{"id":2936,"date":"2018-02-11T08:00:41","date_gmt":"2018-02-11T13:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=2936"},"modified":"2018-02-09T14:46:22","modified_gmt":"2018-02-09T19:46:22","slug":"outdoor-class-advantage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/outdoor-class-advantage\/","title":{"rendered":"Surprise! The Unexpected Outdoor Class Advantage"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"outdoor<\/a><\/p>\n

“Can we have class outside today?”<\/p>\n

If you’re like me, you get this question often. Especially on a beautiful spring day…<\/p>\n

But do your students have a point? Might there be good reasons to move class outside every now and then?<\/p>\n

Outdoor Class Advantage: What We Know<\/h2>\n

We’ve already got research suggesting that your students might be on to something.<\/p>\n

Some researchers suggest<\/a> that classes outside help restore student attention<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Other studies (here<\/a> and here<\/a>) indicated that they might enhance student\u00a0motivation<\/em> as well.<\/p>\n

We’ve even got reason to\u00a0think<\/a> that exposure to green landscape helps students learn. For example: this study<\/a> in Michigan suggests that natural views improve graduation rate and standardized test scores.<\/p>\n

None of the evidence is completely persuasive, but each additional piece makes the argument even stronger.<\/p>\n

Outdoor Class Advantage: Today’s News<\/h2>\n

If I’m a skeptic about outdoor class, I might make the following argument. Outdoor classes might be good for that particular class. However, they might be bad for subsequent<\/span> classes.<\/p>\n

That is: students might be so amped up by their time outside that they can’t focus when they get back indoors.<\/p>\n

To explore this concern, Ming Kuo and colleagues put together an impressive study<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Over ten weeks, two teachers taught several pairs of lessons. Half of the time, the first lesson was taught outside. For the other half, the first lesson was taught inside.<\/p>\n

Researchers then measured students’ attentiveness during the second<\/em> lesson in these pairs.<\/p>\n

The results?<\/p>\n

The Results!<\/h2>\n

Students were more attentive — A LOT more attentive — after outdoor classes than indoor classes.<\/p>\n

In almost 50% of the lessons, attention was a full standard deviation higher after outdoor classes. In 20% of the lessons, it was two standard deviations higher.<\/p>\n

Technically speaking, that difference is HUGE.<\/p>\n

(By the way: the researchers came up with several different ways to measure attention. Outdoor classes led to improved attention in four of the five measures.)<\/p>\n

The Implications<\/h2>\n

This research suggests that teachers needn’t worry about outdoor classes leading to distraction in subsequent classes.<\/p>\n

That finding doesn’t necessarily mean that outdoor classes benefit learning, but it does mean we have fewer potential causes for concern.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

But do your students have a point? Might there be good reasons to move class outside every now and then?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":2952,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[31,15,39],"class_list":["post-2936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog","tag-attention","tag-classroom-advice","tag-elementary-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2936"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3046,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2936\/revisions\/3046"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}