Place-Based Learning
Place-based learning is a pedagogical approach that uses places and their resources as a foundation for learning across disciplines. Place-based resources may be cultural, historic, or geophysical. This type of learning takes our students out of the classroom and into the community. ile@p works with faculty to find locations in our city that allow students to experience the power of place: those moments when they are immersed deeply in experiencing the world around them. We also assist teachers in finding place-based thinking routines, activities, and projects that prioritize engagement and authenticity.
Examples of Place Based Learning @ Paideia:
Visiting CHARM to study recycling
Visiting Paideia's farm to harvest fruits and vegetables
Testing Atlanta water quality in the Gulch
Learning from refugees about the refugee experience while eating at Kathmandu Kitchen and touring the International Rescue Committee.
Studying sustainability by building a garden for senior citizens in the Edgewood Court Apartments
Assisting in a Belize health clinic.
Five Levels of Place-Based Learning*
In the K-12 sector during the school day, we see a continuum that describes the increasing level of time and commitment on the part of the teachers and learners. The following five levels to help guide and characterize the implementation. While they are described as a continuum, they blend and integrate based on curriculum needs.
Level 1: Classroom Visitor
As a teacher begins to consider how to pivot curriculum and instruction into a place-based approach, the easiest access point is to invite a community member into the classroom. For example, a teacher might ask a local politician to talk about the democratic process. Crellin Elementary School has set up a community partner system to achieve this level of place-based implementation.
Level 2: Field Trip and Service Learning
Along with bringing visitors into the classroom, schools and teachers have implemented field trips and service learning programs for as long as schools have existed. Well-implemented, they can increase student engagement and curricular context. Poorly-implemented, and students will remember the long school bus ride and fooling around outside the classroom.
The keys are planning, integration, safety and follow-up. Given the ubiquity of the concept, great articles exist to guide teachers into the completion of a successful field trip, and successful partner programs such as the National Park Service’s Every Kid in the Parks program can provide staff and resources to support great outcomes.
Level 3: Context Curriculum
Despite the constraints of budget and transportation, teachers can still conduct local inquiries into questions that are relevant to the community while not leaving the classroom. This might include writing a local newspaper, creating virtual tours or completing a geo-referenced community history project.
Level 4: Impact Investigation
Once students are ready to leave the classroom beyond the structured field trip, the level of student agency can increase. Students and/or teachers can lead an inquiry into a local topic to practice research and contribute to the local base of knowledge. For example, students participate in a study of the local stream to understand the quality of the water as part of a national Stream Team program. Beyond the inquiry, students can explore the design thinking process by identifying and creating solutions to local challenges.
Level 5: Inside-Out School
The final implementation level is where the community becomes the school. A school might transform an entire curriculum where the learning outcomes are the same but they are accomplished by the students doing real work to make the community better (as in this student-run business in Casper, NE).
In the younger years, the advent of nature-based PK-5 programs shows how the environment itself can be the school. Entire programs exist that use local places as the foundational context for learning. Excellent examples include Maine Coast Semester, City-as-School and School without Walls. With the advent of next-gen tools, competency-based approaches and project-based learning, the inside-out school model is now a reality and the ultimate manifestation of place-based education.
*excerpt from gettingsmart.com