Private Schools in America

Private Schools in America

American School's crafting the Relationship between Learning and Cognition

The process of learning takes place when an individual goes through different stages of cognition. Individuals change their behavior when they go through a number of cognitive processes. Some of the cognitive processes involve problem solving, remembering, memorizing, and others. For example, When human beings confront any kind of problem, the first cognitive process that takes place is problem solving. After solving a problem, individuals remember and memorize the experience. This experience helps them in the future to solve similar problems (Lubienski & Lubienski, 2006).

Classic and operant conditioning explain most of human learning process. The learning process that takes place in human beings involves cognitive as well as mental dimensions. Cognitive learning is defined as the process that involves understanding and anticipating higher mental processes. Many education institutions are embracing sustainability in their facilities and curriculum as they look for innovative ways to use resources more efficiently and help students learn. At the same time, health professionals have been sounding the alarm about the growing problem of obesity among young people who are likely to spend more time sitting inside glued to a screen than they do participating in activities outdoors.

Those factors are among the reasons that schools are being encouraged to get their students out of classrooms and into the great outdoors to provide young people with more first-hand opportunities to experience and appreciate nature.

Cultivating Sedentary Habits in Private Schools

According to the outdoor learning reports and studies, the unstructured outdoor activity among young people is down by half compared with the previous generation. Children in the United States average 30 minutes a week of unregulated time outdoors, while their exposure to electronic media is almost 45 hours a week. The number of outdoor environmental education programs offered in schools has been decreasing in the last decade.

The America's Great Outdoors Initiative report notes that young people spend most of their time at school or in formal afterschool activities; "less and less of it is spent outdoors," the report says. It also says that too few schools have incorporated environmental education into their curriculums. For many students, "the only nature you see during the school day is in the images of your textbooks or the window of your school bus," the report says.

The report recommended that schools expand outdoor education programs so that students have more opportunities for "hands-on, place-based learning experiences." It also urged schools to give students more chances to go outside during the school day "through curriculum-based activities, service-learning projects, and outdoor recess and P.E."

Different Learning Processes in American Private Schools

The type of outdoor learning space that a school can provide will depend on the amount of space and its characteristics. According to a detail survey and experiments the school grounds can include outdoor spaces adaptable to many types of activities. They may be open-air porches adjacent to classrooms, art and science rooms, or cafeterias; and they may include various seating areas, such as amphitheaters, pavilions, steps, planters, benches or individual student-sized chairs. Outdoor spaces enable students to learn more ...