Where do we go from here?
So here we are, at the end of all this education and environment talk. But, what does this all conclusively mean?
Green is good.
Wait, no, I already used that one. How about this one instead:
“Critical thinking skills and disposition toward critical thinking are alternative indicators of achievement, providing information on students' abilities as future learners and problem solvers” (Ernst, 2004).
Traditional instructional programs, including a lot of environmental science
courses, tend to lack problem-based strategies at approaching instruction. They also tend to be teacher based instead of student based and/or do not actually use external environments to institute place-based learning.
These studies, many of which are now more than ten years old, speak to some of the benefits of school gardens, but are by no means conclusive. Designers and scholars always will benefit from frank discussion of these and other works to better understand what is and is not supported in the literature as they work to optimize installations and develop new research.
So, what can we do? We people reading this casually, cheeky blog – how can we make a change?
If you are a parent, you can be more involved and aware of the educational programs being funded by your school and generate advocacy groups based on if these programs support real ‘success’ in your students.
If you are an educational employee, you can work on altering your own curriculum or proposing a school-wide change towards instructional methods with wider approaches.
If you are a researcher, you can perform studies relative to the frameworks presented in these case studies and continue to provide us with more knowledge on how these implementations are working.
If you are a chef, you can teach me how to stop my pork loin from over cooking.
And, if you are a student, you can get out and explore. Stay creative. Stay active. Stay curious. Broaden your horizons and entertain the thought of solving a problem in a manner which other people haven’t.
Let’s challenge what we think success really is and focus on the bigger picture. Green IS good, and we know that, so we should keep pushing the limits on how good green can be.
Ernst, Julie Athman, and Martha Monroe. “The Effects of Environment‐Based Education on Students' Critical Thinking Skills and Disposition toward Critical Thinking.” Environmental Education Research, vol. 10, no. 4, 2004, pp. 507–522.