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View From Here September 2005 - GA Chief Executive David Lambert
The Real World Learning (RWL) Partnership came together early in 2003 aiming to secure clear manifesto commitments from the three main political parties to an entitlement for all schoolchildren to experience outdoor learning at least once in their school career. The partnership included the RSPB, the Field Studies Council, The National Trust, the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust and 3D Education and Adventure (now part of PGL).
It was a highly successful campaign: outdoor learning featured in the manifestoes of all the major parties. The GA gave its full support to the initiative, and is now a formal partner of RWL.
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The campaign is moving into its implementation stage, and the GA’s Field Studies Working Group is actively contributing to discussions which will culminate in the Government’s anticipated publication of an Outdoor Learning Manifesto. These discussions have included the Schools Minister Lord Andrew Adonis.
We hope the ‘manifesto’ will be a practical document that will be used by school managers to ensure a balanced diet of real world learning – including geography fieldwork. Specifically, it needs to ensure that policy makers, Heads, Governors and all educational professionals can:
- understand and quantify the costs and benefits of RWL in education (and other public policy areas, including meeting international and national commitments)
- understand, reduce and remove the obstacles currently inhibiting RWL
- provide the necessary leadership, direction and strategy to promote RWL
- equip teachers with the necessary knowledge and skills
- monitor and evaluate out-of-classroom experiences
- finance support for high quality out-of classroom educational experiences
- manage risk by guaranteeing the health and safety of children and teachers
The RWL campaign has also brought together substantial research evidence related to outdoor learning. We hope that the whole GA network will be able to reflect on some of this (and direct, practical experience) and contribute to a wider debate via this website.
We need to be ‘savvy’ – and indeed, research shows that not all outdoor learning is valued by students! The educational worth of short-term and residential fieldwork experiences, and how fieldwork contributes to the whole curriculum experience of students, must be clear.
However, in the end, geography without fieldwork would be unthinkable (as well as not strictly compliant with the national curriculum!). The point of geography is often said to be to ‘make sense of the world’. It makes no sense to try and do this only through the pages of a book, a screen or an interactive whiteboard. At some stage it needs to be done ‘for real’, and sometimes this means making the ‘known world’ unfamiliar for a while and seeing it in new ways.
There is a great heritage of real world learning in this country, and much of that is down to our strong traditions of geography. If we don’t use it, however, we may lose it, so we must argue and campaign for it. The RWL campaign provides a focus to support this. The GA will go on doing its bit. Feel your strength through Association!
David Lambert
September 2005
More on outdoor learning >>>
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