‘Affective’
(Adjective) Relating to moods, feelings, and attitudes. English Oxford Living Dictionaries

You might reasonably accuse me of banging on a bit about the need for affective experiences in and through the outdoors.  It’s not only me getting excited about the role of outdoor learning experiences that involve significant feeling or emotion.  Natural England’s Strategic Research Group are also clear that environmentally sustainable behaviour and healthy lifestyles are a product of affective experiences in nature.  The concept of Nature Connectedness, so clearly spelt out in DEFRA’s recently published 25 year environment plan, is based on affective experiences leading to personal relevance and care for the natural environment.

So what are we doing about it?  Well quite a few things actually and I’m keen that we all consider the role we play in ensuring that the role of outdoor learning is well understood and valued.

The recently published report by the Department for Education into Character Education (August 2017) could be viewed as an exercise in re-branding but I think there is more to take from it than that.  The reference to character traits in the report such as resilience, self-esteem and confidence, communication skills, self-regulation, perseverance and motivation, respect, tolerance and empathy, may lead an outdoor learning professional to think that they might be at the heart of a school’s approach to delivering Character Education.  Think again!  The survey of schools behind the report makes little to no reference to outdoor learning.