In this professional learning program highlight, we focus on Out Teach, a national program, based in Washington, D.C. To help students facing systemic barriers to achievement benefit from outdoor learning, Out Teach empowers educators in under-resourced schools to use simple outdoor spaces to give students access to exciting, real-world science experiences, weaving critical STEM, literacy, and 21st Century skills, like critical thinking and collaboration, into every school day. For more information about Out Teach and their programs, please see their website, www.out-teach.org.

Background and Vision

The Out Teach vision is that all students, no matter their resources, have access to an engaging, hands-on education that transforms their lives. 

Students are currently facing unparalleled learning losses that put their futures in jeopardy. For students in under-resourced elementary schools, this loss of early instruction, especially in science, blocks them from pathways to important career opportunities. Current data suggests that students are experiencing a 40% loss in reading progress and a 50% loss in math; science instruction has been cut substantially, and even before COVID, elementary students received only 18 minutes of science per day; STEM careers are growing six times faster, and pay two times the median salary of other careers; and since career paths are largely determined by 6th grade, this early science deficit can permanently limit access to rewarding and transformative STEM careers.

Luckily, there’s a solution right outside the classroom door. Evidence suggests experiential, student-driven inquiry outdoors can accelerate and deepen student comprehension, improve long-term recall, and increase engagement.

The 5E Model

Out Teach practice is grounded in the constructivist 5E Instructional Model (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate) which has been shown to generate stronger student interest in learning and greater ability for scientific inquiry than traditional teaching models.  Beyond fueling inquiry-based student-driven science learning, the 5E model also makes every lesson more authentic and culturally relevant.

Once trained to anchor instruction in outdoor phenomena using the 5E Model, teachers can easily pivot their pedagogy from lecturing to facilitating student-directed learning that emphasizes the innovative application of science and engineering practices. The 5Es also allow students and teachers to experience common activities, to use and build on prior knowledge and experience, to construct meaning, and to continually assess their understanding of a concept. Additionally, the 5E model is compatible with NGSS and state standards that emphasize three-dimensional science instruction.

Job-Embedded Coaching

In order to ensure high-quality 5E Science instruction is effectively embedded into elementary school culture, ​Out Teach grounds its work in education theory and practice and provides job-embedded coaching for teachers, based on recommendations in the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Out Teach Professional Learning is:  

Sustained​. Year-long job-embedded coaching, with opportunities to extend.​

Intensive​. In-depth one-on-one and group sessions to improve specific teaching practices.​

Collaborative​​. Participants and coaches working toward common goals to improve specific teaching practices.​

Job-embedded​. Modeling and observations occur on-site, during the school day, with the teachers’ own classes.​

Data-driven​. Regular review of formative data and outcomes reporting on improvements to specific practices​.

Classroom-focused​. Classroom observations and feedback cycles drive the learning and improvement to practice​.

This ongoing job-embedded coaching is tailored to teachers’ grade-level scope and sequence, and in-person sessions take place during regular class time so teachers can focus on the specific needs of their classroom, including both students and teachers in the learning process. 

The Out Teach coaching program follows a “gradual release” model, in which Out Teach coaches and teachers observe each other delivering instruction, reflect on practice, and plan for implementation of new techniques and strategies. Over time, teachers transition from reliance on Out Teach Instructional Coaches to independent practice over the course of year-long partnerships.  

Once they’re effectively trained, teachers can use simple outdoor spaces and features to create powerful and authentic learning experiences for all students. It’s this personalized, job-embedded coaching in an outdoor experiential setting that shifts pedagogy to a more student-centered, constructivist, and cross-curricular approach to STEM education.

This fundamentally changes students’ educational experience to one in which all kids are inspired by hands-on, transformational learning experiences that are proven to prepare them to succeed academically, socially, and professionally in the 21st century and which ultimately provide pathways for economic mobility.

Data-Driven

Since 2010, Out Teach has invested in third-party evaluation of our program and has generated a very promising evidence base, showing statistically significant, positive impacts on improving teacher effectiveness. 

• 90% indicated that experiential learning outdoors increased their overall job satisfaction

• 99% indicated that students showed increases in academic engagement

• 88% indicated they are applying the teaching practices they worked on with Out Teach in their broader teaching practice  

• 5.5% more students pass standardized tests in Out Teach partner schools according to correlational analysis

• Professional Learning Program Information

• Blended and Remote Learning Resources

• Searchable Database of Lessons