Here’s the latest 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.
“We never even touched plants this way”: school gardens as an embodied context for motivating environmental actions.
D Dutta & S Chandrasekharan – Environmental Education Research.
Based on a year-long facilitation of a school terrace-garden in a metropolitan city, we outline how situated and embodied interactions can foster an understanding of diverse ecological practices, and thus a different way of being with the natural world. The study indicates that multi-modal sensorimotor experiences, and the possibility of sharing these with others, motivate children to expand their sphere of environmental activities beyond the site of learning. Specifically, students extended their care-based interactions with the garden to their communities and broader ecological issues. These findings indicate that integrative forms of situated and embodied interactions with the living world can provide the generative force to learn, act, care, and live in ways that encourage ecological flourishing.
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Outdoor and nature-based teaching in small, urban primary school contexts.
D Falzon et al. – Environmental Education Research.
The current evidence base for outdoor and nature-based education in a context of education for sustainability is limited and unrepresentative of the realities of small, urban schools, which tend to be characterised by small outdoor spaces devoid of nature. To address this research gap, two studies were carried out in Malta, as an example of a densely populated and heavily urbanised context. A survey conducted among educators in Maltese primary schools explored the occurrence and frequency of outdoor teaching and factors that influence attitudes, perceptions, and practice of outdoor teaching. A complementary study mapped built, hard and soft landscapes of all primary school footprints in Malta. The two studies converge to shed light on possible systemic or physical factors leading to a low incidence of outdoor teaching and in particular, of nature-based teaching in small, urban schools. Nonetheless, findings show strong interest in such teaching approaches amongst study participants. The study establishes a research priority to identify factors that could support outdoor teaching in such contexts.
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What About the Influence of Outdoor Quality on Preschoolers’ Cognitive and Social Skills?
BLC Rodrigues & LL Hestenes – Early Education and Development.
This study analyzed data collected from a randomized sample of 92 licensed child care programs and 405 preschool children located across North Carolina, United States. Multilevel analyses showed that outdoor environment quality was associated with children’s abstraction and flexible thinking skills above and beyond global levels of classroom quality. Correlation analyses revealed that in outdoor environments with more natural elements, children displayed fewer behavior problems. Practice or Policy: Outdoor quality measures need to be more widely tested in relation to child outcomes. The influence of child care outdoor environment quality on children’s development should to be more deeply understood through longitudinal designs and ecological theories of human development, which allow conceptualizing developmental change over time as a function of interactions between individuals and context.
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Nature play and child wellbeing.
K Alla & M Truong – Australian Institute of Family Studies Policy and Practice Papers.
This resource summarises what the research evidence says about the different types of contacts with nature (‘nature contacts’) that promote child wellbeing. It describes a common type of nature contact for young children, ‘nature play’, and summarises the evidence for the benefits of nature play and nature contact for young children (e.g. aged 0–5). It also provides some considerations for practitioners and other professionals working with young children. The term ‘nature play’ in this resource refers both to nature contact more broadly (i.e. the different ways children connect with nature) and more specifically to child-led, unstructured play activities in nature.
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Re-Envisioning Community Gardens: exploring the value of community gardens in supporting young people’s development through informal education.
P Edwards – The Journal of Contemporary Community Education Practice Theory (CONCEPT).
This article aims to demonstrate the importance of learning in the outdoor environment of community gardens. Drawing on data from both Youth Workers and young people, it will advocate for the significance of community gardens for the growth and progression of young people through positive education development using informal learning techniques. It concludes that informal education is vital for young people’s educational growth and development, particularly in outdoor settings like community gardens focusing on hands-on experiences and learning through play and the senses. After advocating for the importance of community gardens, it outlines how funding for youth and community sectors like community gardens could be increased and prioritised to maintain active sites outside of schools.
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Ascending to Well-Being through Mediated Spaces: An Alternative to Informal Learning and Physical Activity Environments in Vertical Schools.
E Ebrahimi Salari & N Westbrook – Architecture.
This article explores the evolving learning environment for children, emphasising the critical correlation between well-being, nature, and school settings. It evaluates case studies of best practices in learning environment design, focusing on how architecture can support pedagogical goals. The analysis identifies spaces that affect well-being, termed mediated spaces, and recommends guidelines for such spaces tailored to vertical schools in hot–humid climates. The methodology includes a literature review of learning theories, the integration of learning environments with nature, and biophilic design. This review forms the basis for developing adaptable design guidelines tailored to hot–humid climates. Additionally, case study analyses of exemplary schools are conducted to identify mediated spaces that enhance well-being and adapt these findings to vertical school designs.
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Outdoor education program: Assessing student performance, mental health, and teacher well-being.
S. Wei et al. – Journal of Pedagogical Research.
The purpose of the research was to determine the relationship between students’ well-being and academic performance and learning outdoors. The study looked into how instructors’ well-being affected students’ well-being and achievement in order to achieve this goal. The demographic group that is focused on consists of teachers, learners from intermediate school, supplementary, and college grades, as well as pertinent student data from various Chinese schools and institutions. With the use of Smart PLS, a modified least square structural equation modeling procedure was applied to the information collected from 250 participants. The study’s findings are extremely pertinent to the field of education and offer a plethora of information to practitioners, decision-makers, and organizations. By understanding the major effect of outdoor education initiatives, we seek to provide the groundwork for innovative educational practices and policies that empower students, support instructors, and have long-lasting consequences. Further research is needed to identify more factors that improve academic achievement and wellness among students.
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The Effect of Farm-Animal-Assisted Education on Memory Retention in Elementary School Children: An Exploratory Study.
V Novotná et al. – Anthrozoös.
This study aimed to evaluate whether outdoor learning in the presence of farm animals during animal-oriented lessons impacts knowledge performance and memory retention. The experimental group (n = 71) attended a class at an eco-center farm and directly interacted with farm animals. In contrast, the control group (n = 78) received identical content in a classroom using conventional teaching aids. Knowledge in both groups was compared quantitatively with paper-and-pencil tests in three consecutive examinations: pre-, post-, and follow-up (28 days later). The intergroup results of the pre- and post-examinations showed no difference. However, a significant difference in the intergroup knowledge scores was observed at the one-month follow-up test. The pupils in the experimental group maintained significantly broader knowledge over time than their peers in the control group. These results suggest that implementing AAE into the education process might not affect pupils’ immediate knowledge performance, but it could positively impact memory retention. As scientific research on using farm animals in education is scarce, additional research is needed.
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A Case Study for Fostering CIVIC engagement: Theory for Developing Environmental Stewardship in Adolescents through Outdoor Recreation and Student-Driven Long-Term Research in Science Classes
CH Ziegler – International Journal of Social Science and Humanity.
This study explores an application of the theory that practicing science outdoors empowers students to be agents of change and later identify as environmental stewards. Decades of research in the scientific community have contributed to an understanding of the value of nature for child and adult development. However, millennia of research from Indigenous communities around the globe have already identified the value of the human-to-land connection. Scientific exploration that incorporates Traditional Ecological Knowledge could provide an opportunity to connect students to the land in a concrete and sustainable way – encouraging future student involvement in global ecological issues. This case study, from the perspective of a non-Indigenous author in a predominantly non-Indigenous population of adolescents, explores implementation, data collection, and establishment of procedures for student research and long-term data sets in an ever-changing project. In addition, it will discuss the benefit of outdoor place-based education in fostering environmental stewardship in students.
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Fieldwork Fridays: Connecting Scientific Learning to Nature.
K Coppens – Science Scope.
Building routines around place-based learning allows students to apply their scientific understanding to nature and form a connection with their local environment and the species in it over the course of a school year. Each Friday, in what are referred to as “Fieldwork Fridays,” Coppens brings her students outside to apply what they learned that week in class to the environment around them. This can range from using measuring skills to estimate the heights of trees, to looking for animal prints in the snow to better understand the concept of trace fossils, to thinking of an experimental design in nature. Tips for implementation are included, and some of the benefits and challenges of this approach to hands-on, nature-based learning are addressed.
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‘Release them into the wild, but how far can they go?’ Improving social and emotional mental health through teaching bushcraft skills to children with special educational needs and disability: a preliminary case series evaluation study.
J Tonks et al. – Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning.
Previous research indicates that outdoor activity and learning programmes are a beneficial educational approach, but studies have neglected to consider how well this approach may address the social, emotional and mental health needs of children with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND). In this study, seven Key-Stage 3 children with SEND (aged 11 to 14) from a special educational needs provision within a mainstream school attended a five-week ‘bushcraft’ programme. Standardised psychometric measures of self-concept were completed by children before and after the intervention, and teachers rated pupils’ stress levels before and after. Results indicate that the programme was associated with a range of mental health, social and emotional benefits, suggesting that teaching bushcraft skills to this group is an acceptable, feasible and effective intervention leading to improvements in social and emotional function and mental health in children with SEND. Directions for future programme development and evaluation are considered.
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Outdoor Play and Learning in Elementary Schools: A Critical Participatory Action Research Project.
M Zeni et al. – Canadian Journal of Action Research.
In this study, we enacted critical participatory action research (CPAR) within an online community of practice (CoP). The CoP was designed to build a community of outdoor play and learning (OPAL) practitioners. This paper describes how a cohort (n=18) of experienced Kindergarten to grade eight (K-8) teachers from across British Columbia shared their OPAL experiences and practice and the collective action taken. Regularly scheduled meetings over a six-month period resulted in dialogue that identified the need for quality resources that were accessible for all teachers. The concept of a website, developed for teachers by teachers experienced with OPAL, was initiated within the CPAR process. This article describes findings related to participation in a CPAR CoP, and the process of deciding upon and enacting shared action to support OPAL elementary school teachers.