Teaching beyond the classroom: heritage, culture and place-based learning
Discover how cities, museums, neighbourhoods and cultural heritage become powerful learning environments: an Erasmus+ week in Bordeaux to design place-based learning experiences transferable to your own town.
Plan your Erasmus mobilityInnovative pedagogy course for teachers · Part of our Erasmus+ teacher training courses in Bordeaux
Every school is surrounded by learning opportunities. A square becomes a mathematics lesson. A market becomes a language classroom. A museum develops historical thinking. A river explains geography. A mural opens a discussion on citizenship. Yet many teachers still feel confined to the classroom, not for lack of places, but for lack of a method to turn those places into structured learning.
In this Erasmus+ course in Bordeaux, you will learn exactly that method. Place-based learning treats the place itself as part of the pedagogy: during the week you will read squares, heritage sites, museums and public spaces as curriculum content, design learning experiences on them, and rebuild everything for your own city, whatever its size.
Why a place-based learning course?
- Place makes learning concrete: abstract notions of history, science, language or civics become tangible when students meet them in a real square, building or museum.
- Context creates memory: knowledge anchored in a place, a walk or an investigation is retained far better than knowledge met only on a page.
- Every subject can leave the room: place-based learning is not a field-trip add-on but a method that serves mathematics, languages, history, science and citizenship alike.
- Territories build belonging: students who learn to read their own town develop attachment, curiosity and a sense of responsibility for it.
- The method travels: once you can turn one place into a lesson, you can do it with any place, in any country, at any scale.
The course connects this pedagogy to the European reflection on places and living environments led by the New European Bauhaus, the European Commission initiative linking culture, sustainability and the spaces we inhabit.
The method: from place to lesson
The whole week rests on one idea, place is pedagogy, and on a three-step method you will practise every day on real sites:
- Read the place: observe a square, a facade, a museum object or a street with structured questions, the way a historian, a scientist or a writer would.
- Link it to the curriculum: connect what the place offers to your subject objectives, so the outing is a lesson with clear learning outcomes, not a visit.
- Make students produce: field notebooks, investigations, heritage trails, interviews and creations that turn observation into lasting learning.
What you will learn in this place-based learning course
What you will be able to do after this course
Explore the course in detail
- Understand the principles of place-based learning and its connection to the curriculum.
- Analyse cities, heritage sites, museums and public spaces as learning environments.
- Design structured, interdisciplinary learning experiences anchored in real places.
- Build a transfer plan adapting the method to your own town and school context.
The week alternates fieldwork and design: every morning input is immediately tested on a real site in the afternoon, then rebuilt for your own context with colleagues from other countries.
- Structured input on place-based learning and its foundations.
- Fieldwork on squares, heritage sites, museums and public spaces.
- Practical workshops: field notebooks, investigations and heritage trails.
- Progressive design of a place-based project for your own city.
- Continuous formative feedback throughout the week.
This course is designed for teachers of any subject who sense that the world around their school could teach more than their textbook, and want a rigorous method rather than one-off outings.
It also welcomes trainers, educators, headteachers, school leaders and administrative staff developing cultural or interdisciplinary projects for their institution. A minimum A2 level is required, the course can be delivered in the language of your choice, and groups of 10 to 16 mix roles and countries.
| Day | Theme |
|---|---|
| Monday | Understanding place-based learning. Morning: foundations of the approach, the place as part of the pedagogy, links to the curriculum. Afternoon: fieldwork, reading a public square as a learning environment, and exchange of European experiences. |
| Tuesday | Teaching through heritage. Morning: turning heritage sites into structured learning sequences. Afternoon: fieldwork, heritage investigation and field notebook on an emblematic site. |
| Wednesday | Museums, architecture and public spaces. Morning: museum education and object-based learning. Afternoon: workshop, transforming an artwork, a building or a street into activities for your subject. |
| Thursday | Designing interdisciplinary projects. Morning: methodology of the learning trail, connecting several sites and subjects. Afternoon: collaborative design of a place-based trail across a neighbourhood. |
| Friday | Transfer to your own city. Morning: rebuilding the method for your own town and local heritage, whatever its size. Afternoon: project presentations, action plan and Europass certification. |
As a host organisation for Erasmus+ teacher training in Bordeaux, we support you at every step of your mobility.
Before your mobility
- Needs-analysis questionnaire and review of your teaching context
- Mapping of the places and heritage available around your own school
- Preparatory resources on place-based learning and heritage education
- Learning Agreement, Quality Commitment and Erasmus+ KA1 application support
After your mobility
- Final course evaluation and support for your Erasmus+ reporting
- Certificate of attendance and Europass Mobility document
- Access to shared teaching resources
- A learning-trail template transferable to your own town
For a course where place is the pedagogy, the city is the course material, and Bordeaux concentrates an exceptional diversity of learning environments within walking distance of the training room.
- A living textbook: UNESCO-listed heritage, museums, contemporary creation venues, public art, markets, riverbanks and architecture from eight centuries.
- European perspective: teachers from across Europe compare how their systems use places and heritage, during your Erasmus+ mobility.
- Transferable by design: every exercise run on a Bordeaux site is rebuilt for your own town, whatever its size.
- Accessibility: high-speed rail and an international airport make Bordeaux easy to reach.
Target audience
Whatever your subject, this place-based learning course is aimed at teachers, trainers, educators, counsellors (educational and career), school psychologists, headteachers, school leaders and administrative staff, in primary, lower secondary, upper secondary, vocational and adult education, with a minimum group of 10 and a maximum of 16 participants.
Erasmus+ funding: how it works
Teachers, trainers, headteachers, school leaders and other education staff can apply for an Erasmus+ KA1 grant, so your institution may cover travel, board and lodging, cultural activities and the fees of this place-based learning course through the grant. This course is part of our Erasmus teacher training courses in Bordeaux.
The course is priced to fit within the Erasmus+ grant, with a range of options so you can balance comfort and quality while staying within it.
Erasmus+ quality standards
As a host organisation based in Bordeaux (OID E10260484), we comply with the Erasmus+ quality standards for course providers: transparent objectives and learning outcomes, needs analysis before the course, active and participative methodology, and full documentation for your national agency.
What is included in the course
Official Erasmus+ validation
To ensure the recognition of your place-based learning course, we provide all required European certification and Erasmus+ compliance documentation:
- ✓ Europass Mobility: Official recognition of your professional development and teaching skills.
- ✓ Quality Commitment: Full compliance with Erasmus+ quality standards.
- ✓ Final Certification: Official certificate of attendance with training hours.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, this course is fully eligible for Erasmus+ KA1 mobility funding, which can cover travel, accommodation and the course fees depending on your project.
The two courses complement each other. Our outdoor learning course focuses on active pedagogy in natural environments: movement, exploration and risk management outside. This course focuses on culture: it teaches you to read cities, museums, heritage sites and public spaces as curriculum content, whatever your subject.
Yes, and this is the whole point of the week. Bordeaux is only the training ground: every exercise ends with rebuilding it for your own context. A village square, a local church, a market, a war memorial or an ordinary street offer everything the method needs, because the value lies in how you question a place, not in how famous it is.
One-week sessions run monthly, extendable up to four weeks, with 20 hours per week from Monday to Friday. You receive a certificate of attendance and a Europass Mobility document, with full Erasmus+ compliance documentation.
You may also be interested in
Explore the other courses of our innovative pedagogy category:
- Outdoor learning and active pedagogy
- Arts education and citizenship
- Active and creative teaching methods
Erasmus+ teacher mobility in Bordeaux
Turn your city into your classroom
Join this place-based learning course with Erasmus+, practise the method on Bordeaux's squares, museums and heritage sites with European colleagues, and go home able to teach with any place your own town offers.
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