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Ocean Literacy is a growing global education movement aimed at deepening and contextualising the human relationship with the ocean. While ocean topics are largely missing from UK school curricula, Ocean Literacy principles offer an opportunity for environmental educators to infuse their programmes with broader perspectives on the ocean, creating openings for the development of learner knowledges, and increasing emotional connection with the marine environment. Field courses held at residential field study centres which focus on marine and coastal environments are uniquely positioned to explore principles of Ocean Literacy with their learners; through experiential, investigative modes of learning which encourage development of understanding, emotional engagement with the environment, and pro-environmental behaviours. This paper examines the learning outcomes of 16–18 year old school students taking part in residential programmes at three coastal field centres in the UK Field Studies Council network. Examining student responses against UK A-level, Scottish Highers, and International Baccalaureate specifications and curricula, we argue that while such programmes are largely determined by cognitive rather than behavioural or affective characteristics, they demonstrate a significant opportunity to further develop the emotional and behavioural foci of residential marine courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Outdoor learning experiences can invoke feelings of uncertainty and discomfort, acting to disrupt human-environment narratives. In this article, the "performance" of nonhuman nature and discomfort in outdoor learning is considered, told through two vignettes from residential field trips with secondary age students, held at Slapton Ley Field Centre in South Devon, UK. This article asserts that discomfort associated with outdoor learning and fieldwork creates opportunities for learners to challenge their own environmental beliefs, values and attitudes. In particular, it is suggested that learners enter into a coproduction of place through interaction with nonhuman nature, and that this can, in turn, lead to a development of environmental sensitivity beyond the normally instrumental focus of such field trips. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]