Research

Much of the information on the benefits of place based education are anecdotal - everyone who works in environmental education and place-based education has many stories of lives transformed, students re-committed to their own education, individuals and communities making a changing to a better and more inclusive way of doing things.

A great deal of scientific research is now going on, and will be available in the near future. The existing research references are:

Closing the Acheivement Gap, Using the Environment as an Integrating Context for Learning, by Gerald A. Lieberman, Ph.D. and Lindy Hoody, M.A. is the basic research in the field and explanation of the EIC Model - "using the Environment as an Integrating Context for learning." The full publication can be ordered at http://www.seer.org/sciwiz/orderform.html. The Executive Summary is available online, and well as a California Student Assessment Project and Educational Efficacy of Environmental Education. The publication is sponsored by the State Education and Environment Roundtable (SEER), whose website includes a number of related resources and professional development.

Bay Area School Reform Collaborative (BASRC): This group has published papers on school reform through place-based education. A paper by Jack Chin, All of a Place, develops this idea.

References to school reform ideas that center on or include place-based learning include:

The CO-SEED Project (Community-Based School Environmental Education) & Place-based Education Evaluation Collaborative (PEEC): The best references to a number of formal and informal research reports, including many of those below.

Coalition for Community Schools: Publications include Making the Difference: Research and Practice in Community Schools.

Massachusetts Department of Education: Community Lessons: Promising Curriculum Practices

Education Development Center: Schoolyard Learning: The Impact of School Grounds

National Environmental Education & Training Foundation (NEETF): Using Environment-Based Education to Advance Learning Skills and Character Development & Environment-Based Education: Creating High Performance Schools and Students

AEL/ERIC Digests: Place-Based Curriculum and Instruction: Outdoor and Environmental Education Approaches, by Janice L. Woodhouse and Clifford E. Knapp; Rural Home Schooling and Place-Based Education, by Rebecca Jaycox; World-Class Standards and Local Pedagogies: Can We Do Both? by Thomas J. Gibbs and Aimee Howley

Forum for Applied Research and Public Policy: Spring 2000, Communities as Curricula, p. 106

The Rural School and Community Trust has a number of references to research in support of place-based learning.

Just Beyond the Classroom: Community Adventures for Interdisciplinary Learning, Clifford E. Knapp

Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation: Best Practices for Curriculum, Teaching, and Evaluation Components of Aquatic Stewardship Education, by William F. Siemer; Elements of Effective Environmental Education Programs, by Julie A. Athman and Martha C. Monroe