Sustainable Learning with Nature Erasmus Project

Project Title

Sustainable Learning with Nature

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for school education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Environment and climate change; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

NALENA (Nachhaltiges Lernen mit der Natur) – Sustainable learning with nature

Numerous studies, such as the ones from Andreas Raith and Armin Lude (Startkapital Natur- Wie Naturerfahrung die kindlliche Entwicklung fördert, oekom-Verlag, München 2014), verify the importance of nature on the development of children. Nature has positive effects altogether, but particularly on the mental, intellectual, social and physical development as well as the self-competence. In addition, activities in nature promote an increased environmental awareness. Unfortunately, these study results are often not adequately considered in the education system.
The underlying cause for this is, on the one hand, insufficient qualification and knowledge about the practical application and on the other hand, a lack in relevant educational materials for teachers.
The project NALENA addresses these issues and aims for gathering and editing expertise about and experience in education in nature from various countries. Until now, this knowhow is only available for specific topics, such as water or forest.
Nature parks are ideal learning environments in the field of nature due to the extraordinary physiographic composition. These parks provide starting points for ecological, social and economic matters that enable sustainable development. Moreover, a broad knowledge about specific topics such as water, forest or cultural landscapes is available for environmental education purposes.
The main parties in this project are representatives of the education and nature park system. The results will be generated by the project partners through literature and internet research as well as learning teaching activities in various countries. The guiding principle is enhancing sustainability.
The activities will take place indoor and outdoor and will test the concept of NALENA specifically with the topics forest, water and cultural landscapes.
The project partners from the education and nature park system:
2 nature park schools with 33 teachers and 334 students in total, 3 nature parks with 38 staff members, the Regionalmanagement Burgenland as a coordinating nature park organization for the province Burgenland, the 2 umbrella organizations of nature parks from Austria and Germany with 19 employees and 148 members and the teacher training college of Burgenland with 290 students and 169 staff members. The foundation Silviva takes part as an associate partner due to the great knowledge in the field of outdoor education and the fact that Silviva has already developed and published several educational materials. To facilitate an implementation later, the Department of Education Burgenland along with SCRIPT, a department of the Ministry of Education in Luxembourg, additionally participate as associate partners.
All participants possess experience and expertise in individual areas of sustainable learning with nature.
Through learning teaching activities in 3 countries (LUX, DEU, AUT), teachers and nature park representatives will test and analyze the opportunities of sustainable learning with nature with concrete topics, that are forest, water and cultural landscapes.
The participants of these activities work within the two abovementioned systems too: 8 teachers from the 2 partner schools, 16 representatives of nature parks from the field of environmental education, 9 representatives of the 2 umbrella organizations, one representative of the teacher training college and one representative of each associate partner.
The main aim of the project is knowledge exchange in the area of “education in nature” concerning teaching methods and the integration in the educational system. Furthermore, concrete approaches, experiences, barriers and successful types of cooperation will be assembled for NALENA.
With this knowledge, key competencies of teachers will be enhanced for education in nature and the quality of instruction will be improved. The cooperation of the education and nature park systems will also strengthen the profile of teachers.
The main results of NALENA: a collection of the success factors and barriers for sustainable learning with nature, a collection of good-practice examples, a compilation of requirements for a successful cooperation of nature parks and educational facilities and a list of available educational materials that are suitable for outdoor education. These findings will be published on the website of the Association of Austrian Nature Parks.
The diverse partner structure facilitates the examination of NALENA from various angles and in that way creates the long-term value of receiving a profound overview of the success factors. Not only will the partners be able to implement the concept in different facilities (schools, nature parks, training institutions), but the collection of success factors and practical advices further enables the transferability of the concept to other countries.

Project Website

http://www.naturparke.at/ueber-uns/internationale-aktivitaeten/nalena/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 142353 Eur

Project Coordinator

Verband der Naturparke Österreichs & Country: AT

Project Partners

• STIFTUNG PRIVATE PÄDAGOGISCHE HOCHSCHULE BURGENLAND
• Syndicat pour l’Aménagement et la Gestion du Parc naturel de l’Our
• Josef Reichl Naturparkschule St.Martin/Raab
• Syndicat pour l’aménagement et la gestion du Parc naturel de la Haute-Sûre
• Königsegg Grundschule
• Naturpark Nagelfluhkette e.V
• REGIONALMANAGEMENT BURGENLAND GMBH