Outdoor School was causal for ACADEMIC GROWTH during pandemic. Mic Drop.
This is the fourth and final installment of: Transformation, Revolution, and other Hyperbole in Education Reform
Tl;dr (your summary in case you’re short on time)
I talk and write and promote the “nature-based learning revolution.” It’s important to know what I mean when I say that.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve answered 1-5 of the 6 questions for education transformers posed by education historian Larry Cuban. Today I’ll answer #6.
Dear People Who Care About Students,
This is the fourth and final installment on my journey to understand what I’m talking about when I say “nature-based learning revolution.” Thanks for being here.
(For reference, read: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3; summarized in tl;dr above).
This series was provoked by education historian, Larry Cuban’s, blog: “Transform” Schools: Hyped Language Weakens Reform” in which he highlights the ubiquitous use of the phrase “transform schools” and asks 6 questions to interrogate those of us who use it (NB: I use “revolutionize” in lieu of transform; the questions stand).
Today I’m tackling Larry’s final question.
Thank you, Larry, for the provocations that launched this 4-part series 🙏.
1. What does “transform” mean to you?
2. What are the problems to which “transformed” schools are the solution?
3. What exactly is to be transformed? School structures? Cultures? Classroom teaching? Learners?
4. Transform to what? What are the sought after outcomes?
5. How fast should the “transformation” be?
6. How will you know that the “transformation” (revolution) will be better than what you already have?
7. Bonus from me: What does it feel like when things have transformed?
6. How will you know that the “transformation” (revolution) will be better than what you already have?
The syntax of this question is interesting; both parts are in the future tense. How will I know that the nature-based learning revolution will be better?
It’s an evaluation question. How will I measure impact? How will we (thanks for joining the revolution 😉!) demonstrate that these impacts are improvements over what we have?
For us, future tense is unnecessary. I already know the nature-based learning revolution makes measurable positive impacts that are better than what came before. I have witnessed it. So I’ll share 3 vignettes. Just 3. There are so many. But y’all have other things to do with your time, so I’ll stick to 3.
And for those in the “all others bring data” camp, I will do that too.
Vignette 1: Teacher Joy
Stacie Johnson is a 4th grade teacher in Colorado. After 21 years teaching, she was about to throw in the towel. Here’s what nature-based learning did for her:
Nature based learning, especially teaching outdoors, has reenergized my love for teaching. It not only supports the whole student, it supports the whole teacher.
Imagine what this means to the profession. A teacher who was planning to leave the workforce has stayed.
Stacie is not alone. I have heard variations about “adding 10 years to my career” and things being “joyful again” from many teachers with whom Good Natured Learning (my @Day Job) has collaborated to implement apple-a-day (small dose, simple) nature-based learning.
Plus, Stacie is an exceptional teacher. We (society at large) want her in the profession AS.LONG.AS.POSSIBLE.
Some of you may know of a rad organization called The Teaching Well. I’m a huge fan. They focus on educator wellness believing that, “we can no longer bypass the educator to get to the student.” In their 2022-23 annual report, they estimated that for each teacher they helped retain in the workforce, they saved that school/district over $20,000.
By extension: when nature-based learning keeps teachers in the profession longer, it saves schools money. This is an objective, measurable improvement over the status quo.
More important than the financial savings is the impact of retaining quality teachers.
“Teachers are the no. 1 school-based factor that affects student learning. So, if we care fundamentally about student learning, then we need to care fundamentally about teachers.”
- Melissa Arnold Lyon, Assistant Professor of Public Policy at University of Albany
By extension: the nature-based learning revolution supports student learning by keeping teachers in the profession. This includes quality teachers like Stacie. And - by the way - teachers get better with practice! And, also by the way, nature-based learning seems to beget better and more active instruction that is more relevant, authentic, hands on, and student-driven. That’s a multidimensional win for student learning.
Vignette 2: Engagement
In 2018-2019, I worked with an innovative 7th grade math teacher, Ari Gino. She and her 8th grade counterpart (also awesome) designed end-of-unit nature-based learning applications for each topic. The students often used their time outdoors to collect raw data that could then be analyzed, graphed, and quantified indoors. This looked like having students delineate a study plot and measure the diameters of trees in the plot and then calculate the percentage of the trees larger than a set size versus smaller than that size. Or taking pictures of rotational and reflection symmetry in nature and then drawing these images using graph paper to really drive home the concepts.
Of this work, Ari said:
Having my students work on a project outside has exponentially increased their engagement and ownership over their work. I have found that my 7th graders are much more attentive to details, they collaborate better using stronger communication, and they take more pride in their work. They really look forward to our Outdoor Project Days at the end of each unit.
Her 8th grade counterpart documented similar behaviors.
Quick aside in reference to the first anecdote: don’t you think Ari experienced more joy if her students were engaged, taking ownership, collaborating, communicating better, and taking pride in their work?
One day while meeting with our Superintendent, Wendy Wyman, I was describing the great work these two math teachers were doing. Wendy’s eyes lit up. Across all 7th-12th grade students, the 7th and 8th grade students marked the highest growth on their NWEA test scores.
‘Maybe this was partially due to these engaging learning experiences?’
The comment hung in the air.
Who the heck knows why exactly these teachers’ students saw growth that outpaced the rest of the students in the district on this test.
Crosswalking Ari’s observation of her students’ engagement and Wendy’s speculation, I arrive at a suggestive correlation at minimum. And, “classroom engagement—the extent to which students are on-task and paying attention to the material or activity at hand—is both easily disrupted and a major driver of learning and academic success.”1
For those of you who want some data-data, Dr. Ming Kuo has actually measured the impact outdoor learning experiences have on subsequent indoor classroom engagement. Dr. Kuo and her team found that classroom engagement was higher indoors after learning outdoors than after matched indoor lessons. For example, the number of “redirects” (when a teacher has to stop to get a student back on task) dropped by almost one half after learning outdoors. This means a teacher can teach for longer without being interrupted.
It also suggests that quality of time (measured by engagement) might be more important than total instructional time for student learning.
(Incidentally, total instructional time is the “butts in seats” metric, a misguided measure quipped in conversations surrounding everything from school calendar redesigns to dropping recess and extracurriculars like art and music which have been shown to rejuvenate and motivate students 🤦🏻♀️).
Maybe the spike in Ari’s students’ engagement was because outdoors her students’ were able to rest their directed attention faculties through a magical combination of sounds, sunlight, movement, and the soft, indirect attention required by natural landscapes. Maybe it’s because they were having more fun.
Either way this is an objective, meaningful improvement over the corollary for Ari’s students: lower engagement, poorer communication, crappier collaboration, and lack of pride and ownership in their work.
Chalk up another one in favor of the nature-based learning revolution.
Vignette #3: Academic Growth THROUGH THE PANDEMIC
I have told this story in various points before – so my loyal readers might be familiar with it. Still, I think it bears repeating. In fact, several of you have reached out to say “holy cow – say that louder!” Plus, this version is more complete.
During summer 2020 things were pretty weird. You remember.
I lived in Lake County (Leadville), Colorado at the time and Leadvillians are nothing if not scrappy folks with a penchant to roll up our sleeves. I was working for Lake County School District - a Title 1, majority Latine student body district that has bounced around on various state accountability watch/warning lists over the years. My role was a grant-funded position2 to connect students with nature in school in service our our school’s academic and culture goals.
The stakes were high from a learning and wellbeing perspective; we wanted to get students back to school – in person – ASAP. And safely. No one really knew what safe meant, but ‘safer at home …or in the vast great outdoors’ was Governor Polis’ mantra for COVID in Colorado.
If you merge my job and Polis’ mandate, a fairly obvious solution emerges. It is one that actually sprung up across the country and globe.
All-hands-on-deck-roll-up-our-sleeves-educators and people who care about students (like YOU!) came out of the woodwork to leverage the power of outdoor classrooms as part of the solution. Green Schoolyards America led a huge crowdsourcing project to document outdoor learning and classroom practices in a shared National Outdoor Learning Library.
I was part of a team of just this sort of educators etc. who embodied David Orr’s “hope is a verb with its sleeves rolled up” quote.
At the time, I had a relatively freshly minted infant (Nora - born May 2020) and my mom swooped in to support our family at a moment when we weren’t able to have outside caregivers in our house and when it was clear that a hard-stop maternity leave was not what the moment called for (plus I was bad at maternity leave to being with…but anyhow).
So my mom (Supergrandma) and partner and kiddos and Arty (our dog) formed the foundation of my team. Next I called a meeting of the minds with innovative thinkers and do-ers from around our community in a design-thinking exercise to find an in-person school solution leveraging the outdoors.
Collaborators in this work stretched from Lake County and throughout the Arkansas Valley. Together, we innovated an outdoor camp-schoolish thing where K-6 students were able to come back to school full time from day 1 of the 2020 school year. They alternated days at (and in) school with their classroom teacher and outdoors in a camp-outdoor classroom set-up supported by informal educators. If you want to read about it, there is a case study of it here on Green Schoolyards America’s website.
As I wrote before, but evidently not LOUD ENOUGH,
In November 2022, after that school received a Bright Spot award from Governor Polis for ACADEMIC GROWTH THROUGH THE PANDEMIC, I received an email from the principal.
Her take?
Outdoor school was a causal part of their success.
All others bring data? Ok…how about my fave NSF-funded study documenting the compelling, robust, and growing evidence supporting a cause-and-effect relationship between time in nature and academic performance?
The nature-based learning revolution is better. I have seen it. It WILL continue to be that way as we go deeper into the beautiful literal-and-metaphorical woods to reconnect students and educators with nature.
QED. Mic Drop. I rest my case for now (but don’t worry because I will pick it up in the New Year). Thank you for reading.
❤️Becca
PS - This is the last post from me until 2024. If you’re missing me, here are some great ways to get your Becca-NBL-dose (which you can enjoy while on a walk or ski or bike or sitting in nature). If you’re feeling like advancing the revolution, share these pods with others, give them a rating (preferably 5-stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐!), and write a review!
The Thoughtful Teacher Podcast: For Real Engagement...Take Them Outside with Becca Katz
The Outdoor Classroom Podcast: Episode #66 Good Natured Learning with Becca Katz
Kuo M, Browning MHEM and Penner ML (2018) Do Lessons in Nature Boost Subsequent Classroom Engagement? Refueling Students in Flight. Front. Psychol. 8:2253. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02253
Shout out to Great Outdoors Colorado and Get Outdoors Leadville!