Outdoor environments in school physical education: a scoping review
Research on outdoor PE mostly measures physical activity, and the line between outdoor PE and outdoor education is conceptually blurred.
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
356 items
A Whole-School Approach to Outdoor Learning
A Northern Norway school shows how regular, leadership-backed outdoor learning can become part of school identity, though teachers had few chances to share practice.
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.
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.
Are they ready? A narrative literature review of pre-program physical and social-emotional preparation for adolescent outdoor education participants
A narrative review gathers evidence on physical and social-emotional preparation for outdoor education participants, with recommendations for practitioners.
Encountering Literacy with/in Country
A settler Australian educator reframes literacy as relationship with Country and proposes storied reflective practice as professional learning for non-Indigenous educators.
Navigating the waterscapes: children's expressions and perspectives of water across Aotearoa, Norway, and Tanzania
Children in Aotearoa, Norway and Tanzania explored and expressed meanings of local water, and the study reveals tensions in how early childhood curricula address water.
Development and validation of the School Contexts of Outdoor Learning (SCOOL) scale
An 18-item scale measures barriers and enablers of outdoor learning at teacher, school and education-system level.
The impact of an innovative continuing professional development programme for teachers on self-efficacy and outcome expectancy in the context of outdoor education
Primary science teachers showed significant increases in self-efficacy and outcome expectancy for outdoor education after completing a continuing professional development programme.
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.
Nature Play as a Catalyst for Outdoor Learning, Engagement and Wellbeing in Australian Primary Students
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.
Practice guidance for education outside the classroom in Danish special schools: insights from a Co-creation process
Students, teachers and therapists co-created MOVEOUT-SPECIAL, a practice guidance for EOTC in special needs schools that recommends contextual, student and educational strategies.
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.
A Cultural Risk Assessment of Led Outdoor Activities
Adding cultural factors to a systems-based risk assessment of a mock led outdoor programme significantly increased the number of risks identified. The authors link this to the Mangatepopo Canyon tragedy.
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.
Expanding curricular outdoor learning: teacher-identified current practice, barriers and enablers
Expanding outdoor learning depends on school leadership, time, space and support as well as individual teacher skill.
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.
Beyond crisis management: ethical principles and trauma-informed care in outdoor learning and outdoor adventure therapies
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.
‘A completely different space’: Teachers' perspectives on disadvantage, access to nature and outdoor learning
UK teachers in disadvantaged areas see nature as a calming, freeing space for children but feel that systemic constraints limit outdoor teaching.
‘It’s kind of giving them that space […] it’s about freedom’—facilitating and supporting children’s play in nature
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.
Beneficence as a driving force of continuing change to education outside the classroom: Teachers’ perceptions of a one-year implementation
Interviews with nine Danish teachers suggest that continuing to use EOtC relies on teacher competence, collegial collaboration with a shared vision, and management support.
Risky Outdoor Play and Adventure Education in Nature for Child and Adolescent Wellbeing: A Scoping Review
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.