For this week's View from the Top, we've handed over to Claire Russell, the deputy head of senior school (academic) at Tanglin Trust School in Singapore. Below, Ms Russell explores the importance of outdoor learning and the role of real-world connections with people and nature, revealing the extraordinary opportunity offered to students through the school's revolutionary five-week residential Highlands Programme at Tanglin Gippsland, Australia, with their first group of Year 9 pioneers set to embark on the inaugural trip in April 2025...
Much has been written lately on the adolescent mental health crisis, and many of us have read Jonathan Haidt’s take on this, as he lays the blame for the worrying rise in teenage anxiety and depression firmly at the door of smartphones and social media. As parents and educationalists, it is tempting to see this correlation in simple terms and to want to protect our young people by removing their access to such devices, but perhaps all is not as simple as it seems, and perhaps there are other things we can turn our attention to if we really want to support our young people to navigate the teenage years.
In fact, Haidt acknowledges in The Anxious Generation that the solution to rising rates of poor mental health is not just about a simple removal of access to such devices. He writes of the importance of unstructured, unsupervised play, and of the role of real-world connections with people and nature. It is in these sorts of experiences where the real difference is made to young people’s mental health, and this is one of the driving forces behind Tanglin Trust School introducing an extended, five-week residential in Gippsland, Australia, with our first group of Year 9 pioneers set to embark on the inaugural trip in April 2025.
In Singapore, many of us spent two years during the pandemic unable to travel, and over this period, restrictions became the norm, rules proliferated, and society became increasingly and necessarily risk averse. Arguably, this has had a lasting impact on our community, and we now see some parents and students more fearful than ever to take risks through our adventurous trips programme, preferring to focus on the physically safer, tangible goals of study and academic achievement. This is understandable – academic success increases students’ life chances and what parent doesn’t wish the best chance for their child? In forgoing these opportunities to be outdoors though, where students will experience adventure and to some degree, risk, where they will make real world connections and will also sometimes feel unsure and uncomfortable, we are denying our young people the chance to build resilience and mental toughness. Added to this, there is much existing research to show that learning in an outdoor environment and in an experiential manner can increase academic success too. This is the experience we want to introduce our students to through our Highlands programme.
This year, our first groups of Year 9 students will travel from Singapore to live on our purpose-built Tanglin campus in the Victorian High Country for five weeks at a time. In Victoria, just as in Singapore, there will be very limited access to phones on campus, and for some students, this digital detox may be challenging. The focus will be on time spent outdoors even through our academic programme, with fieldwork and outdoor learning taking priority over classroom-based learning.
It is important to establish that outdoor learning does not mean a move away from academic challenge. Simple pedagogical shifts, such as “walk and talk” through our beautiful grounds, instead of “turn, pair, share” in the classroom, will ensure students connect with nature and people, away from devices where possible. Discussing an academic question posed by the teacher on a short walk with a classmate before returning to the group encourages student agency and reflection, and Fagerstam’s 2014 Swedish study showed that for many students, the simple fact of not being overheard by peers leads to greater confidence and engagement with learning (Fagerstam, 2014). This study also showed that stronger episodic memory can be stimulated by a multi-sensory environment, and so any learning which takes place in an outdoor setting has a stronger chance of being remembered.
Kolb and Kolb’s famous study also established that experiencing is necessary for learning, and that unless our habits of thought are disrupted and interrupted, we will not be inclined to reflect or learn (Kolb & Kolb, 2018). Like Fagerstam, their research showed that producing episodic memory through “doing” is crucial to the future deliberate transfer of learning (Kolb & Kolb, 2018), and it is this transfer of learning which has an impact on future academic success. Simply put, experiential learning outdoors can have a hugely positive impact on learning in the long term.
We are not removing technology altogether though, as we use online platforms for much of our resource sharing, and this will continue at Gippsland in academic lessons. The key is in finding balance and supporting students to manage their use of technology better, not in removing it altogether. We are mindful of the fact that students will return to a world of technology and to an adult life of unimaginable technological developments, and we have a duty to prepare them for this world beyond school.
Balance will also be struck in the other ways students will be occupied at Gippsland. We will be looking for every opportunity to develop their independence, their agency, their teamwork, and their willingness to take risks. Beyond the classroom, students will be involved in regular team building, physical activity, camping, and adventure, culminating in a week-long hike in their final week, where they will need to work as teams, draw on their strength of character, and navigate challenge and discomfort. They will, we believe, return to Singapore changed, and proud of what they have accomplished, seeing the possibilities in the world beyond the draw of their phones and social media. Their positive experience of real social connection and nature will, we hope, fuel a desire to do more of this in the future, and this is the real value of exposing students to these things for an extended period.
So, there is hope that we can reverse the downward trend in adolescent mental health, and the hope lies in showing students what awaits them in the world beyond their devices and the online realm. We are excited to be embarking on this project this year, our school’s centenary year, and really believe it will make a positive difference to the lives of our students now and in the future.