From programming to curriculuming in planning and teaching outdoor education
'Curriculuming' treats the outdoor programme itself as the assessment task, using criteria for formative assessment, feedback and transfer of learning during the programme.
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
40 items
Beach Kinders: The Blue Spaces that Support Early Childhood Learners to Build Mathematical Habits of Mind
Beaches and coastal 'blue spaces', such as those used in Australian beach kinder, offer rich contexts for young children to develop mathematical habits of mind.
Outdoor Learning in Rural Schools: Lessons From a Positive Outlier Case Study
In a rural Maine K–12 school that stands out for outdoor learning, key facilitators were building it into the regular school day and curriculum, professional development, long-term planning and links to local culture.
Living in history: Recognising the challenges for outdoor educators and taking on the pedagogical responsibility (the 2023 Brian Nettleton Lecture)
Outdoor educators 'live in history' when teaching on Country. This lecture and its classroom application show non-Indigenous educators taking up responsibility for that teaching.
Assets and liabilities for curriculum change: exploring teachers’ perspectives of enacting education outside the classroom
European teachers enacting EOtC during curriculum change identified few physical-setting barriers, and institutional supports appeared to dominate their considerations.
Literacies in the More-Than-Human World: Elementary Aged Learners in an Outdoor Learning Community
In a Canadian forest school, children's literacy took embodied, sensory, multimodal and relational forms shaped by the more-than-human world, going beyond written and spoken language.
Expanding curricular outdoor learning: teacher-identified current practices and needs for support in schools in England
English primary teachers said strong leadership, suitable outdoor spaces, flexibility and ongoing collaborative PLD help them integrate outdoor learning, with support tailored to each school.
Low-stakes, high-interest learning: a hermeneutic phenomenological study of children learning mathematics outdoors
Primary children experienced regular outdoor maths as safe, inclusive and liberating. The authors call this 'low-stakes, high-interest' learning that reduces anxiety and builds confidence.
Dreaming and Doing: A conceptual model for assessing children’s competencies for emotional and hands-on engagement to support connection with nature
The Dreaming and Doing model and its tested assessment tools help educators assess children's emotional and hands-on competencies for engaging with nature.
Teaching and learning outdoor adventure activities within initial teacher education
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.
The challenge to care in outdoor education - what Forest School offers. A response to McKenzie and Blenkinsop (2006)
Extending Noddings' ethic of care with place-responsive and more-than-human thinking offers a way to organise outdoor learning curricula around care.
Pathways for outdoor play and learning: pedagogical decisions and curricular intent in elementary school outdoor classrooms
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.
Making the invisible visible: the pedagogical affordances of outdoor learning in a nursery and a primary school
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.
Understanding children’s object choice and play in an outdoor setting: the embedded learning and meaning of playing with sticks
In a Vancouver urban forest, young children's self-chosen play centred on sticks, which suggests outdoor curriculum should build on children's choices and tactile contact with natural objects.
The ‘Welsh way’, outdoor learning within the primary curriculum: a ‘fringe add-on or mainstream pedagogical practice’?
A review of 25 years of Welsh policy argues that outdoor learning should be mainstream primary practice, supported by professional learning and held to account through school inspection.
Exploring Nature and Learning Science Through an Afterschool Birding Club
An afterschool birding club for elementary students supported social relationships, scientific knowledge and a growing appreciation of nature.
Ka ara ake te akoranga i te whenua: Perspectives from the classroom and the field
Two secondary teachers and a student argue that history learning about colonisation and local ecology should not stay in the classroom, and that teachers and students should, wherever possible, go into the field alongside mana whenua.
Writing as a method of inquiry about students’ experiences in a New Zealand primary school outdoor education programme
Essays by eight students at a semi-rural New Zealand primary school show the emotions and impact of a three-day camp, and how outdoor experiences can feed into literacy and other learning.
Digital Technology in Outdoor and Environmental Education: Affects, Assemblages and Curriculum-Making
This study reframes digital technology in outdoor education as something learners are entangled with, and suggests video-making can shape outdoor learning in new ways.
Desettling science through partnership
In a Year 7 science unit on plants, starting from mātauranga Māori, guided by tikanga and partnership, opened space for students in a superdiverse class to share their own narratives.
Teacher perspectives of a place-responsive curriculum initiative: A case study
This article describes the development of Hui Taurima, a TLIF-funded Year 9 cross-curricular 'Festival of Learning' that puts place and culture at the heart of teaching.
When are you taking us outside? An exploratory study of the integration of the outdoor learning in preschool and primary education in Quebec
Quebec preschool and primary teachers used outdoor learning across many subjects and settings, relying on flexible planning and routines, and named factors that helped or hindered them.
Conservation education in Aotearoa-New Zealand: a values perspective
The authors argue that conservation education, including learning about lethal control of introduced animals, supports the values set out in Aotearoa New Zealand's national curriculum.
How does a primary school organize outdoor swimming and water safety lessons?
A Norwegian primary school's outdoor swimming and water safety week was marked by strong principal support, staff teamwork, experiential learning, challenge by choice and risk awareness.