Have you ever encountered a class where the students levied the accusation that “they are never going to use this in real life”? Making course learning more relevant does not require an entire overhaul of your curriculum: leaning into Place-Based Education (PBE) can help you counteract these negative and disengaged sentiments. PBE can broadly be defined as “ intentionally engaging students in the natural, cultural, and built environment as starting points to teach transdisciplinary units that promote individual growth, facilitate collaborative learning, and engage students in active and curious participation for social and environmental improvement” (Bocko et al., 2023, p.138). In short, Place-Based Education leverages all the physical, social, and cultural resources of and relationships with a location to facilitate deep and broad interdisciplinary student engagement and learning.

Use Oakland’s Campus as Your Classroom

Though oftentimes treated as a liminal space between home and classroom, the campus can be a wonderful, diverse, and dynamic place ripe for learning, growth, and transformation. Unless a student never sets foot on campus (such as a student only taking online courses), all students and courses can find their unique way to utilize campus as a learning place. As a site of learning and growth, campus is inherently rich in emotion, meaning, connection, and attention. As a large public institution, it is also a place full of culture, economics, politics, and social dynamics, which as stated above, are vital for place-based learning. PBE indicates that we must tap into these dynamics and synthesize them with our instructional practices to best engage our students and their learning. But how exactly do we do this?

Perhaps the most well known or obvious example, OU's Campus Student Organic Farm can provide a model for a larger-scale implementation of this. However, your uses can be much smaller. For example, students studying Computer Science could partner with Kresge Library to explore user interfaces and potentially find ways for user interface improvement and greater student use of the computers. Or, Economics or Business students could be tasked with interviewing their fellow students about how much the price of different food vendors on campus affects their decision about where to eat. This information could then be shared with Chartwells and the various food vendors on campus to explore ways to better meet students’ financial and nutritional needs. You could also have students studying Human Resources interview the Human Resources department at Oakland regarding a specific function you are exploring in class. All of these acts would help students to develop connections with Oakland as a place that is not just physical, but social, emotional, and interpersonal. 

Learn about the Places of Your Students

It has long been a fact that Oakland University serves a large number of commuter students. We as a campus are tied to our surroundings in unique ways. We possess a direct line from our instruction to tangible change within those communities our students are so deeply embedded in and connected to. So, through targeted and purposeful framing and instruction, we can turn a potential challenge to engagement into one of Oakland’s great strengths.. However, in order for you to best tap into this potential, it is important that you get to identify and understand just what these places are. 

For Example: At the beginning of the semester, you could put out a survey asking students questions about where they are from, where they work, what types of locations they tend to inhabit, as well as their emotions about those places. Additionally, as you progress through the semester, maintain this inquisitiveness and openness to your students’ backgrounds by asking the class to gradually share with you and each other. This will not only help you understand your students better, but will also strengthen your relationships with your students - a key element in effective teaching (Felten & Lambert, 2020). 

Build Place into Your Assignments

The emotional bond students have is critical for place and for deep and transformative learning (Warburton, 2003). They are more aware and receptive to the realities of those places. In short, this means that place can be a great interlocutor for assignments. Allow your students to have a relationship with the work they are doing by utilizing examples or asking students to research or use their places as the subject of their work.  And remember, while places are dynamic, interdisciplinary, and systematic, your first forays into this space don’t require a seismic shift in your curriculum. To start, the smaller the better. You can always expand your scope as you learn more about your students and get more comfortable building a place into the framework or problem behind your assignments and instruction.

For Example: In order to assess research skills and higher order and critical thinking as well as discipline-specific outcomes, have the students write a (small or large) report on the context of their chosen place through the lens of your discipline. For example, if you are exploring public policy, you could have the students explore how the local zoning and development laws have influenced the physical appearance of a place they inhabit. You could also have the students write how this appearance of their place affects them emotionally so they can get a better grasp of the influence of emotion on politics and political decision-making. Emotion is doubly important as it is also central to deep learning and hence, is a key feature of PBE-aligned assignments and instruction.

Resources and References

Though not covered here, for a look at some guidelines in assessment for Place-Based Education see: Guidelines for Assessment of Place-Based Learning.

Biasin, C. (2018). Transformative Learning: Evolutions of the adult learning theory. Phronesis, 7(3), 5–17. https://doi.org/10.7202/1054404ar 

Bocko, P., Jorgenson, S., & Malik, A. (2023). Place-Based Education: Dynamic response to current trends. In International explorations in outdoor and environmental education (pp. 137–150). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29257-6_9 

Entwistle, N. (2000). Promoting deep learning through teaching and assessment: conceptual frameworks and educational contexts. TLRP Conference. https://www.arasite.org/RMdatabase/entwistle2000.pdf 

Felten, P., & Lambert, L. M. (2020). Relationship-Rich Education: How human connections drive success in college. https://eric.ed.gov/?q=source%3A%22Johns+Hopkins+University+Press%22&id=ED608540 

Greenwood, D. A. (2003). The Best of both Worlds: a critical pedagogy of place. Educational Researcher, 32(4), 3–12. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189x032004003

Orr, D., Stone, M. K., Barlow, Z. (2005). Ecological Literacy: Educating Our Children for a Sustainable World.

Pisters, S. R., Vihinen, H., & Figueiredo, E. (2020). Inner change and sustainability initiatives: exploring the narratives from eco-villagers through a place-based transformative learning approach. Sustainability Science, 15(2), 395–409. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-019-00775-9 \

Warburton, K. (2003). Deep learning and education for sustainability. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 4(1), 44–56. https://doi.org/10.1108/14676370310455332

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About the Author

Thomas Baranski is an intern at the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. His main research interests lie in sustainability and equity in education, critical pedagogies, and arts education. When he finds the time, he enjoys playing music, and reading and writing poetry.

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