What is Experiential Inquiry-Based Learning?
- A process that engages students in direct and active interactions with objects or phenomena in the immediate environment, usually through the use of one or more senses (observing, feeling, hearing, smelling, tasting, and intuition)
- Moves away from textbooks as the central or sole repository of knowledge
- Involves a continuous exchange between students’ immediate experiences and their personal reflections in order to reassess previously held beliefs and influence future experiences and beliefs
- Seeks to transform experience into newly-formed knowledge
Benefits of Outdoor Experiential Inquiry-Based Learning:
- Children’s daily exposure to natural settings improves their capacity to focus, and enhances cognitive ability
- Daily outdoor activity, regardless of weather, increases motor coordination and concentration
- Increases student enthusiasm and engagement in learning
(Retrieved from Natural Curiosity: A Resource for Teachers, 2011)
“The outdoors offers students a range of opportunities to use all of their senses, to learn through doing, as they explore the world around them.” ~The Ontario Ministry of Education policy framework, Acting Today, Shaping Tomorrow, 2009
Unparalleled accuracy, unequivocal clarity, and undeniable importance!