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.
63 items
In German student-led 'challenges' projects, voluntary participation and the team aspect were the most central factors in students feeling they benefited.
A six-year case study of a rural Italian primary school highlights the importance of alliances with families and community, pupil voice and mixed-age groups when bringing in learning outside the classroom.
Across 19 countries/areas, experts most often reported field studies, early years outdoor activities and outdoor and adventure education, mainly to support environmental awareness and pupil wellbeing.
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.
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.
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.
Dutch childcare professionals said regulations, organisational protocols and overprotective parents were the main barriers to children's risky play.
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.
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.
Friluftsliv teachers' safety strategies both included and excluded students, revealing tension between teaching important winter outdoor skills and keeping friluftsliv inclusive.
A school's environmental education programme has lasted almost two decades thanks to five linked features: leadership and vision, resources, nature connection, community engagement, and tradition.
A Canadian public school district built a lasting nature kindergarten through community planning, co-created guiding principles, and careful hiring and ongoing support of its educators.
An On Country Learning project offers preliminary evidence for the efficacy of learning on Country, based on comparing children's involvement there and in the classroom.
A short park visit built on a German teaching programme improved Brazilian students' attitudes, emotions and biological understanding about invertebrates compared with a control group.
A large Hungarian survey found that primary schools value out-of-school learning and want more of it, but cost and fitting it into the syllabus hold them back.
A place-responsive approach can enable Swedish physical education teachers to teach friluftsliv in new ways and to work across subjects more locally.
This paper argues that Leave No Trace can encourage a sense of separation from nature and suggests encouraging people to 'leave more trace' or 'consider their trace' instead.
On a residential science week in a German national park, students felt more competent outdoors, and this appeared to have the biggest impact on their higher intrinsic motivation.
A partnership between a reef tourism operator, schools, a university and Indigenous rangers took learners to the outer Great Barrier Reef to connect with Sea Country.
A nationwide survey reports accidents and near-accidents in Norwegian upper secondary outdoor activities from 2010 to 2013.
A national survey of 3160 parents found time pressure was a bigger barrier to children playing in nearby nature than accessibility, safety or landscape quality.
The study looks at how teaching a class outside one day a week influenced pupils' social relationships.
The report summarises research on how social and economic factors shape children's access to the natural environment and what policy could change.