My PGDE Outdoor Ed Elective’s reading this week was a 2005 paper by Molly Baker on Landfullness… it was one of those concepts that really ‘gelled’. The basic tenet of the her paper is that all too often outdoor activities do not actualy engage, or connect, students with the landscape that they are in. Landfullness provides a framework, a useful checklist, that can be used by teachers/instructors when undertaking activities in the field to help avoid ‘landlessness’.
The 4 principles of Landfullness help ensure that students try ….
- To become (deeply) aware of their place in the landscape, on the map.
- To understand what has happened to shape this place – environmentally, culturaly, historicaly.
- To become aware of what happens in this place now – who uses it, what it’s habitat, etc.
- To connect with the place once you go home.
The above outcomes can be acheived through a variety of teaching methods active, discussion and direct. Emphahis I feel is for lots of scope for imaginative games and roleplay. What I really like about this ‘framework’ is that it summarises for me the things I can do to provide a rich outdoor/experiential learning experience as distinct from teaching which ‘just happens to be in the outdoors’. Anyway it is certainly something I intend to try and build into my practice of both Geography field-trips and outdoor education.
