This digest contrasts the traditional view of learning characteristic of classroom instruction with the emerging "constructivist" view that emphasizes the understanding of how and why students learn. The latter takes learning as a knowledge construction process that closely relates to prior knowledge and the learning context. It lends itself to outdoor education in helping students develop the skills and dispositions of thinking. Cognitive and social psychology research findings support the practice of outdoor education. Outdoor educators are uniquely qualified to apply these findings to their practice, as outdoor education provides a meaningful context in which students are directly involved in knowledge construction. Outdoor educators should review and sample the many programs available to teach thinking skills in order to discover appropriate theoretical bases for their students, the settings in which they teach, and for their own teaching styles. If the emerging literature on thinking is correct about learning, teachers will eventually use what they learn to construct their own instructional models and routines. Sample applications to outdoor inquiry include meeting experts on the job, thinking aloud together, forming concepts from experience, examining natural and cultural objects, using outdoor social groups, and generating interesting questions. (LP)