Environments for Children and Youth

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Let’s guide students to explore and discover knowledge. That is, to learn by doing. These environments satisfy the way we acquire knowledge, not only as a means of where learning occurs, but rather because of their flexibility so that each student can use the content and solve the challenges we propose based on their personal way of learning. In this way, the student body changes from passive to an active agent and they become the protagonists of their own learning process, with us teachers being the guides who lead this process. Craig Hill set up Landscapes for Learning Ltd (formerly known as Mud Kitchens Wales Ltd.) in November 2016 as a sole trader before incorporating the business in April 2017. Prior to setting up, Craig spent 13 years as a primary and secondary teacher, specialising in assisting children with behavioural issues. Over half of schools reported less bullying, less time spent sorting playtime issues and better attitudes towards learning. Digital tools like Genially are key to creating Learning Landscapes. Genially allows us to create interactive content in which our students navigate a narrative world with infinite stories in which spaces, characters, roles, and aesthetics are coordinated by creating a frame of reference and delimitation for learning. Project-based learning, cooperative learning, flipped classroom, traditional methodology… whatever our style is, Genially adapts to the way we teach.

One of the most outstanding features of Genially is the versatility it has when it comes to teaching, allowing educational content to come to life through interactivity, animation, and content integration.

As LtL we would always suggest that schools and early years settings focus on children’s experiences outdoors – not starting with a play item from a catalogue. We have a range of audit tools for you to use, available to members. A good starting place is our free Playtime Revolution training, play policy exemplars, our school grounds audit tools and school grounds videos. We also suggest you explore advice on loose parts play, on open sand and play logs in school grounds.

Out focus is on changing mindsets and approaches to education – championing the outdoors as a place for formal learning and play. To this end we work at all levels – from classroom practitioner through headteacher and on to lobby our governments. The theory of multiple intelligences, formulated by Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner, identifies and defines up to eight different types of intelligences needed to cope with life: logical-mathematical intelligence, spatial intelligence, musical intelligence, bodily and kinaesthetic intelligence, intrapersonal intelligence, interpersonal intelligence and naturalistic intelligence. Gardner claims that all people possess each of the eight kinds of intelligence, although each person excels more in some than in others. Although most of our courses are half or full day, we also offer long-term training in outdoor learning and play. Both our Lead Teacher in Outdoor Learning and our Teaching in Nature programmes offer an alternative to costly and narrow-focused Forest Schools qualifications. For Early Years we offer Lead Practitioner in outdoor play and learning, Nurture Nature and Forest Kindergarten as in-depth and long-term training options. We have a number of good starting points: watch our natural play in schools video, look through our school grounds audit tools, or consider the simple ‘ process of change’. By gathering this data, you can start with what you have and do already and put together a team of pupils, staff, parents and governors together to get you started. The charity has been involved in many publications on behalf of local and national government, notably in School Grounds Design for DfEE [13] and The Good School Playground Guide for the Scottish Government. [14]

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Many of our students are digital natives, and the use of digital tools like this help us to transform them from digital natives to digitally qualified. That is, Genially gives us the opportunity to instill judgement and provide knowledge so that our students are digitally judicious, critical, and competent. It is very easy to reach for the ‘thing’, the play item or shiny catalogue seating system. Our experience shows that starting by changing culture, policies, attitudes and knowledge is a more sustainable and powerful starting place. Learning landscapes are a pedagogical tool that allows us to create personalised educational scenarios for our students by combining comprehension activities with symbolic worlds that encourage and harness the student’s imagination for learning (Inspiratics, n.d.). Through this tool, students can learn the different contents of the subjects in an interactive way, through a story created by the teacher, who proposes a series of activities and challenges to be solved. Learning through Landscapes has been involved with a number of projects including: Local School Nature Grants (in partnership with Peoples Postcode Lottery), [2] Outdoor Classroom Day (UK & Ireland), [3] Living through Landscapes (dementia friendly gardens), [4] Woodland Play, [5] The Scottish Natural Play project, Fruitfull Schools, [6] Fruitful Communities, [7] Polli:Nation. [8], My School My Planet [9] and Forest Kindergarten [10]

Thanks to interactivity, we create a communicative experience that brings us closer in any teaching environment and helps contextualize information, maximizing memorization, critical thinking, and creativity, and increasing participation, personalization of learning, and motivation in the classroom. Gamification. This is optional but recommended. Challenges and games always increase motivation. Badges, points tables, challenges… The aim is to gamify the narrative through characters, challenges, plots… which will also serve to evaluate the activity and the knowledge acquired. Designing Learning Landscapes is an experience. It involves work, but they’re also a lot of fun to create, and it’s satisfying to know that we are creating an environment that combines playful elements with appropriate instructional design with activities that are both challenging and motivating for our students. This favors the development of skills that are in line with the educational objectives. With this in mind, let’s get to the how.This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. The specific problem is: Links/refs. Please help improve this article if you can. ( May 2021) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Bloom’s taxonomy (also known as the taxonomy of learning domains) was designed by the American psychologist and educator Benjamin Bloom and allows for a hierarchy of cognitive processes at various levels from the most basic to the most complex. After some revisions, Bloom’s taxonomy now ranks cognitive processes, from least to most complex, as follows: remembering, understanding, applying, analysing, evaluating and creating. We would love to hear if you are interested in working with us, to discuss the possibility of purchasing from Landscapes 4 Learning, or simply helping to promote exploratory play. Kinetic-body intelligence. It involves the mastery of the body itself to express ideas and feelings (actors, mimes, athletes, or dancers), and the ease of using the hands in the creation or transformation of objects (craftsmen, sculptors, mechanics, or surgeons).

LtL was a founding partner of the Scottish 'Grounds for Learning Project' funded by Scottish Natural Heritage. Scottish Natural Heritage has remained a main partner of LtL in Scotland for 25 years. Grounds for Learning was re-named 'LtL Scotland' in 2019 and maintains an office in Stirling. Landscape architect Marti Franch Batllori, who has his own studio in Barcelona, is a graduate of the university's MA programme.The University is one of the country's biggest centres in outdoor design, offering nine landscape programmes from Diploma to PhD, including the popular BA Hons and MLA (Master of Landscape Architecture) degrees. It facilitates individualised attention to the student. Learning landscapes respond to the needs of learners by providing them with an audiovisual, intuitive and functional environment that captures their attention, making content more engaging, achieving greater retention of concepts and enhancing their digital skill. This result, however, was somewhat out of their control as the resources designed to cater for this aspect of essential early-years learning and mandatory inspection process were way beyond their school's very modest budget. Musical intelligence. It is the ability to perceive (as a music fan), discriminate (music critics), transform (composers), and express (performers) musical forms. Nearly 90% of schools reported an increase in perceived quality of the environment, by staff, pupils, parents, and community.