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.
The main concern of the project was to play together and process the approaches for "learning in nature" in the participating countries Austria, Germany, Luxembourg and Switzerland (which was integrated via the associated partner SILVIVA). Our most important goal was therefore the exchange of know-how in the field of "teaching in nature". Concrete approaches, successful forms of cooperation between the education and nature conservation systems and possible obstacles should be identified, experienced and tried out during the learning-teaching-training activities and subsequently processed. With the knowledge gained in this way, the key competencies of the teachers in the field of teaching in nature should be increased and the quality of the teaching should be improved. Likewise, the knowledge and competence of the people who design offers for schools on the nature park side should be increased. This applies above all to those people who took part in the project, but also beyond the published results, . The interfaces between nature parks and schools, the type of cooperation, should also be examined and, if necessary, suggestions for improvement should be developed
Nature has positive effects on children's development. Numerous studies prove this. The project was applied for to put this theoretical knowledge into practice in the education- and nature park system. The nature parks in the participating countries Austria, Germany and Luxembourg have been working together with schools in their region for many years, as they offer an optimal learning environment due to their extraordinary natural features. Normally an agreement is reached on close cooperation between the nature park and the school, which certifies schools as "nature park schools". The nature parks offer “their” schools excursions and project days in nature. In order to enable the students to have more outdoor education, further development in the direction of "lessons in nature", i.e. regular outdoor lessons, is necessary in all subjects. In some of the nature park schools there are teachers who are very interested in teaching nature and want to continue their education in this direction. There is a need for qualification offers and know-how for practical implementation. There is also a lack of teaching materials for this type of teaching.