In every class, there are children who stare out of the window while you are teaching. What if you followed their gaze outside, gained insight into what matters to them, and based your teaching on the questions children ask themselves about the earth? You would bring learning to life. You would connect learning to the purpose of education. You would help children develop into adults who feel at home on the earth and want to take responsibility for it. Who wouldn’t want that: giving children good opportunities for development and caring for the earth!

It is high time to see the earth as your classroom and start teaching outdoors. In the Outdoor Education Minor: The earth is your classroom, you will learn how!

What will you do?

  • You will be sent on adventures so that your eye and heart for the earth grow, your knowledge is enriched, and you become skilled and comfortable outdoors.
  • You will do an internship at a nature site (with children).
  • You will do an internship at a school where education is provided outdoors.
  • You will complete a final project at a school with a need for change in the area of outdoor education.

Learning through wandering is the approach

You learn differently outdoors than indoors. You are allowed to wander. The learning path is more open: exploratory, investigative and experiential. There is room to discover things for yourself. In the minor, we familiarise you with this form of learning.

OLLA – The Outdoor Living & Learning Academy

The minor is taught, among others, by two educationalists (Marieke van Ierschot and Janneke Hagenaar) and two biologists (Mart Ottenheim and Marian Joven), all four of whom are OLLA lecturers and researchers at the Nature & Child Development research group.

Learning objectives

If you choose the Outdoor Education Minor: The earth is your classroom, you will work towards two qualifications:

Competent outdoors

  • You feel comfortable in nature. You know what it offers you and what can be found there.
  • You are competent in practical earth-based skills, such as making fire, finding your way, recognising edible plants, working with wood and bringing more nature to the schoolyard.
  • You are a competent observer.
  • You have basic knowledge of nature and can apply this in the education you provide.
  • You have basic knowledge of the reciprocal relationships between people and nature and can apply this in the education you provide.

Competent in Outdoor Education

  • You feel comfortable using the earth as a classroom. You know what it offers children, what you want to teach them and how to do this.
  • You have basic knowledge of the importance of nature for children’s health, well-being and development, and can apply this in the education you provide.
  • You have basic knowledge of the importance of children’s contact with nature for the earth and can apply this in the education you provide.
  • You are skilled in using the earth as a classroom, can explain its educational value, and know how to explain this to colleagues and parents.

The Outdoor Education Minor: The earth is your classroom is open to students training to become primary school teachers and students in second-degree teacher training programmes who have completed their first-year requirements and successfully completed the teaching internships for at least two academic years.