Forest schools
In 1993, a group of nursery nurses from Bridgewater College (Somerset), visited Scandinavia to look at their foundation phase. Their foundation stage differs from ours in that they use a type of learning which occurs outside in the open air. The nurses were so inspired by this different type of learning, when they returned to the UK, they built their own “Forest School”. They started it out with the children attending their college crèche, as the nurses watched the children flourish in this new environment, they realised that there was a gap in the education system for this new type of exciting practice[1].
It has been illustrated as “an inspirational process that offers children, young people and adults, regular opportunities to achieve and develop confidence through hands-on learning in a woodland environment” [2]. The main aims of a forest school are to encourage confidence, independence and self-esteem in the children [3]. With shyer children, being in the forest brings out this confidence in their performance, and also they seem to communicate with other children more in the forest than what they would do in the classroom [4]. The children and even the staff can learn many skills in the forest, but the forest is also helpful for learning their normal national curriculum [5]. It also teaches children certain skills that would be very useful for them in later life, such as team work and problem solving [6]. The woods has a very positive impact for the child’s learning experiences, it encourages the students to lead their own learning, as Lev Vygotsky said that the “children are actively involved in their own learning”[7].
Forest schools are usually run by three practitioners and the classrooms have a high adult to child ratio, which isn’t that common in normal state schools. The teachers go out into the forests with the children and observe what they are doing, and if they need help the teacher will offer suggestions. This is known as “Scaffolding”, and is a key concept of the theory of Jerome Bruner [8].
The daily routine of a forest school doesn’t differ greatly from a normal school, the teachers teach their lessons in the normal class environment, but once or twice a week the children go to the forest. It is a common fact that children learn best by their experiences, therefore if children are learning in a forest (not their normal learning environment) then they are going to remember it more effectively instead of being in a classroom being talked at [9]. I believe that this type of education can be very effective due to the fact that the children are gaining different types of experiences and this type of experiential learning is more effective than any other. What I like about this type of education is that it encourages confidence, vocabulary, social skills when other schools don’t really offer this type of education.
[4] Lewis, C. 2013
[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_schools
[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_schools
[7] Sanders, S. 2013
[8] http://www.forestschoolassociation.org/history-of-forest-school/
[9] Lewis, C. 2013
No comments:
Post a Comment