School service in Denmark.
School service has been a well-known term in Denmark since 1977. It covers educational institutions located in art and cultural history museums, zoos, power plants, recycling centres, aquariums, churches, and large private companies that offer targeted teaching outside the traditional school environment, which are called external learning environments.
As we approach 50 years, experience has been gained from using external learning environments as teaching spaces that complement the school curriculum. This allows for more versatile learning, and students often have concrete experiences with history, biology, recycling, or religious issues.
The teaching content is closely linked to where the school services are located and thus provides a local anchoring for the students – a relevance that is often very motivating for them. At the same time, it is often the local narrative that puts the national narrative into perspective and thus creates coherence and understanding for the student
Each school service has a local starting point, and many are also members of the national school service found at Skoletjenesten.dk
“Skoletjenesten works locally and regionally from a national perspective. We researched, mapped, and traveled with knowledge about the open school. Throughout the country, we work with municipalities, cultural institutions, and schools to bring knowledge and experience into play, which can be used to develop new school services and strengthen teaching in external learning environments. Skoletjenesten.dk is a national hub that supports teachers and educators in finding and using external learning environments.” (Quote from Skoletjenesten’s website www.skoletjenesten.dk)
On the School Service website, educators and teachers can search for cultural institutions’ educational programmes and sign up for courses, study groups and regional theme days.
Skoletjenesten is a knowledge centre for everyone working with learning in remote environments. The knowledge produced in pedagogical laboratories will be actively used throughout the country. The knowledge centre is on its way, and the ambition is to work together to improve the quality of pedagogical practice in external learning environments.