By Stephen R. Kellert
With the Assistance of Victoria Derr
Yale University
School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
September 1998

Introduction:
The social philosopher, John Dewey, once suggested that all education should derive from experience, reflection, and practical skills. Few would quarrel with this admonition, yet our society has largely opted for a different educational paradigm, one mainly emphasizing abstract and specialized learning, lacking direct experiential and practical connection with the focus of the learning, and largely occurring indoors. Examples abound, but most relevant to our study is how often education today assumes a narrow and highly theoretical focus in the classroom rather than involving direct outdoor experience, and how the formality of the textbook takes precedence over less structured problem-solving in the natural environment...

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