Learnscapes: the affordance of landscapes. How environments invite physical activity and promote motor development in children.

Ingunn Fjortoft

In this project several schools and kindergartens are involved in action based research promoting an active focus at outdoor education and experiential learning. The main objectives are to investigate the value of outdoor education, learning outcomes and benefits for students. Furthermore there is a focus on the mutual cooperation with teachers, school authorities and researchers to promote outdoor education as a common practice within the schools’ curricula. Three primary schools and two kindergratens were selected for the project, all with focus on the outdoor environment as a landscape for learning. The schools concentrated on the subjects of arts and crafts, science and physical education, while the kindergartens were more general in their approach. Preliminary results show that teachers have become more deliberate in the ire aching practice by using the outdoors regularly with activities planned in context with the curricula. Available outdoor facilities have been mapped and the affordances consciously applied for teaching purposes. As for the learning outcome of the students the integration of natural sciences with language training seems to be an important didactic approach in fundamental reading and writing. The outdoors proved to be the best guarantee for being physically active and to develop basic motor skills.

Telemark University College
Norway
Tel: ++47 35026200
Email: Ingunn.Fjortoft@hit.no