Assessing outside classroom learning

This week, one of my teacher’s reflections was on “learning taking place in and outside the classroom”. She mentioned that such learning outside the classroom had benefited all students in developing them into better individuals through learning of soft skills – something which they hardly be able learn in the classroom. She then asserted the need for her as a teacher to help her students cultivate such skills and led them to be at their best in and outside the classroom. Her reflection brought me to a discussion held on such outside classroom learning – our Outdoor Learning Experience and I will attempt to provide my two cents worth to speak on the need to assess such outside classroom learning.

Let me start with my own question on assessing learning “How do we know students are learning?” The answers to this question may be through observation by teachers or test scores from tests. Through such means, teachers know that our students are “proficient” in meeting the academic outcome. But will we get the same response if this question is posed to say “our Outdoor Learning Experience”? In this case, there may be a need to add an additional part to the original question for such outside classroom learning program, “What is the evidence of student learning?”

Looking back at my own experience in our yearly Outdoor Learning Experiences, I see outdoor learning, as programs that will directly or indirectly resulting in changes in thinking, feeling or behavior. And, indeed our school program does look at 3 areas, namely providing the outside of classroom experience, building of teacher - student relationship and enabling students’ social development (team building). During such outdoor learning, you got only to watch any one group of students, particularly the normal technical stream students, along the way of the outdoor learning to recognize if the learning is seen as something to enjoy and learn or to just do and get over with. Talk to any group of students trying to decide which activities to keep, improve, start or stop and it very quickly becomes apparent. In my reflection, I concluded that there was the need for such outdoor learning to value adds to our students, complementing their classroom learning, for example in terms of adding to the general knowledge, changing behaviors, views and thought of issues, instead of just going through the process and completing it.

Learning is not easy to assess, especially for the soft skills. I also agreed that not all learning take place in neat and ordered way as in our classroom test. But I see our Outdoor Learning Experience as a rich program that had enhanced the learning culture of our school. Based on last year’s observation, the program has enabled our students the opportunity to experience and discover, which essentially means “doing” something in our case, focusing on working with others, making mistakes and having fun rather than being told the fact by teachers. However, a possible area of improvement about such learning may be in the reviewing of the experience. What I believe is important is the need for feedback, not feedback on the programs by the students but our feedback to the students of their learning experience. Even though our students had learnt through the various processes, they need to know how “well” they are doing in terms of the various objectives of the process and to have access to support when they need it.

My belief is that our students, like in the academic learning need feedback. Students need to have sufficient time to reflect (they now know what they need) and through the teacher’s feedback, to continue on even after our Outdoor Learning Experience program, say to have specific coaching to help them develop what they know they need to know like what my teacher had mentioned “…to cultivate such skills and led them to be at their best in and outside the classroom”. There needs to be a purpose to all learning and that should not “end” at the end of the program. Without which, frustration may arises especially when it is perceived as trivia or irrelevant.