Week 6: How Does Outdoor Learning & SEL Connect to BC’s New Curriculum & Core Competencies? How Would You Embed Outdoor Learning & SEL Into Your Teaching Practice & Curricular Area?
June 13, 2017
Reading this week article Developing Conducive Sustainable Outdoor Learning: The Impact of Natural environment on Learning, Social and Emotional Intelligence makes me reflect on my undergrad program. Since the program, I was in was geared for students who want to become teacher or want to work in the field of physio, we were required to complete 4 fieldwork courses where students were placed in school setting very similar to the practicum here at SFU. During these courses, we were only required to meet up 4 times during the term and the rest of the term we were at our placements completing the minimum hours required and must teach a minimum of one lesson. During these class meeting (like module
© 2016 by MONIQUE BANTOK PORTFOLIO. Proudly created with Wix.com
time) we considered and reflected on our own emotional intelligence, what they are what it looked like to have emotional intelligence. We would fill out and have class discussion regarding the worksheet just like the example on the right, and every fieldwork would focus on a different aspect of emotional intelligence. This worksheet would be filled in both in the beginning of the term, and as well as the end of the term to track our progress and development.
Looking back, I myself remember not taking these worksheets too seriously and at times were not motivated to put deep thought and thinking into the work. Therefore, how can we motivate students and encourage them to invest their time and effort in developing their emotional intelligence? What I like about the article was that in makes a connection between taking the class outdoors and the ability for outdoor learning to embed emotional intelligence. However, the article doesn’t necessarily explain how. Like the article in the previous week regarding outdoor education a missed opportunity where the authors found that there was no significant difference between learning outdoors vs. indoors. Maybe this is because there was no difference in the how the content was being taught. Therefore, for outdoor learning to be effective we need to change the way we approach teaching and learning. As of now, I
myself don’t really have a definitive answer on how but I feel that the experiences and group facilitation presented in this class has given me strategies on where and how to start.
Another experience I have had that I would want to apply in my own practice is the Mind Up Program. Although the program is geared more toward learning emotional intelligence for younger students, I believe it can be modified for an older audience. The Mind Up program allows students to become aware of their own emotions and feelings, providing strategies on how to be more engaged, stay focus, and puts high importance in social and emotional learning. It may be silly, but some of the strategies they implement include breathing techniques, meditation in class and much more. I would want to implement these strategies s that students can learn the importance of taking time to have a metal health check. Especially today where there seems to be so little time during the day, and we are in a world where people are addicted to work endless hours.
Resources