From classroom to outdoors and back: orchestrating the field of experience of sun and shadows in mathematics education

Abstract

This paper presents a perspective on outdoor mathematics education developed through collaborative inquiry of researchers and Italian in-service teachers from the first cycle of education. Drawing on Priest’s notion of Outdoor Education and the construct of fields of experience, we conceptualize our perspective of outdoor mathematics education as a process in which students explore mathematically rich phenomena across classroom and outdoor settings through digital and non digital artefacts. The analysis draws on two data sources: a video-recorded teaching episode in a fourth-grade classroom and schoolyard, and a focus group with teachers after the implementation. The findings highlight the role of relationships, the contribution of digital and material tools, and the challenge of curricular integration. On this basis, the paper proposes the provisional notion of Outfield education, in which mathematical learning develops in, about, and through a field of experience, connecting school learning, outdoor exploration, and students’ lived worlds.