The first climate change conference was held in 1979 in Geneva and sponsored by the World Meteorological Organization. Since then there have been many other initiatives and accords along the way. Each report appears to present an evermore grim picture than the previous one. Cumulatively, we have had more than enough science to know what to do, and…

The study of complexity is an important part of science education. This paper presents a pedagogical option that includes potentially feasible field solutions for complex science teachers. This work aims to examine how fieldwork has appeared in the international literature over the past five years and to explore the algorithms that can be used to…

The first part of this article describes in brief the Six Steps methodology for designing educational environments--be they K-12 schools, tertiary institutions, community centers, youth movements, or the like-- as set forth in my book "Educational Design in Six Steps: A Strategic and Practical Scaffold" (Routledge 2020). The second part…

This theoretical paper aims to contribute to the debate about a perceived activity-environment tension in outdoor education. Tim Ingold's extensive writings on enskilment are used to explore what it means to be skilful in outdoor activities and how this can contribute to dwelling in outdoor places. Four 'threads' of enskilment--taskscape, guided…

Nature place-based learning (NPBL) is one way to sustain people and places at risk of environmental degradation while engaging students in authentic learning experiences, connecting their work to global efforts and inviting students to realize their collective impact. NPBL offers an opportunity for students to apply interdisciplinary literacies…

Simulation is an experiential instructional method that teachers create to imitate or replicate actual events, problems, procedures, or skills to achieve the desired instructional results. Students experience the situation and apply learned skills and knowledge, think critically, and gather meaning from the practice. Simulation as a teaching…

This paper asks, what is the outdoors, and challenges conceptions of the role the outdoors play in education. It critically examines why a better understanding of the outdoors is important to outdoor education, how wilder places are essential to education, and how learning generated from these places can be translated into sustainable thinking and…

The physical classroom remains the one constant space where most schooling takes place and where everyday Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) practices in formal educational settings occur. While educational advocates have championed the need for a change to schooling, pedagogy and various teaching and learning practices, the learning…

The purpose of the present article is to attend to the theoretical and methodological implications of expanding a view of geosemiotic to include a social geography lens. A Geosemiotics<-->social geography approach creates possibilities to more fully attend to the dynamic and dialogic relationship of material, spatial, and social resources as…

This current study explores the function of physical space as a metaphor for freedom and sexual expression in Benito Pérez Galdós's novel Tristana (1892) and Luis Buñuel's loose filmic adaptation (1970). The female walk, a foundational activity in the formative process of the subject, will serve Tristana as a path towards emancipation and freedom,…

This article critically reviews the methodologies and methods that have been used for the evaluation of physical learning environments. To contextualize discussion about the evaluation of learning spaces, we initially chart the development of post-occupancy evaluation (POE) for non-domestic buildings. We then discuss the recent evolution of POE…

This chapter reveals how thoughtful course redesign that specifically addresses the physical environment of a learning space can significantly improve student learning.

This chapter explores a set of principles that underpin ensuring that the learning needs of all students are addressed in next generation learning spaces. With increasingly diverse higher education environments and populations, higher education needs to move from seeing student diversity as problematic and deficit-based, to welcoming, celebrating…

Martin Buber's philosophy of dialogue offers an epistemic and ontological orientation upon which an ecological identity can be established as part of an integrated, environmental education. I consider here the significance of a relational self in establishing this ecological identity, as well as the benefits from doing so. This relational,…

This study was designed to identify predictors of behavioural disorders in children with learning disabilities and children without learning disabilities in the United Arab Emirates public school system. It examined the relative contributions of child characteristic (i.e. presence of learning disability, gender, age), parents' socio-demographics…