Children's views and preferences regarding their outdoor environment
Children who helped decide how their school ground was built wanted challenge and security, exploration, contact with others, and natural features.
Research, reports and guidance on education outside the classroom and outdoor education, with a plain-English summary of each and a link to the original. New items are added every week.
The library began with Education Outside the Classroom: Applied Research Readings 2010–2017(McNatty & Boyes, University of Otago, 2017). Later items were found, summarised and checked with AI assistance using the same method: every reference is checked against the publisher's record, every summary against the published abstract, and only items rated high confidence by two independent relevance checks are published. Summaries are a guide: read the original before citing it.
Research library
125 items
Learning with nature and learning from others: nature as setting and resource for early childhood education
Case studies and discussion with Scottish and Nordic teachers give positive examples and challenges of nature-based early childhood education.
Tenuous affair: Environmental and outdoor education in Aotearoa New Zealand
The authors look at education for sustainability within outdoor education and how meaning is, and can be, given to outdoor experiences.
'Touched by the Earth': a place-based outdoor learning programme incorporating the Arts
Working with young adolescents, the study found the Arts play a crucial role in embodied, multi-sensory learning that nurtures nature awareness and attachment.
An Australian perspective of a forest school: shaping a sense of place to support learning
A forest school in a Western Australian primary school promoted a sense of self, belonging and place attachment.
Students' experiences with/in integrated Environmental Studies Programs in Ontario
Canadian students in interdisciplinary environmental studies programmes changed their environmental attitudes and behaviours.
To be in the garden or not to be in the garden: that is the question here: some aspects of the educational chances that are inherent in tamed and untamed nature
The paper explores children's lack of opportunity to engage with nature and the educational value of tamed and untamed gardens.
Empathy and critical thinking: primary students solving local environmental problems through outdoor learning
The study explores outcomes of teaching primary children empathy and critical thinking to solve environmental problems.
Connecting to the Good Life through outdoor adventure leadership experiences designed for Indigenous youth
A research collaboration with the Wikwemikong people looked at how a ten-day leadership experience promotes resilience and wellbeing for Indigenous youth.
Experiencing the different everyday on an international school-led trip: A New Zealand example
The chapter reflects on how young people on international school trips develop autonomy and learn, using views from students, parents and school leaders.
The application of recognition-primed decision theory to decisions made in an outdoor education context
The paper maps the decisions experienced outdoor leaders make, sorted into logistical, safety, pedagogical, environmental and group dynamics categories.
Comparison of methods to teach magnetic declination
The article describes and compares four methods of teaching magnetic declination.
Service-learning: Implications for empathy and community engagement in elementary school children
Findings suggest service-based learning supports young students' academic and social learning and civic efficacy.
Critical thinking assessment across four sustainability-related experiential learning settings
The project examined critical thinking in four experiential sustainability courses and discusses a conceptual model of integrated planning, design, content and scaffolded application.
Does challenge by choice increase participation?
The article discusses student responses to a challenge by choice programme, including its benefits and caveats.
Experiential learning and its impact on students' attitudes toward youth with disabilities
Students' attitudes toward people with disabilities were examined after lecture material plus direct work with people with disabilities at an inclusive camp.
Outdoor adventure education for children in Scotland: quantifying the benefits
A project tried to quantify the personal and social benefits of outdoor adventure education and got mixed results.
Fostering experiential self-regulation through outdoor adventure education
Two linked studies examine whether outdoor adventure education can affect students' ability to regulate interest and goal direction.
Social dynamics in outdoor adventure groups: Factors determining peer status
The article explores how gender and socioeconomic factors affect students' peer status in task and social situations in outdoor adventure groups.
Improving school attendance: can participation in outdoor learning influence attendance for young people with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties?
A one-year outdoor programme in an English special school improved attendance, though attendance is complex and gains may stay within the programme.
Outdoor recreation for 'Every Body'? An examination of constraints to outdoor recreation for individuals who are significantly overweight
A brief article identifies structural, intrapersonal and interpersonal constraints on outdoor recreation for people who are significantly overweight.
Enhancing resilience in youth through a 10-day developmental voyage
Youth on a ten-day New Zealand sail training voyage gained resilience that lasted after the voyage.
Creating a temporary community? An ethnographic study of a residential fieldtrip
An ethnographic study follows how community feeling changed for three teachers and students on a week-long residential fieldtrip.
An investigation of participants' intended and actual transfer of learning following an Outward Bound wilderness experience
A retrospective study compares what students intended to take home from an Outward Bound course with what they actually carried two years later.