ARC Project 2011 2013

Pedagogy & Place

University of Queensland and Education Queensland

Professor Peter Renshaw & Dr Ron Tooth

Seven participating Centres

Barambah EECPaluma EECPullenvale EECBunyaville EECNudgee Beach EECMoreton Bay EECTallebudgera Beach Outdoor School

Pedagogy of Place MatrixBased on Ballantyne & Packer 5th Pedagogy research, 2008

Experiential ElementsBeing in the Natural EnvironmentLife Learning in Real PlacesFull Sensory, Mind and Body Engagement.Experiencing Local Contexts and PlacesLearning by DoingAdventure and ChallengeLBC Pedagogical ToolsDeep Reflective RespondingAttentivenessInterpreted Walks and JourneysStory and DramaCreative ResponseInvestigation & InquiryGames and Play

(Tooth & Rowntree, 2009)

Initial Research Focus:

Understanding how the Pedagogy of different places drives Learning Beyond the Classroom

Documenting levels and types of student learning arising from these different places

Place a growing area of interest for Outdoor and Environmental Education researchers

Places are pedagogical

People, and others species, live emplaced lives, and an analysis of place reveals the many ways that places are profoundly pedagogical.

That is, as centres of experience, places teach us and shape our identities and relationships.

(Greenwood in Stevenson et al, 2012)

Place as Text where we read the world

Teachers who are place based recognize the educational potential of teaching and learning outside the classroom. For them, community and place become additional texts for student learning.

(Smith, 2012)

Where do the Centres sit two powerful traditions

Ecological Place-based Pedagogy involves learning to live well whats important is that children have an opportunity to bond with the natural world, to love it, before being asked to heal its wounds (Sobel in Gruenwald, 2008, p.10)

Critical Place-conscious Pedagogy involves critiquing the injury in the social and ecological world and then acting to implement socially just and ecologically sustainable ways of being (Gruenwald, 2008, p. 9)

The Research Journey understanding the Pedagogy of Place in individual Centres

Workshops and a great deal of dialogueBegan by naming site specific pedagogical toolsSome didnt have names so centres named themMatched the local to Pedagogy & Place (5th) MatrixStarted to collect, collate and analyze evidenceBegan to write about insights, changes, findingsCentre visits and more dialogueSaw unique pedagogical affordances of each placeA Book proposal emerged

The Book an exciting idea seven centres

Chap 3Belonging to Country at Barambah Chap 4Rapt in rainforest at Paluma Chap 5Story, Place & Agency at PullenvaleChap 6In the Midst at Bunyaville Chap 7Shifting sands at Nudgee Beach Chap 8Crossing Edges at Moreton Bay Chap 9Reading the Waves at Tallebudgera

Just taking students into place is not enough to create authentic learning .

Experiences must be mediated by passionate & skilled teachers using powerful pedagogy .

Identity

Rapt in rainforest at Paluma: Learning in & about sacred places Placed-based pedagogy inspired by the place itself Deep personal connections of teachers with this placeTropical cloud forest setting - trees harvest water from cloudsRapt and Wrapped (immersed) in Rainforest A deeply sensorial experience and aiming to inspire changes of behavioursPaluma superpowers (sensory perception) as a tool for reconnecting students to the natural environmentAs the clouds roll in across the forest canopy students are invited to taste, smell, touch and experience the cloud with their entire body The indigenous Nawaigi may also have practiced dadirri or listening to country

The journey continues

Students reflect on their sensorial experiences to develop and chronicle meaningI like that you can hear the different birds singing their calls. The breeze. Hearing the water. Hearing the birds fluttering their wings. The noise that the trees make because I have never heard a sound like this before.Its a chance to get away from it all and not think Oh no!, my homework is due today!, or What do I make for dinner tonight?There are no words that describe it. It gives me this feeling in my chest. I want to just stand there forever. I didnt expect anything like this - it is so unique.

Fostering mental health through connections with significant placesThis place is special because it makes me truly remember how precious nature is. It has the ability to calm people after a big day.Im the only one here. Theres no one and nothing that can hurt me.Here nothing cares if youre slow, or horrible at maths or any school subjects. It just comforts you in your hard times. It has a peaceful relaxing air about it.

Story, place and agency at Pullenvale StoryThread Real Life Blanket Role

Connected KidSelf, Others & PlaceStudent VoiceAgencyEmbodied Knowledge

Well, I think that even though we think of ourselves as a very small rock or whatever, were actually quite big the ripples will grow bigger after a while (year 7 student) It has really, really helped with language with words like arachnids and myriapods you have to have this experience to write a proper story with scientific talk like a grownup. (year 4 student)

Like Shifting Sands I think more deeply into the question and answer it more deeply and I give a longer answer and a more developed answer than if I just hadnt gone there and I would just answer it randomly.

To learn about nature and how things live in the nature and animals. You have more experience and you can see what is happening instead of imaging it in your head.

PERSONAL GROWTHFUNADVENTURECHALLENGE

Early Findings

Student Engagement with Place

Beauty and awe Attentiveness Knowledge Thinking Reflection Body

Pathways into behaviour change

Surface, Mastery and Appropriation

Surface: represents a level of competence and knowing that is rudimentary, partial and lacking in specificity. Mastery: represents a competent level of knowing or understanding without a sense of commitment or personal transformation. Appropriation: represents a deeper level of understanding and personal meaning making.

Wertch, J. V. (1991).Voices of the Mind. Cambridge: Harvard Uni Press.

What kind of Pedagogical & Learning effects are we seeing?

The Pedagogy of particular Places is the enabler that produces different kinds of learning effects. The data suggests a range of first, second and third order effects. Body (embodied) Knowledge - First order pedagogical effect: development of whole mind body sensory skills through increased ability to see, hear, and touch that deepens and heightens understanding, knowledge & connected thinking through direct experience. (Sensorial Grounded Knowledge - SGK)Wellbeing - Second order pedagogical effect: development of a sense of wellbeing and health feelings of oneness with place, self and others created by silence aloneness absence of other people. (Wellbeing Health Oneness - WHO)Aesthetic - Third order pedagogical effect: development of an explicit awareness of the aesthetic, of beauty, awe and wonder of spiritual and sacred responses and values that create a sense of purpose, meaning and desire to act for change. (Aesthetic Values Sacred - AVS)

Key Finding

In these Centres its the staff and their deep connection to place, their understanding of its pedagogical affordances, and the ability of teachers to inspire students in real places that makes the difference to the quality of learning beyond the classroom.

This is what allows students to engage with the knowledge, values and practices of sustainability in an active, hopeful and optimistic way.

Watch out for the book

References Gruenwald, D. A. and G. A. Smith (2008). Creating a Movement to Ground Learning in Place. Place-Based Education in the Global Age. D. A. Gruenwald and G. A. Smith.Stevenson R, Brody M, et al., Eds. (2012). International Handbook of Research on Environmental Education. New York and London, Routledge.Tooth, R., and Renshaw, P. (2012). Storythread Pedagogy for EnvironmentalEducation. In T. Wrigley, P. Thomson & B. Lingard (Eds.), Changing Schools (pp.113-127): Routledge.

Tooth, R., and Renshaw, P. (2009) Reflections on pedagogy and place: A journey into learning for sustainability through environmental narrative and deep attentive reflection. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 25, 95104.

***********The nesting model of Self-Others-Place provides a frame for our thinking.The core of our pedagogy is the personal experience of being rapt and immersed (wrapped) in rainforest, the sensorial experiences and understandings of place developed by the selfOur approach to placed-based pedagogy grew from the place itself and its high cloud forests - We unashamedly aim to provide deeply sensorial experiences with this timeless, complex and life-sustaining place.The two teachers leading the research into this pedagogical idea have deep personal connections with Wet Tropics rainforests, going back many decades.We dont know how local indigenous peoples, the Nawaigi, viewed the cloud forest, as their culture is now fragmented. Nawaigi paths still exist and we believe that like many indigenous groups, they may have practiced dadirri or listening to country.The idea of Superpowers -seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling at a higher level than mere mortals do is only to inspire students to get the forest.The rolling in of the cloud over the forest canopy is usually a wow moment. This is when we ask our students to taste the cloud, using a sense that we dont often get to use in the natural environment . We recognise that for some students, this can even become a spiritual encounter: heaven touches earth,earth touches heaven: the clouds touch the mountain, we touch the clouds.

*We employ the magic spot experience, a traditional environmental education activity, to develop students sensory awareness, to make a personal connection to the forest and to experience its magic.While curriculum knowledge is woven through our programs (e.g. adaptations like the drip tip leaves; the strand of Palumas history that is a recognition of the wow factor), our initial collation of student reflection data suggests that subject-specific content knowledge is the least important outcome to students, compared to responses detailing their sensory experiences of the rainforest.The sensorial and emotional experience of place 64.13% of responsesThe bird calls, the screeches, cries and wails. Also the colours are really neat. All types of green brown and even red.It has a grab on youits great to get back to nature and smell the fresh air and waking up to trees and more trees and animals.I think that it is a different experience that everyone enjoys and needs to learn about and it is like MAGIC!I like how all the leaders love the environment and how beautiful the place is and how it is Gods creation Paluma extends the idea of maintaining mental health through connections with significant others to include therapeutic connections with significant places. We invite students to connect with the rainforest and nurture their sense of wonder, which in turn (we believe) nurtures personal wellbeing[The rainforest] is special because it brings out the inner spirit in me. It is like an angel so peaceful and calm. This environment makes me feel calm and relaxed. Like I am in a very special dream. Peaceful, happy, anxious.[I feel] relaxed, free, like I can do anything! And excited. Also it makes me feel just joyful. You feel very close to nature and fresh.[it is] special that I get to actually come to this spectacular place and not sit in the classroom at school and work. Here I feel relaxed and Im not stressed about assignments that are due.I have a place of my own to hide and be happy

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