Transcript Sense of Place Keyno..

Place-based Education for
Montanans: Meeting the Challenge
of Nature-deficit Disorder
J. William Hug, Ph. D.
http://www.placebasededucation.org
Presentation Overview:
• Introduction
• Place-based Education
• Envisioning Place-based
Education
• Benefits
• Challenges
• Strategies & Action
Introduction
What is a firefly?
Generic curriculum
Textbooks & tests are for
profit not your community
“All education is
environmental education”
(Orr, 1992)
Where do they learn about
their community?
146,000 Public School Students
8,000 Private School Students
4,000 Home schooled Students
12,000 Teachers
(estimates from OPI
enrollment data)
Key Questions
• How do we (educators) help students learn
about local natural and human communities?
• How do we help students learn to recognize
natural and community health or ill-health?
• How do we help students learn to contribute to
the health of their natural and human
community?
What do I mean by Sense of
Place?
Sense of Place is the
meaning, attachment, and
affinity (conscious or
unconscious) that
individuals or groups
create for a particular
geographic space
through their lived
experiences associated
with that place.
(Hug, 1998)
Dimensions of a Sense of Place
•Geographic Landmarks
•Natural Flora/Fauna Landmarks
•Social / Cultural Landmarks
•Historical Landmarks
•Human Constructed Landmarks
Place-based Education
(from Sobel, 2004)
Place-based education is
the process of using the
local community and
environment as a
starting point to teach
concepts in language
arts, mathematics, social
studies, science, and
other subjects across the
curriculum.
Place-based Education
(from Sobel, 2004)
Emphasizing hands-on, real-world learning
experiences, this approach to education
•increases academic achievement,
•helps students develop stronger ties to
their community,
•enhances students’ appreciation for the
natural world and
•creates a heightened commitment to
serving as active, contributing citizens.
Place-based Education
(from Sobel, 2004)
Community vitality and environmental quality
are improved through the active engagement
of
local citizens,
community
organizations, and
environmental resources
in the life of the school.
Influential Thinkers
• Wendel Berry –
What are People For?
• Parker Palmer Wholistic education
• Gandhi Head, Heart & Hands
• Madhu Prakash Living as Learning
• Henry David Thoreau Walden
• Willa Cather My Antonia
• David Sobel Place-based Education
• David Orr Ecological Literacy
• Chet Bowers Root Metaphors
• Richard Louv Nature Deficit Disorder
• E.O. Wilson Naturalist & Biodiversity
• Aldo Leopold - Sand County
Do you know your place?
1. Trace the water you drink from precipitation to tap.
2. Describe the soil around your home.
3. What spring wildflower is consistently among the
first to bloom where you live?
4. Name five native edible plants and their season(s)
of availability.
5. What were the primary
subsistence techniques of the
culture(s) that lived in your
area before you?
(Items 1-5 adapted from Devall &
Sessions, 1985)
Do you know your Place?
6. What is a major local business and how does it
contribute to your community?
7. What is a major social festival in your community
and how do volunteers contribute to its success?
8. What are the architectural influences in the
buildings in your community?
9. How does your community take care of those
unable to care for themselves?
10. Which families have lived in your community for
generations?
Benefits of Place-based
Education
Environment as an Integrating Context (EIC)
•higher scores on standardized measures of academic
achievement in reading, writing, math, science, and social
studies;
• reduced discipline and classroom management
problems;
• increased student engagement and enthusiasm for
learning; and,
• greater pride and ownership in students'
accomplishments.
(Lieberman, SEER, retrieved from
http://www.seer.org/pages/research.html)
Benefits: Learning is Fun!
Interviewer: So what is fun about [these activities]? I'm
interested, what is it that makes [it] so fun?
Student: When we go outside we
get to like experience the learning,
use our sciences and stuff. But
when we're in the classroom we
have to sit down, be quiet, look at
books that just show pictures and
it's not a primary source.
(transcript 7, p. 12)
Benefits: Student-Teacher
Relationships
Student: It’s not, it’s not just
educational…it’s fun. You get
to know [your teachers].…You
get to know your teacher a
little better because you’re
with him or her the whole day.
(transcript 7, p.39)
Benefits: Student-Teacher
Relationships
Interviewer: So you said a couple things there. Could you
say that again in a different way about teachers and
what you learned they know by going outside?
Student: Yeah. Kids probably think that the teachers just
can't teach anything else [except their subject].
[Teachers] just know what they're designated to
teach so therefore its doesn't matter. You don't
have to respect the English teacher for math. You
don't have to care whether the science teacher is
saying something about the history of [our town].
[They know more than what they teach] They're
just not as dumb as they look!
(transcript 11, p. 1)
Benefits: Academic Achievement
Percentile
Selborne School
School B
Selborne
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Before
Year 5
reading-local
math-local
reading-national
math-national
Before
Year 4
Before
Year 3
Before
Year 2
School Year
Before Selborne
Year 1 Year 1
Benefits: Academic Achievement
Percentile
Selborne
SchoolC
Selborne School
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Before
Year 3
reading
math
Before
Year 2
Before Selborne Selborne Selborne
Year 1 Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
School Year
Challenges to Implementing
Place-based Education
•Nationalized generic curriculum - NCLB
•Textbook adoptions
•State / National Testing
•Either/or Framing
•Institutional Barriers - administrators, financial,
time
•Definitional Barriers - learning, schooling
•Fears - content knowledge, classroom
management, student safety, etc.
Implementation Strategies:
Organization
1. Put an environmental educator in every school.
2. Create broad-based steering committees.
3. Create a community vision and action forum event.
4. Tread lightly until the community knows your work.
5. Nurture continuous improvement through ongoing
professional development.
6. Nurture community exchange.
(adapted from Sobel, 2004)
Implementation Strategies:
Standards
•
Review the Montana Standards for Science
document looking for standards that could be
accomplished through your place-based teaching
•
Review the local School District Scope and
Sequence Documents
•
Design a Curriculum Alignment Document specific
to your school, community and intended placebased teaching
Implementation Strategies:
Students & Parents
Parent:
What did you learn in school today?
Student: Nothing.
Parent:
What do you mean nothing?
Student: Well, we just went outside and had fun.
“Learning” = listening to teacher, reading text,
taking tests, sitting still, being quiet
“Fun” = going outside, moving and being active,
talking with people, sense of freedom,
rolling over a log, wading in the creek
looking under rocks for crayfish, etc.
Implementation Strategies:
Learning how to learn in a new
learning environment
• Students need to be explicitly taught how to
learn in outdoor environments.
• High achieving students need to have
reassurance and explicit directions about the
new learning environment.
• Parents need to have information before
initiating the intended changes.
Implementation Strategies:
Activity Resources
•Project Books: Learning
Tree, Wild, WET, WOW
•Sobel: Mapmaking with
Children
•Leslie: Nature Journaling
•MT Fish Wildlife Parks:
Posters, CD’s, Booklets
•Identification Guides
What others would you
suggest?
Implementation Strategies:
Organization Resources
•Montana Environmental Education Association
•Montana Outdoor Science School
•Teton Science School
•Museum of the Rockies
•Montana Watercourse
•Montana Fish, Wildlife, & Parks
•Yellowstone National Park
What others would you suggest?
Implementation Strategies:
WWW Resources
•Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks
•State and Environment Roundtable
•Yellowstone National Park Etrips
•National Geographic Lesson Plans
•Montana State Science & Natural
History Filmmaking Program
What others would you suggest?
In closing…..
J. William Hug, Ph. D.
http://www.placebasededucation.org