Understanding educational and wellbeing implications of learning outside the classroom through cross-national collaboration

人们越来越关注课外学习对儿童的福祉、创造力和终身学习动机的贡献，人们担心，狭隘地关注认知结果可能无法培养出灵活、有创造力和有弹性的年轻人，这些年轻人愿意并能够为社会做出贡献，并应对迅速变化的世界。将儿童与自然（重新）联系起来，以培养对受到威胁的全球环境的尊重和关怀的愿望也在我们的伙伴国家引起了共鸣。例如，课堂外英语学习倡议得到了跨党派政治路线的支持。在新加坡，人们正在建造自然走廊，使其成为一个花园中的城市，并正在实施一项新的主动学习计划，以解决人们对普遍的说教式教学能在多大程度上培养创造力和创业精神的担忧。“Friluftsliv”，即露天生活，在斯堪的纳维亚半岛一直受到重视；丹麦的草根运动通过户外学习增加了孩子们的课程体验。然而，如果不密切关注国家政策、进程和人们如何构建课堂外学习的不同机会，主流教育目标与国家文化传统之间相互作用的复杂性是很难理解和理论化的。澳大利亚的学者，如斯图尔特和布鲁克斯，警告说，没有适当考虑文化情境的研究原则的概括是误导性的，而美国对社区教育的研究重新定位了“户外”的概念。尽管研究领域正在加强和多样化，但该研究如何建立在现有知识和文化因素的基础上，缺乏一致性和一致性。造成这种情况的原因包括缺乏比较方法，辩论的机会有限，以及缺乏从不同文化和教育系统中学习的跨国合作。是时候探索我们不同的文化传统，特别是关于户外和自然的文化传统，以及我们的政策背景是如何应对这些教育挑战的了，这些挑战既具有高度的地位，又具有全球意义。通过我们提议的国际网络，我们将在解决以下问题方面得到支持：我们目前对课堂外学习影响儿童教育和福祉的方式的了解；我们如何利用现有的关于课堂外学习的国际证据，推动研究议程向前发展；地点、文化因素和课堂外学习如何相互作用；以社区为基础的课外学习可能对社会凝聚力产生的影响；户外学习环境如何与教学法、课程和didaktik相互作用。我们的合作将有助于解决相关的研究和方法问题。这些国家和学者被有意选为网络伙伴，以代表对户外活动和一系列教育政策框架的文化态度的一致传播。核心合作伙伴包括具有ESRC和其他外部资助研究项目经验的出版作者，包括从业者和政策制定者，以帮助实现研究的实际意义。以前的研讨会，共同编辑国际特刊，以及英国教育研究协会的“思想会议”奖在核心合作伙伴之间建立了工作关系；这笔资金将利用我们现有的网络建立一个强大的、有重点的伙伴关系，从而产生合作论文，为早期职业研究人员建立交流机会，制定跨国研究计划，从而对我们各自国家和其他国家的政策和实践产生重大影响。

There is intense and gathering interest in the contribution that learning outside the classroom can make to children's wellbeing, creativity and their motivation for lifelong learning, linked to a concern that a narrow focus on cognitive outcomes may be failing to develop flexible, creative and resilient young people who are willing and able to contribute to society and to cope in a rapidly changing world. A desire to (re)connect children and nature to nurture respect and care for a threatened global environment has also struck a chord in our partner countries. For example, the English Learning Outside the Classroom initiative is supported across party political lines. In Singapore, nature corridors are being created to make it a city in a garden and a new Programme for Active Learning is being implemented to address concerns about how far creativity and entrepreneurial spirit can be fostered by prevalent didactic teaching. 'Friluftsliv', the open air life, has long been valued in Scandinavia; grassroots movements in Denmark are augmenting children's curriculum experience through outdoor learning. However, the complexity of the interactions between mainstream educational goals and national cultural traditions relating to the outdoors is difficult to understand and theorise without close attention to how national policies, processes and people construct different opportunities for learning outside the classroom. Australian academics, such as Stewart and Brookes, have cautioned that generalisation of principles from research studies without due regard for cultural situations is misleading, while US studies of community-based education reposition conceptualisations of the 'outdoors.' Although the research field is strengthening and diversifying, there is a lack of coherence and congruence in how this research builds upon existing knowledge and accounts for cultural factors. The reasons for this include a lack of comparative methodologies, limited opportunities for debate and an absence of cross-national collaboration to learn from different cultural and education systems. It is time to explore how our various cultural traditions, particularly regarding the outdoors and nature, and our policy contexts are meeting these educational challenges, which are simultaneously highly situated and of global significance. Through the international networking that we are proposing, we would be supported in addressing issues such as: what we currently know about the way in which learning outside the classroom influences children's education and wellbeing; how we can build upon existing international evidence regarding learning outside the classroom and move the research agenda forward; how place, cultural factors and learning outside the classroom interact; the impact on social cohesion that community-based learning outside the classroom might afford; how outdoor contexts for learning interact with pedagogy, curriculum and didaktik. Our collaboration will help to address the associated research and methodological issues. The countries and scholars have been deliberately selected as network partners to represent a coherent spread of cultural attitudes to the outdoors and range of educational policy frameworks. The core partnership comprises published authors who have ESRC and other externally-funded research project experience and includes practitioners and policy-makers to help realise practical implications of the research. Previous workshops, co-editing international special issues, and a British Educational Research Association 'Meeting of Minds' award have developed working relationships among the core partners; this funding would leverage our existing network to a strong, focused partnership that will produce collaborative papers, establish exchange opportunities for early career researchers, formulate cross-national research programmes and thus have significant impact on policy and practice in our respective countries and beyond.