One of our colleagues co-authoring the articles on this website recounted a story recently to the effect that, several months ago, one of his now adult daughters who lives some distance away from the parental home recently visited for a few days. Near the end of the visit our colleague and his daughter spent a short period having a coffee in a town centre coffee shop he had not visited before.

Our colleague reported that although there was nothing major discussed in that short spell in the café he can recall almost all of that discussion, while he can’t recall in such details other conversations that took place during his daughter’s visit or earlier visits.

That conversation stays in his memory, not because it was particular, but because it was in an unusual place. Thus without him doing anything different, the fact that it took place in a new location meant that his brain processes worked harder than they might have done if the meeting had taken place on more familiar territory.

Many of us will have these experiences if we have situations that are repeated, but then are varied and as such take place somewhere else. It is indeed very common where two friends meet once a week or once a month for a catch-up in the same place, for the friends not to be able to remember much about each discussion. But if the location is varied on one occasion, the details of that chat between friends can be remembered.

However although such observations can be made by most of us, the fact that learning in unusual environments can result in learning that lasts much longer and is much deeper than learning that takes place in usual environment is something that may take parents by surprise.

Indeed this suggestion it is something that may make parents rather sceptical, so it is probably best explained with a little bit of background - although the way in which it is explained in is going to be very dependent on the background of the parents.

There is, however, one point in the research which will probably strike a chord with most parents and that is that all of us, as adults, have memories from our earlier days, and a disproportionate number of these will be memories of unusual places or unusual events.

In other words (and indeed rather obviously) most of us don’t have immediate recall of all the everyday events in our earlier lives. We recall events that stand out either because of the magnitude of the event or because they happened in unusual places.

This common observation can be a very helpful way of getting the discussion going and can lead into discussions about learning in unusual places for the simple purpose of stimulating the depth and intensity of that learning.

Following on from this it is possible to consider a range of unusual places where pupils and students can learn and make use of the effect discovered through the Yale University research that learning in unusual places is generally deeper learning and learning which lasts longer.

However in all this there is, of course, also the issue of interruption. If a pupil or student goes to a friend’s house to learn, and the two friends spend the assigned learning time chatting away or on their mobile phones, then there is little benefit in terms of learning.

However, if they allocate an hour to learning and spend half of it chatting, it is more than likely that the learning in the remaining half an hour will be so much more intense than normal that the exercise will still be beneficial.  

Where might be good places to learn?

Here are a few suggestions

1: Learning in a room that is not normally used for learning.  

2: Learning outside – obviously where the weather is suitable for such learning

3: Learning in a local library

4: Learning for 15 minutes in a local coffee shop.

5: Learning sitting in the parent’s car for 15 minutes.

Now this last item will seem bizarre – would a pupil or student willingly sit in the car outside the house for this length of time? Not everyone will see it as viable, but the authors have seen this done and the result was impressive.

It should also be noted that these last two points include “for 15 minutes”, and that again makes the point that learning outside can be so much more effective than learning in the normal learning space that even 15 minutes of serious learning can be far more effective than other forms of learning.

In short, if you are taking the notion of learning outside to parents, the point can be made that the time spent with this sort of learning does not have to be long nor does it have to be in any particular sort of environment. It can be anywhere that is different.

Finally, if the pupil or student can see this as part of an experiment and report back as to where she or he undertook the learning, for how long, and what the results were, then interest in the project can grow, and pupils and students will be encouraged to try this approach for themselves. If this is the case, keeping a record of the places learning outside the classroom happens can help encourage more to participate.