HIGHLIGHTS
- Environmental education gains impact when it converts learning into a vivid and shared experience beyond the classroom
- Educational projects which are connected to nature generate lasting social benefits and strengthen the link between people, communities and the environment
“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.” The quote is often cited, and debated in terms of its authorship (some say it belongs to Confucius, others insist Benjamin Franklin said it), but it continues to serve as an ideal starting point for pondering contemporary education, especially where sustainability is concerned. For decades, the environmental debate insisted on a need to inform and raise awareness. Today, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the focus has moved on to learning by doing, touching, observing and participating.
There’s no longer any doubt that environmental education undergoing a profound reformulation. Now it no longer limits itself to passing on knowledge about biodiversity and climate change, but seeks to create a closer relationship between people and their surroundings. As such, nature is no longer an educational space on its own. It has important social consequences and this new form of education is about living together differently.
What will I learn from this article?
The idea that learning improves when connected to direct experience is not new, but it has gathered renewed interest in recent years. Trends like outdoor learning, project-based education and service-learning, are redefining the role of the classroom and teaching.
In countries like Finland, Denmark and Scotland, outdoor learning has formed part of the educational system for decades. In Spain, albeit to a lesser extent, they are beginning to establish similar initiatives. So-called forest schools, for instance, are supported by a model in which most learning is developed out in nature and this is not limited to educating children. Continual contact with nature is used to study mathematics, language, science, and social skills.
Another trend gaining momentum is project-based learning with an environmental focus. In many educational centers, studying surroundings – a river, park or suburb – as taken over as the central content of courses. Students investigate real problems, propose solutions and collaborate with local agencies. This also occurs in citizen science programs linked to universities and local governments, where students might participate, for example, in monitoring air quality, urban biodiversity or energy consumption in public buildings.
Service-learning, on the other hand, combines the acquisition of knowledge through a specific action that benefits the community. Initiatives such as reforestation, school allotments managed with neighborhood associations, and community composting projects, are examples of how environmental education might generate tangible impacts. The educational value lies not only in the final result, but the process: teamwork, decision-making, assuming responsibility, and understanding the consequences of one’s own actions.
One of the most interesting aspects of these educational advances is their capacity to strengthen social cohesion. When education is linked to where you live, the teaching center ceases to be an isolated institution and becomes another node in the community.
In many cities, school allotments have evolved into open neighborhood projects. Families, older people and local collectives participate in caring for them, sharing knowledge and building intergenerational meeting points. In this way, the environments ceases to be a simple issue or theme and becomes a way through which social fragmentation can be tackled and lasting connections created.
Proposals with strong pedagogical and community components can also emerge outside the formal educational system. Municipal environmental classes, nature interpretation centers, and initiatives set up by NGOs and social entities, offer programs combining outreach, participation and local action. In these spaces, education is understood as a continuous process, accessible to all ages, and connected to real local problems.
Environmental perspective in education also has long-term transformative potential. Various studies indicate that youngsters who’ve had frequent contact with nature during their formative stages develop a greater sensitivity to social and environmental problems in adult age.
In a world like ours, marked by fast-growing urbanization and digitization, recovering a connection with nature adds value, since it can serve as a tool to build more resilient communities. Technology can form part of this process, as long as it is used for broadening experience and not replacing it. Think of environmental monitoring applications, collaborative platforms and digital resources that connect scientific data with groundwork.
Education in nature is, at the end of the day, a way of showing how we might live together, as well as how environmental and social problems are interrelated and that solutions require long-term cooperation, care and observation. When education achieves this objective, it leaves a positive effect that goes far beyond a lesson in the classroom and becomes integrated in the daily life of communities. And this is where sustainability becomes a truly social concern.
Juan Ángel Asensio (Madrid, 1994) is a poet and commentator. Graduate in General and Comparative Literature and Master of Cultural Criticism and Communication from Alcala University, he has published various poetry collections and his work for the media explores relationships between culture, society and thinking. He has also worked for the Ixuxu Ecology Association, living and working in projects focused on the relationship between territory, community and sustainability, an experience that has decisively influenced his outlook. Presently, he is focusing on the great challenges of our time, tackling issues such as sustainable development and new ways of living in the world from a cultural perspective.