Field Practice

Social and Emotional Learning in Field Practice

We define “Field Practice” as what happens during the field day when instructors are working with students. This section of the toolkit focuses on characteristics of the learning environment, including pedagogical practices and specific activities and lessons that support student social and emotional learning (SEL).

Social and emotional skills are both taught and caught (Blyth, 2018). In an optimal learning environment, educators explicitly teach specific skills, they provide opportunities for youth to practice and reflect on those skills, and they model social and emotional competencies.

Effective approaches to SEL often incorporate four elements that fit tidily into the acronym SAFE: They are sequenced (learning experiences progress throughout the program and build on one another, active (youth have opportunities to practice skills in hands-on ways, supported by reflection and feedback), focused (parts of the learning experience are designed to emphasize social and emotional skills), and explicit (they target specific social and emotional skills) (Durlak et al. 2010).

Tools

Strategies for Supporting Students’ Social and Emotional Learning: This document from NatureBridge presents strategies that field instructors can employ in their work with students to support SEL.

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Reflection Tool: Click here to be guided through an internal assessment of how your RELC is designed to support SEL during the field day.

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BEETLES SEL Concept Paper:  This SEL Concept Paper from BEETLES expands on some of the concepts presented in this section of the Toolkit, focusing on how student- and nature-centered teaching approaches in outdoor science and environmental education programs can consistently integrate opportunities for the development of SEL competencies.

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Sequential Instruction and Depth

Learning at Residential Environmental Learning Centers (RELCs) is designed to follow an intentional sequence, and RELCs promote deep experiences that are afforded by spending extended time on learning activities.

Sequence

SEQUENCE:

RELC programs design intentional progressions for students to build skills throughout the week. Early in the experience, instructors place significant emphasis on building positive and inclusive learning environments, and for the students to get to know each other in a safe, low-risk environment. After this early group formation process, instructors may progress to more complex group endeavors while supporting the group through possible conflict and failure. Ideally, the group finds success and/or can effectively learn from their failures. Toward the end of the experience, instructors will lead students to focus on reflection, gratitude, and bringing their learning home. Through this carefully sequenced learning progression, the foundations for SEL are built early on and students have opportunities to learn and practice social and emotional skills with a focus on growth and transference to their home environment.

Depth

DEPTH:

In RELCs, students have the benefit of extended contact time with their learning group and field instructor. It is common for students to spend at least six hours a day learning in the outdoors, in addition to evening programs. This extended contact time leads to deeper relationships with peers, field instructors, and teachers. It also allows students to dive deep into subjects they find fascinating. Similar to block teaching, students can sustain their interest and learning to arrive at a more nuanced understanding of concepts. Because of extended contact time in an outdoor setting, students often claim that they saw their classmates and teachers in a different light. Students grapple with their ideas as they engage with real life experiences. With the endless questions that arise in nature, students become part of a learning community that supports social awareness and relationship-building. Whether navigating a ropes course or science inquiry, field groups learn to work together, listen to others’ ideas, and contribute to group success.

This, together with what we know about how youth learn and what supports their development, points to three essential elements of a learning environment:

  1. Students have equitable access to learning environments that are physically and emotionally safe, and that feature meaningful relationships among and between adults and students. 
  2. Students are intentionally taught social and emotional skills.
  3. Students are asked to practice these skills as they learn academic content and during interactions with peers and adults. (National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development, 2019)

The three sections below elaborate on what these essential elements look like in a RELC setting.

Click on each to view key practices that field instructors can employ when working with students, and that program leaders and designers can put into place to intentionally support students’ social and emotional learning and development, along with examples from the field, additional resources, and research citations.
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Learning
Environment

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Targeted
Instruction

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Embedded
Opportunities

Click here to see the materials referenced in this section.