Here’s another update from Natural England by way of relevant evidence and reports, policy agenda developments, large scale delivery sector initiatives, resources and news items from the UK and abroad, with a focus on schools, education and learning. This supports the Strategic Research Network for People and Nature to develop better coherence and collaboration in research and to improve links between research, policy and practice in these areas.
Unfamiliar Landscapes: Young People and Diverse Outdoor Experiences
Smith, Pitt & Dunkley – Book
This book critically interrogates how young people are introduced to landscapes through environmental education, outdoor recreation, and youth-led learning, drawing on diverse examples of green, blue, outdoor, or natural landscapes. Understanding the relationships between young people and unfamiliar landscapes is vital for young people’s current and future education and wellbeing, but how landscapes and young people are socially constructed as unfamiliar is controversial and contested. Young people are constructed as unfamiliar within certain landscapes along lines of race, gender or class: this book examines the cultures of outdoor learning that perpetuate exclusions and inclusions, and how unfamiliarity is encountered, experienced, constructed, and reproduced.
The outcomes of nature-based learning for primary school aged children: A systematic review of quantitative research.
Miller, Kumar, Pearce, & Baldock – Environmental Education Research
Twenty quantitative studies involving a total of 3,283 primary-age children from a variety of (mostly Western) countries documented a range of positive outcomes associated with nature-based learning in five outcome categories: physical activity, mental health and well-being, education, engagement, and social. Of these, educational outcomes – which were consistently positive – were the most commonly measured. Overall, the included studies tended to be somewhat weak, methodologically, and did not use a consistent definition or implementation of nature-based learning.
Time Outdoors Positively Associates with Academic Performance: A School-based Study with Objective Monitoring of Outdoor Time
J Wang et al – Research Square Preprint
Outdoor time, sleep duration and out-of-school learning time were associated with academic performance in anon-linear manner. Promotion of outdoor time may not negatively impact on academic performance
Representations of the Benefits of Outdoor Education for Students with Learning Disabilities: A Thematic Analysis of Newspapers
A Stavrianos, S Pratt-Adams – Open Journal of Social Sciences
This study adopts a qualitative paradigm in order to explore the integration of Outdoor Education in the philosophy of inclusion. Eight newspaper articles representing stances and opinions of stakeholders in education, were thematically analysed into explore popular representations of benefits of outdoor education for students with learning difficulties. The themes which emerged from the data were: an active attitude towards learning, a holistic approach—transferable benefits, Inclusion, Edutainment, and Experiential Learning. The key themes identified, indicate that learners within an outdoor education context seem to be active participants of the learning process. Moreover, outdoor education is expandable to the learners’ environments, while it seems that academically and/or socially less able pupils in particular, can benefit out of outdoor education.
A (Geo-) Narrative Analysis of Children’s Perceptions of Wellbeing in Relation to Nature as the Basis for Educational Intervention Planning
M Lazzaro-Salazar, EA Mundaca – SAGE Open
This study investigates the perceptions of nature and wellbeing of 10 children living next to the Altos de Lircay Reserve (Chile). A geo-narrative analysis of the interviews shows that participants living closest to the reserve relate nature to their physical wellbeing, while those living further away often relate it to their psychological wellbeing.
Barriers to children’s outdoor time: teachers’ and principals’ experiences in elementary schools
AK Patchen et al – Environmental Education Research
This study reports on barriers identified during the development phase of an action research project that aimed to increase outdoor time as a regular, repeated part of the elementary school day. Teachers and administrators in one school district in the Northeastern United States were asked to describe the barriers that limited their opportunities to take students outside. Data indicated 33 discrete barriers and 5 themes that cut across the barriers. Interactions and overlap across barriers increased the challenges encountered by teachers.
How Nature Affects The Behavior of ADHD Children: A Case Study in Northeastern Brazil
MMS Damasceno, JM Mazzarino, A Figueiredo – Ambiente & Sociedade
The overall objective was to analyze the profiles of six children, before and after interventions with nature, in order to identify potential changes in behav[1]ior resulting from experiencing direct contact with nature. The method used is exploratory and descriptive, and it is a multiple case study with an action-research character. The results showed changes in behavior with mitigated ADHD symptoms regarding cognitive and socio-affective aspects. Among other behavioral aspects, higher motivation for studying, better understanding and adaptation to rules, extended states of tranquility, higher receptivity to social contact, decreased aggressiveness, hyperactivity, impulsivity, and higher tolerance to oneself and others were noticeable.