Escaping the classroom
Published: 30 January 2024
Research insight
Writing for AMBA’s Ambition magazine, Dr Matt Offord from the Adam Smith Business School introduces us to ‘ecopedagogy’, a new innovative outdoor teaching approach.
Ecopedagogy centres on using social and natural environments that connect management theory and experience, and learning about the world by being in it. The approach has three main ingredients: challenge, reflection, and group discussion.
In the article for Ambition magazine, Dr Offord outlines the ecopedogogy approach and offers practical advice on delivering this style of teaching.
Dr Matt Offord explains:
‘We take fourth year undergraduates out of the classroom and give them an all-abilities outdoor experiential learning experience. They work with inspiring leaders from an Everest summit heroine, through to an NHS consultant, an actor to an ex-Special Forces leader to develop their own internal skills and strengths.
This pioneering course teaches students about themselves, to connect them to the skills they need in the workplace. The critical difference is they are not reflecting on leadership as a theory, but on their own internal leadership and teamwork. Assessment is based on students’ creating a personal project action plan for themselves.’
Read the full article in the January issue of Ambition magazine.
More information
Learn more about the Futures in Leadership course in this video from the Adam Smith Business School.
First published: 30 January 2024