Learning beyond classrooms for environmental stewardship

It was psychiatrist William Glasser who once said, “We learn 10 per cent of what we read, 20 per cent of what we hear, 30 per cent of what we see, 50 per cent of what we see and hear, 70 per cent of what we discuss, 80 per cent of what we experience, and 95 per cent of what we teach others.”

This statistic clearly indicates the importance of live experiences and discussions in our learning processes. This statistic also points out to the fact that teaching is a form of learning as well! And this is what was experienced by a group of high school students and their teachers from the UAE who had this rare opportunity to go on an industrial visit to a local cement factory.

A cement factory normally does not make the case for an exciting field trip. But for this group the experience was an eye-opener. Although they were taken through the complete process of cement production, at no point were they bombarded with heavy manufacturing concepts, or given lectures on the company’s environmental stewardship, or were they talked into switching to pro-environmental attitudes.

Inspired and knowledgeable

Instead they came back inspired and knowledgeable of what a business is all about, its relation and dependence on the environment, and what it takes to make a business house sustainable and successful with minimum environmental impacts.

Real-time experiences serve as live classrooms for teachers and students alike, giving both ample opportunities to make the teaching-learning process more realistic, meaningful and enriching. Teachers learn to bring about connections between different subjects for a particular concept, and make learning more of a natural process of realisation as compared to the theoretical sermons in a holed-up classroom. They are able to translate abstract concepts from books into concrete objects or situations. In the above example, both students and teachers were better able to visualise a furnace running at temperatures above 1,000 degrees centigrade, they were able to figure out why coal (despite being a fossil fuel) is still a more preferred source of concentrated energy as compared to other alternatives in the cement industry; they related better to the importance and use of sophisticated laboratory equipment, and were exposed to the innovative ways that could be employed to maintain a pro-environmental approach to production processes, to the extent possible.

Additionally, natural settings like protected areas, or parks, or mountains can be been used both as a classroom and a resource by educators. Student-teacher interactions in these natural settings help gather greater relevance for the varied components in the surroundings, and learners are better able to grasp the complex linkages that define the existence of these systems. Teachers find it easier to get longer attention span from students, and they (students) in turn are happy to be away from classrooms and participate in activities that take them through their learning journey. Teachers have also pointed out that students become more sensitive to environmental issues when they have actually seen live the impacts of poor environmental behaviour and are ready to assume responsibility to provide solutions and become environmental stewards. But besides the knowledge, awareness and sensitivity, activities involving data analysis, reflections, group discussions, appreciating contrasting views and role play, all of which are also a part of the learning out-of-the-box process, helps impart a number of life skills, which become very vital when students go out into this globalised world.

However, treading this path of teaching-learning process means that teachers must be empowered with competencies and capabilities to guide students to develop critical thinking abilities. Only then will they be able encourage them (students) to identify the existing connections between the living and non-living systems, and initiate thinking on the role of human beings in preserving these linkages, and in turn, our planet. Educational institutions must ensure their teachers are empowered with these important skills. If adopting sustainability needs to get into our system organically, educational institutions must be a breeding house of our intrinsic basic values. Teachers must continue to provide the right environment for students to imbibe ethical and moral values, something that are more subtle than our attitudes and behaviours.

Ajita Nayar is an environmentalist specialised in Education for Sustainable Development.