Lecturers teach outdoors on Wageningen campus

The outdoor education marathon on 7 April is organized by the WUR Living Lab Nature-inclusive education in collaboration with Facilities & Services WUR, and is supported by eNaBlS (WUR), st. NatuurCollege en ReGeNL. The program starts at 12.30 pm with a festive opening of the outdoor classrooms, with Dick de Ridder, Dean of Education. During the day, there are outdoor classes all day at 3 different locations on campus.

Outdoor education offers many benefits

'Although the weather in the Netherlands is sometimes changeable, outdoor education offers many advantages. Teaching outdoors can stimulate curiosity, reduce stress and can foster more open and reflexive dialogue among students and teachers,' says Louise van der Stok of Education and Learning Sciences (SSG), one of the initiators at WUR.
'By offering more direct experiences with nature, students can also develop a stronger bond and connectedness with the living world. This helps them to reflect on human-nature relationships in their field of study.' 
The WUR teachers that participate have learned many of their methods in a new course called Onboarding in Nature-Inclusive Education. This course was set up by the WUR Teaching and Learning Centre in collaboration with the NatuurCollege foundation. The course does not only train teachers to take their classes outdoors, but also to facilitate deeper learning through reflection on personal/professional values and human-nature relationships.

Three permanent outdoor teaching locations selected

Several years ago, a group of enthusiastic WUR lecturers approached the Facilities Services with the question of whether an outdoor teaching space could be created. This led to an ACT student group (Academic Consultancy Training), which investigated the wishes, needs and motivation for outdoor education at WUR. Their research showed there was considerable enthusiasm.
In collaboration with WUR’s Facilities Services and other stakeholders, including ecologists, suitable locations on campus were identified and prepared. Safety for both participants and nature was, of course, taken into account. This resulted in three outdoor learning spaces. Teaching will take place at these locations on 7 April. After 7 April, lecturers can reserve these locations through the usual scheduling process with WUR’s timetabling team.
In addition to the new outdoor learning spaces and lecturer training, an increasing number of courses at Wageningen University & Research are making use of outdoor learning and relational learning. An overview of all training courses, scheduling and supporting materials can be found in the article on Nature inclusive education.

Wageningen University & Research is therefore one of the first universities in the Netherlands to provide such an extensive infrastructure for outdoor learning.