Here’s the first of two updates 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.
Supporting the emergence of outdoor teaching practices in primary school settings: a literature review.
S Nadeau-Tremblay et al. – Education 3-13: International Journal of Primary, Elementary and Early Years Education.
With the aim of providing an overview of what is known about what can support teachers who wish to teach outdoors, this article proposes a literature review on this topic. It poses the following question: What supports the emergence of outdoor teaching practices in primary schools? To answer this question, 33 texts published between 2012-22 and presenting empirical results relating to outdoor teaching with primary school pupils (aged 5–12) were analysed. The results suggest six ways to support the emergence of outdoor practice: (1) building a common culture; (2) securing initiative through experimentation; (3) offering practical training in real-life contexts; (4) networking communities of professionals interested in outdoor pedagogy; (5) peer-to-peer planning, implementation and evaluation; and (6) including outdoor pedagogy in the school curriculum. Actions that could be undertaken by key players in the school field – teachers, pedagogical advisors, principals and school board administrators – to contribute to the emergence of outdoor teaching practices at the primary level are proposed.
Nature as a peace educator: Toward inner peace through learning and being in natural environments.
J Patel and C Ehrenzeller – The Journal of Environmental Education.
This research suggests that the experience of being immersed in natural environments can lead to embodied ways of learning and being beyond the Anthropocene and can shape children’s innate relationship with nature. It brings together two ethnographic case studies (in India and Germany) in alternative schools, which actively incorporate nature in their learning processes for children aged 6–13 years old. They find that, across both contexts, nature is considered as a peace educator: teaching key concepts and skills, promoting ecological ways of living and being, enabling conditions for wellbeing and inner-peace, and a reciprocal student-nature relationship of care. They call for an ontological and epistemological shift where nature is not just instrumentalized, but rather to recognize the intrinsic value for children being in nature, learning with and from nature rather than about it.
Children and Nature Research Digest
Community and environmental benefits of green schoolyards
This Digest focuses on the community, economic and environmental benefits of greening schoolyards. It is inspired by a collaboration between the Children & Nature Network, economist Rob Grunewald, The Big Sandbox and Autocase Economic Advisory. The result of this collaboration will be a white paper on how green schoolyards create economic value. The research that grounds this white paper, as well as the evidence described in this Digest, suggest that the benefits of green schoolyards accrue broadly to society, not just to the individual students who attend schools with green schoolyards.
Designing primary school grounds for Nature-based learning: A review of the evidence. Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education.
D Falzon and E Conrad – Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education.
There is a lack of clarity about how school grounds can be designed to enable effective nature-based learning. There is also little knowledge of how specific features within green school grounds contribute to specific desirable outcomes, such as improved academic performance or health. To address this gap, a systematised review of peer-reviewed academic literature was undertaken. The search included studies of nature-based learning on school grounds and literature concerned with the design of green school grounds for fostering nature connectedness and broader educational outcomes for primary school children aged 5 to 11. Results indicate significant research gaps on the design of green learning spaces in schools. While studies note apparent positive links between nature-based learning in school grounds and improved subject-specific learning, wellbeing, and nature connectedness, there is very little empirical evidence of how specific design features are linked to specific outcomes. The current evidence base is poorly representative of different social, cultural, and geographical contexts and not fully reflective of all primary schooling ages. The findings indicate an urgent need for increased research to guide the design of school grounds for the implementation of nature-based learning programmes for primary school learners.
Influences of Outdoor Experiences During Childhood on Time Spent in Nature as an Adult.
DK Kellstedt et al. – AJPM Focus.
- Time spent in nature provides myriad health benefits for adults and children.
- Child experiences in wild versus domestic nature predict adult time in nature.
- Programs supporting wild nature experiences may increase lifelong nature contact.
Early childhood immersion in nature: Chinese kindergarten educators’ perspectives on nature play.
J Zhai et al. – Environmental Education Research.
This study examines the role of nature play in children’s holistic development, engaging 12 Chinese kindergarten educators through in-depth interviews. The results demonstrated a consensus among participating educators regarding the significance of nature play in child development. While most educators see nature play primarily for personal development and aesthetic appreciation of nature, very few recognise it as a strategic tool for environmental education in young children, which includes ecological literacy and sustainability. Their limited exposure to environmental education during their teacher education results in a skewed understanding of nature-based play pedagogy. These underpinnings may unintentionally narrow their holistic perspective on the wider scope of environmental education. The findings suggest the need to foster educators’ richer understanding of environmental education in nature play through teacher training.
Early childhood-nature relations in Scottish school-based outdoor learning.
C Mackie – NatureScot Magnus Magnusson Studentship.
There is limited understanding of what happens in the first years of school in terms of children’s relationships with nature. This exploratory study records the everyday processes of outdoor learning in school grounds and local greenspace with 4–7 year olds and their teachers at two schools. Rather than just focus on the human interactions and meanings that emerged, data collection and analysis included the non-human things, beings and matter which were involved too. Observations were then read alongside policies, practice guidance and other research to create interference patterns around specific topics. This process showed that the children in the study related to lots of different, sometimes conflicting forms of nature through direct and indirect experiences and communication between teachers, children and non-humans. Processes including attending to things together, collecting and play were identified as important, but the findings also show that human-nature relations can be incoherent across socio-cultural and ecological contexts in schools, which may limit the potential for meaningful learning for sustainability. While practice guidance in Scotland appears to support ways of learning outdoors which could have positive impacts on human-nature relations in early childhood, capacity for this potential to emerge in schools is currently limited by things such as class sizes, staff ratios and school design.
Benefits of nature exposure on cognitive functioning in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
L Nguyen and J Walters – Journal of Environmental Psychology.
- No association between nature exposure and cognition (correlational studies).
- Small positive nature restoration and instoration effects on cognition (experimental studies).
- Nature effects evident for attention and executive functions.
- Nature effects similar for children (<10 years) and adolescents (10–19 years).
- Nature effect for neurotypical but not neurodivergent youths (limited studies).