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.
211 items
This article argues that ethical outdoor learning needs more than managing emotional crises. It should weigh doing no harm, promoting wellbeing and participant autonomy, with trauma-informed care as a guiding framework.
UK teachers in disadvantaged areas see nature as a calming, freeing space for children but feel that systemic constraints limit outdoor teaching.
Norwegian early childhood educators said supporting children's play in nature depends on their pedagogical, bodily and communicative knowledge, together with flexibility and pedagogical tact.
Interviews with nine Danish teachers suggest that continuing to use EOtC relies on teacher competence, collegial collaboration with a shared vision, and management support.
All 40 studies in this scoping review linked nature-based risky play and adventure education with positive development, but parental anxiety and liability concerns still limit practice.
Interviews with outdoor learning staff at three UK wetland centres show how Universal Design for Learning (UDL) can guide more accessible and inclusive programmes for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
Portuguese primary teachers who applied an ocean citizenship model using citizen science and coastal monitoring reported gains in their practice and in student engagement, but transport and resources were barriers.
The Dreaming and Doing model and its tested assessment tools help educators assess children's emotional and hands-on competencies for engaging with nature.
Outdoor educators are urged to keep questioning whether the comfort zone model and challenge by choice suit every participant.
Partnerships between universities, schools, community gardens and other organisations can help teachers use school gardens well and spread sustainability knowledge to families and the wider community.
A 10-week Bush School programme for Year One students in Sydney supported wellbeing and engagement and did not harm reading or maths outcomes.
Interviews with Canadian children and educators, plus a geographical scan with policymakers, point to the interconnected support and buy-in needed at policy, administrator and educator levels for outdoor learning to benefit children.
English pre-service teachers had few school placement opportunities to practise teaching outdoor adventurous activities, with reliance on residentials and external providers. Generalists lacked preparation.
Extending Noddings' ethic of care with place-responsive and more-than-human thinking offers a way to organise outdoor learning curricula around care.
The OTTER lab approach gives teachers a five-step structure for planning sustainability education outside the classroom: prepare, orientate, discover, make an impact, reflect.
Place-based educators in Michigan treated uncertainty as a source of creativity and responsiveness, using locally grounded 'vernacular' teaching to work against the limits of conventional schooling.
A four-week residential EOtC programme at an Australian secondary school was followed by significant gains in Year 9 students' sense of belonging and a modest rise in academic buoyancy.
Repeated nature walks in a local park elicited affective, cognitive and sensory responses to nature in Malaysian preschoolers. The authors see the walks as a low-cost, accessible way to foster nature connectedness.
Experienced K–8 teachers used loose parts and flexible routines to connect outdoor play with curriculum goals, scaffolding both structured and unstructured play into guided learning.
Research in four rural NSW schools found that student learning was enriched when local Aboriginal community members led teachers in climate change education, in settings enabling deep relationality with nature and Culture.
Bringing wild pedagogies into Danish early childhood institutions revealed two 'shoots of change': altering the place of nature in practice, and carving out time for more open approaches.
Educators from an Australian whole-cohort camp and an English programme for excluded students both described outdoor education creating opportunities for belonging and for students to re-engage and rebuild identity.
Experienced Irish outdoor educators described five components of an outdoor learning pedagogy and four conditions needed to make it normal in primary schools.
Educators in an English nursery and primary school video-recorded their outdoor teaching and reflected on it. They theorised about their role in supporting children's autonomy and discussed ways of combining outdoor and indoor learning.