In & Out: Learning outside the classroom

In European primary and lower secondary schools, learning outside the classroom is mostly understood as an appendix to academic learning, randomly added to areas traditionally linked to the outdoor setting, such as environmental education or personal development. 

In this project the concept is defined as moving regular curricular-based education and learning activities outside the traditional classroom. 

Learning outside the classroom

Learning outside the classroom is not integrated in the European formal and non-formal educational systems and its didactic potential remains largely unexploited. One of the reasons for not using learning outside the classroom as an integrated part of the curricular is lack of competencies among teachers and educators. The lack is especially in regards to “classical” subjects in the European schools systems e.g.. Language, Math, Science, Arts & Craft. 

Innovative and diverse teaching 

The project aims at contributing to making the teaching in schools more innovative and diverse by focusing on to interrelated needs: 

1. In primary and lower secondary schools there is a need to further develop curriculum-related activities in learning outside the classroom settings through a systematic lift of competencies among teachers in the didactics of learning outside the classroom 
2. Educators in the non-formal learning settings possess strong communicative skills and are competent at facilitating activity-based learning processes but need training in didactics and learning theory. 

Training course package 

The partnership will develop a further training course package, aimed at teachers in primary and lower secondary schools and educators in non-formal learning settings. The further training course will be interdisciplinary thus the dual target group will follow the course activities together. 

The course package consists of two parts: 

1. A foundation course with a general introduction to the didactics of learning outside the classroom 
2. A subject-specific course, integrating the subject areas such as Mathematics, Arts & Craft, Science, and Language.

Partners in In & Out

Denmark 

VIA University College (lead partner)

Faculty of Education and Social Studies 

Karen Barfod, Dept. of Teacher Education, Nr. Nissum
E: ksba@via.dk Project manager 

Mikael Skånstrøm, Dept. of Teacher Education, Nr. Nissum
E: misk@viauc.dk, Subject expert in Mathematics 

Helle Villekold:, International Project Office
E: hvj@viauc.dk, Administrative project manager 

Romania 

University of Bucharest 

Alexandru Andrasanu, Faculty of Geology and Geophysics, Geomedia Centre
E: mesajalex@yahoo.com , Subject expert in science 

Mihaela Nicula, Open Distance Learning Department
E: mihaela@credis.ro , Project administrative 

Sweden 

Linköping UniversityNational Centre for Outdoor Education 

Eva Kätting, Subject expert in language
E: eva.katting@liu.se 

Katarina Johansson, Subject expert in language
E: katarina.johansson@liu.se 

Lena Örnestrand, Project administrative
E: lena.ornestrand@liu.se 

Germany 

University of Marburg

Faculty of Ecducation, Dept. of Physical Education and Motology 

Martin Lindner, Subject expert in physical education
E: martin.lindner@staff.uni-marburg.de 

Robert Grafe
E: robert.graefe@staff.uni-marburg.de 

The Municipality of Lemvig, Denmark 

The Municipality of Lemvig 

Gunnar Nordestgaard, Secretariat for Family and Culture
E: Gunnar.Nordestgaard@Lemvig.dk 

Axel Christophersen
E: Axel.Christophersen@Lemvig.dk 

Heidi Lind
E: Heidi.Lind@Lemvig.dk 

External advisors 

Martin Gröger
E: groeger@chemie.uni-siegen.de 
Universität Siegen 

Guy Martini
E: guy.martini@hotmail.com
European Geoparks Network

All materials are free to download

Project results 

The course package consists of two volumes: 

• A foundation course with a general introduction to the didactics of outdoor learning 
• A subject-specific course, integrating different subjects into outdoor learning 

Practical exercises in language, mathematics & science 

Language 

• Build a letter with a long rope (pdf) 
• Four things and one that doesn't belong to the others (pdf) 
• Give the place a name (pdf) 
• Mapping (pdf) 
• Storytelling by ropes (pdf) 
• Tree poems (pdf) 

Mathematics 

• Can you find the fractions? (pdf) 
• How high is the tree? (pdf) 
• Wanna bet? (pdf) 

Science 

• Measure the temperature (pdf) 
• Experience (pdf) 

Conference paper 

Barfod, K.; Alesandru, A.; Lindner, M.; Kätting, E.; Johansson, K.; Skånstrøm, M. & Gräfe, R.: 

"In and Out – into the outdoor classrooms adaption of new subject-related approaches in different learning environments", 2012 

Conference paper (pdf) 

Literature list

Supplementary readings in this field could be: 

• Bentsen, Peter: “Udeskole: outdoor teaching and use of green space in danish schools”, PhD thesis, Faculty of life Sciences, University of Copenhagen, 2010 
• Braud, Martin and Reiss, Michael (eds): “Learning Science outside the classroom”, RoutledgeFalmer, 2004 
• Falk, J.H., and Dierking, L. D. : “The Museum Experience”. Washington D.C., Whalesback Books, 1992 
• Hein, George E. and Alexander, Mary: “Museums, places of learning”. American Association of Museums Education Committee, 1998 
• Rickinson, Mark et al (eds): “A review of research on Outdoor learning”, National foundation for educational research and Kings College London, 2004 
• Wattchow, Brian and Brown, Mike: ”A pedagogy of place – outdoor education for a changing world”, Monash University 2011