Learning in nature activates a series of mechanisms in children that allow for more complete brain development and will help them in their future learning.
In this post, we explain the general benefits of learning in nature. Learning begins the moment a person is born. Learning is a natural and instinctive process that helps us sustain life. It is essential for both the individual and the species to survive. Learning is the oldest need in the world! It's as fundamental as eating, drinking, or connecting with others.
Learning already existed in single-celled organisms at least 3 billion years ago. Learning involves a process that has become more complex with evolution.
A snail, for example, possesses a neural system that allows it to learn to distinguish between good (a piece of food) and bad (a toxic substance) in its environment. This mechanism is responsible for its adaptation to the environment and its survival.
Some birds have learned to feign lameness to attract predators, diverting their attention from their chicks and thus saving their offspring.
Anyone who has a dog knows that as soon as you pick up its food bowl, it starts jumping for joy and loves you more than ever, or that it perfectly recognizes the commands to go outside or your tone of voice to play.
All living beings begin to learn from nature, from their environment, spontaneously. A child, simply by virtue of their curiosity, is constantly learning. Children are like sponges, absorbing all kinds of information from the outside world and processing it much faster than an adult. That's why a child's developmental environment is so important in their early years. It will shape the rest of their learning, their personality, their abilities, and ultimately, their life.
The newborn foal tries to stand in just a few minutes, learning from the world around it. Direct contact with the physical world is essential for learning to occur. Learning happens by learning: once standing, any foal learns not to run through the meadow, exposed to predators, and to stay close to its mother who protects it. That is learning, and it is the process we all follow to learn how to live.
Children should also learn about the world directly from nature, by spending more time outside the classroom, as has been shown in studies conducted in recent years., as in this work carried out by professors from the University of Jaén. It is proven that discovery learning is meaningful learning. That is, those who have asked questions, made mistakes, rediscovered information, formulated hypotheses, and ultimately have a learning experience ingrained in their being that they will not forget, truly learn.
Haven't we all had the experience of the teacher who comes into the classroom, gives an impressive lecture, and you don't understand a thing?
Do you remember what topic that teacher was talking about?
And on the other hand…
Do you have any significant learning experiences that you've never forgotten? For example, what places did you travel to as a child? Can you locate them on a map? And when you had to memorize maps on paper in geography class, do you remember? This is what we mean by learning in nature.
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A child should only be taught what a flower is in the countryside, observing it within the context of other flowers, branches, leaves, insects, and so on. They should be able to touch, see, and smell it. All of a child's sensorimotor learning should take place in real-world, direct experiences, rather than relying on photographs, videos, or books. In this way, they will naturally remember it and, moreover, build a solid foundation of sensory experience upon which to later develop ideas and reasoning skills.
To all this we must add emotions. Everything in the world, if it is new, different, and stands out from the monotony, is likely to awaken curiosity, one of the basic ingredients of emotion. Curiosity is the key that allows us to capture attention, and with it, the neural mechanisms for learning and memorization are set in motion.
No one can learn anything unless it motivates them, speaks to them, or has some emotional significance. Motivation leads to attention.
Neuroscience is beginning to understand the components of these processes: emotion, curiosity, attention, perception, consciousness, learning, and memory. This is why we are evolving in these areas, and why teaching is increasingly grounded in real-world contexts.
REMEMBER: A motivated child is a happy child!
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