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.
36 items
Across 20 studies, most results showed outdoor education programmes improved students' wellbeing. Benefits appeared in short and extended programmes and sometimes lasted weeks, months or years.
In New Zealand rock climbing and kayaking, students developed emotional intelligence through peer and adult support. Teachers and instructors played a key role in building a supportive culture.
A narrative review gathers evidence on physical and social-emotional preparation for outdoor education participants, with recommendations for practitioners.
A 10-week nature play programme for Year One students in Sydney was linked to significant gains in mathematics, along with children expressing joy, autonomy and a growing awareness of their relationship with nature.
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.
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.
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.
A 10-week Bush School programme for Year One students in Sydney supported wellbeing and engagement and did not harm reading or maths outcomes.
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.
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.
A large Quebec trial found that two hours a week of outdoor classes for 12 weeks did not reduce overall mental health symptoms in 10–12-year-olds.
Staff at one Irish primary school described Forest School as promoting children's connection to nature, offering a distinctive space for social-emotional development, and broadening the expression of teacher identity.
Young women looking back on a month of immersive school outdoor learning in remote New Zealand said it shaped their identity and wellbeing well beyond school.
Norwegian primary teachers used outdoor swimming and water safety lessons at a local beach to build learners' resilience and teach about sustainable living.
This conceptual paper argues that Forest School should combine Western affordance theory with Indigenous place-based relationality to support children's social and emotional wellbeing.
Connections with others, real responsibilities and genuine challenges in outdoor adventure education appear to support adolescents' psychosocial wellbeing.
Edited by AUT's Mike Brown, this book explores the educational side of people's engagement with the ocean and 'blue spaces'. It includes a chapter on surfing and wellbeing in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Girls at a school that builds outdoor adventure into its curriculum linked their experiences to relationships, perseverance, enjoyment of nature, leadership, confidence and personal growth.
Five communities share what they learned while redesigning and using their educational spaces differently to build the wellbeing of students and the wider communities they serve.
An updated Natural England evidence briefing reports a substantial body of evidence supporting a positive association between engagement with the natural environment and a diverse range of learning processes and outcomes, including educational, social, developmental and health outcomes.
Instructors rated students' social-emotional skills as improving over an immersive outdoor programme, but they saw larger gains for white students than for students of colour.
Outward Bound instructors were stressed by unsafe conditions and student behaviour. Taking responsibility for safety, learning and control on themselves made that stress worse, and seeing themselves as failing to meet these demands led to role strain.
This paper sets out a six-week outdoor programme for primary school children that combines trauma-informed practice with outdoor learning to support emotional regulation and wellbeing.