The Adaptation of Forest Pedagogy in Classroom Activities as an Example of Experiential Education

Seminar paper from the year 2020 in the subject Didactics for the subject English - Miscellaneous, grade: 1,0, Technical University of Braunschweig, language: English, abstract: A few years ago it was still a normal thing for children to spend their afternoons playing outside after school and doing their homework. Today, the situation is different in many families; children spend more and more time in front of screens, playing computer games or watching movies on tablets or smartphones. This is often at the expense of activity in nature. In addition, children from urban areas generally have limited access to natural areas. However, especially in our achievement-oriented society, in which children are expected to perform to a high standard, it is all the more essential that time and space are left for activities in the fresh air. Exercise like these helps them to recover and process what they have learned more easily. Many children spend little or no time in the forest in their free time. This means that they cannot distinguish local trees, cannot recognize animal tracks or correctly assign fruits and trees. In order to offer opportunities to exactly these children, who are not able to gather sensory experiences in nature and especially in the forest in their free time, it makes sense to integrate forest-pedagogical concepts into classroom activities. The learning opportunities are particularly varied; in addition to pure factual knowledge, children can learn a lot about themselves and develop their creativity in nature. The psychological and physical development of the Children is also positively influenced by the time they spend in nature. With this in mind, this work will show to what extent forest pedagogy and especially a selection of forest pedagogical concepts can be integrated into everyday school life. In order to explain this topic in depth, the second chapter following the introduction defines the term experiential education and afterwards forest pedagogy and briefly describes the historical development in each case. Then the basic needs of children are considered and it is shown how forest education can satisfy these needs. The fourth and at the same time last main chapter deals with different concepts and examples of how forest education can be taken into account in everyday school life. The selection here is limited to 'nature discovery trails' and 'forest classrooms'.