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
A field studies course produced cognitive gains without the expected affective learning, which raises questions about how learning domains connect on residential courses.
Workshops with wharekura students trialled a Cultural Monitoring plan in ecosystem learning. They proved worthwhile, but understanding core ecological language in te reo Māori was a major challenge.
Teachers of 10–15-year-olds used the outdoors mainly for biology, ecology, pollution and inquiry teaching, and seldom linked outdoor lessons to sustainable development.
An abandoned 1958 car in a forest became a year-long prompt for preschoolers and their nature teachers to explore sustainability together.
Immersive outdoor residencies for teachers, with their unpredictable physical and social conditions, can help teachers see community as central to learning and build their confidence with challenge.
Toddlers in the same class took very different amounts of risk in nature play, and children whose parents saw outdoor play as riskier tended to be more risk-averse.
The first synthesis of Canadian outdoor education research produced a model linking common teaching components, learning processes and students' short-term outcomes.
English primary teachers kept valuing outdoor learning from 1995 to 2017 despite curriculum reform and performativity pressures. They used their own space as curriculum makers to keep it going.
The paper argues that a models-based approach to teaching adventurous activities in physical education offers the best opportunity to fully realise their contribution to students' learning.
A week-long trip built a sense of community for most participants, but one participant experienced it very differently. Leaders need to respect individual needs within group-focused goals.
In three Welsh primary schools, regular curriculum-based outdoor learning was seen to improve pupils' engagement, concentration, behaviour and wellbeing. Curriculum and testing pressures held it back.
US pre-service elementary teachers' essays pointed to the importance of their youth outdoor experiences and showed positive intentions to take students outside. They also described major obstacles.
English primary senior leaders value outdoor and adventurous activities highly but interpret them in very different ways, and they say the national curriculum offers little guidance.
A framework for deciding whether and how to use digital technology outdoors, and for weighing the intended and unintended consequences of that choice.
The author argues that school-based friluftsliv in Sweden's PE and health curriculum is dominated by a conservative, activity-based approach that is out of step with global issues such as climate change.
Ingold's idea of enskilment offers a way to bring together outdoor activity skills and a deeper relationship with place in outdoor education.
Dutch childcare professionals said regulations, organisational protocols and overprotective parents were the main barriers to children's risky play.
Oral histories from NZ early childhood leaders show how ideas of 'safety' have shifted over time and carry paradoxes for teachers who must also support risky play.
Former students of a two-year Wilderness Studies class from the 1970s still remembered it vividly 30 years later, and many went on to outdoor or environmental work.
Expert outdoor leaders' on-the-spot decisions rest on layers of earlier planning, from long-term preparation to the thinking just before a decision, and on carrying out those plans flexibly.
Surveys of English primary teachers in 1995 and 2017 showed the same barriers of time and cost, less teacher expertise, and clear ingredients for successful outdoor learning.
This conceptual article uses self-determination theory to link Forest School practices to children's needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness, and suggests need-supportive teaching approaches.
Primary children who did a six-week Forest School programme described it as a break from routine, a chance to learn through play, and a time to work together.
A trip to a Great Barrier Reef island led to a grounded theory of five dimensions of giving (to self, others, communities, environment and the whole), offered as a beginning framework for teaching with meaning and social concern.