Fostering Student Achievement and Sustainable Communities Through Place-based Learning.

Martin, J. (2001). Learning to Teach Students in the Community and Environment. Clearing, 110 (Fall): 10-13.

Jim Martin is a former faculty member of the Portland State University Center for Science Education and past president of the Environmental Education Association of Oregon.

This article is concerned with the challenges teachers face when beginning to explore “community based / environment based learning (CEBL)” or place-based education. The author, who has spent 30 years working with teachers, begins with a list of issues and observations regarding teachers’ initial experiences with CEBL. This initial experience can be divided into four “developmental phases” and when these phases are looked at sequentially they represent a learning curve typical to when a person learns something new. The phases are: logistics, exploitation, conceptual, and pedagogical. The author describes each phase and explains how non-formal educators seeking to encourage the use of CEBL can be most effective when they understand these phases and the experience of teachers. This article gives practical advice on how to deal with the difficulties teachers face implementing place-based education.