May 28, 2025
From the seminar room to the forest
Ein Klassiker der Cornell-Pädagogik: Studierende stellen spielerisch den Aufbau und die Funktionen eines Baumes dar.
On May 21, 2025, primary school teaching students left the classroom to experience a special form of university teaching: During an all-day excursion to the Küchwald forest in Chemnitz, they were able to get to know forest education approaches and methods of nature encounter in a practical way and try them out in a reflective manner.
The excursion was organized in cooperation with the Küchwald forest school and took place entirely outdoors. The focus was on classic concepts of nature experience education - including the rucksack school according to Gerhard Trommer and flow learning according to Joseph Cornell. The students carried out all the activities themselves, discussed their possible applications and developed concrete ideas for their future pedagogical work in elementary school.
The excursion was part of the subject teaching seminar "Children and Nature" in module SU-4, which is led by Dr. Lars Förster - himself a state-certified forest educator. The seminar combines theoretical principles with full-day excursions to natural learning spaces. The next event will take place in June 2025 in the Great Garden of Dresden - again all day and outdoors.
Numerous studies confirm the central importance of experiencing nature for children's learning and development processes, some of which are considered indispensable. In elementary school in particular, the subject of science teaching plays a key role in this: it enables basic encounters with nature, opens up learning spaces such as forests, meadows or bodies of water and strengthens skills in terms of education for sustainable development (ESD). The aim is to professionalize prospective science teachers in the area of forest education skills. In this way, the quality of university education is to be further strengthened and prepared in a targeted manner for the requirements of school practice.
The Chair of Primary Education / Social Studies and Science Education at TU Dresden is currently researching how a productive pedagogical symbiosis can be created between general education and forest pedagogy. The results of this research are continuously incorporated into teaching and will soon be published in specialist publications.