By Janet Ready, Faculty, Recreation Studies Dept.
“Learning is not something done to students, but rather something students themselves do. It is the direct result of how students interpret and respond to their experiences – conscious and unconscious, past and present.” (Ambrose et al 3)
This fall I am teaching “Connecting to Nature” a second year elective Special Topics course (RECR 2295). Full disclosure – this is an area I am passionate about in Recreation. I think there is a lot of potential here for community recreation to get involved in providing opportunities for people to connect with nature….so needless to say I am really excited about this course….
RECR 2295 is an on-line course, and in designing it I followed Palmer’s model of a “subject centered classroom” where I create an environment and opportunities for us as a class to gather around the subject of Connecting to Nature and learn more together. “Passion for the subject propels that subject, not the teacher, into the center of the learning circle – and when a great thing is in their midst, students have direct access to the energy of learning and of life.” (Palmer 122)
For one of the elements of this course, students need to spend an hour in nature each week and share their experiences with the class through Discussion Posts. People connect to nature in different ways, and by examining and sharing the ways each of us connect to nature – as a class we can learn more together….and bring that learning forward into our work in recreation.
We are currently in week 7….and I have realized… that learning is not something done to students, but rather something students themselves do. And when they step up – like many have in the RECR 2295 course – some very powerful learning can happen for all of us.
Work Cited
Ambrose, Susan et al. How Learning Works. 2010. John Wiley & Sons Inc. San Francisco. CA.
Parker Palmer. The Courage to Teach. Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher’s Life. 2007. John Wiley and Sons.
