In Canada, outdoor school is increasingly in demand by students and teachers

This alternative pedagogy now has a research chair at the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec, a world first.

Crouching in the grass or under the pines, Rosabelle, Félix and their friends from CE2 and CM1 at Le Baluchon elementary school in Laval, Quebec, are actively searching with a list of things to spot: a two-centimeter branch, a one-decimeter pine cone and a four-leaf clover. “I was this close to finding a four-leaf clover… But no, Rosabelle comments. I love nature.”

Annie Kant goes out with her students for at least an hour a day to revise or cover concepts in mathematics, science or French. “I start inside and then we finish the lesson outside, she explains. It is important to clearly define our rules of life because we are not going to play a ball game, we are not going to play in the park, we are really going to have a class, but by removing the walls.”

More engaged, more motivated students, who help each other more and who are more comfortable with their teachers: the benefits of outdoor teaching are numerous. Amélie Poitras La Rivière trains and supports elementary schools and middle schools in the city of Laval, to create a flexible classroom environment, even in winter: “We are in an urban area, even though there is a forest a five-minute walk from the school. But when winter clears the city of snow, there will be a mound of snow in front of the access to this forest. So we wonder what to do, she said. These are very burdensome steps for teachers and can cause them to stop teaching outdoors. So we have developed a whole community to help them.”

As a sign of its success, a research chair on outdoor education has just been created at the University of Sherbrooke, a world first, at the initiative of Jean-Philippe Ayotte Beaudet. For him, one of the challenges is continuity up to middle and high school. “In physical education, for example, we go outside to learn how to tie a hammock, he describes. In French, we do an oral presentation, we will focus more on expression, vocabulary. When people work with each other across disciplines, it is definitely a more favorable context.”

Researchers also see the effects of outdoor learning on teachers, in terms of mental health and well-being.