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.
73 items
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
An outdoor learning experience in a Year 7/8 English writing course in Victoria, Australia was linked to significant gains in students' creative writing.
A teacher educator describes using walking as a curriculum in an environmental education course, built around taking risks and making connections with nature and with each other.
Pilot data from two high school field trips that combined environmental science, arts and humanities produced a framework for active and passive place relationships.
EOTC is part of the fabric of almost every school in Aotearoa and highly valued, with cost, staff capability, time and health and safety demands the main constraints.
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.
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.
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.
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 teachers value outdoor science for studying nature 'for real' and lifting interest, but describe little science content and face organisational and cost barriers.
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.
Results suggest two adventure-based PE programmes both benefited middle school students' self-conceptions over seven months, with each working best for different aspects of self-concept.
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.
Two kindergarten teachers used one authentic multimodal text before, during and after a zoo trip to build children's scientific literacy and their identity as 'scientists'.
A place-responsive approach can enable Swedish physical education teachers to teach friluftsliv in new ways and to work across subjects more locally.