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.
62 items
Welsh hill farmers' understanding of 'cynefin', a word tied to one's relationship with place and land, has the potential to provide a counter-pedagogy in keeping with place-based and Indigenous approaches.
Irish outdoor education often looks like a standardised, 'McDonaldized' product, and the authors argue for a more place-based practice.
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.
Used together, sit spots, solo wanders, journalling, gathering, story-sharing and nature names enabled relationships with place and the more-than-human world to emerge for children in a Brisbane outdoor programme.
Combining Cherokee traditional ecological knowledge stories with place-based education helped middle school students reflect on cultural literacy, wellbeing and respect for nature.
Findings from a case study of two early childhood teachers suggest that inquiry-based and place-based teaching in the bush, with First Nations perspectives on plants, can build teachers' botanical knowledge and literacies.
Interviews with children and young people who visited Zealandia led to three place-based approaches for using nature sanctuaries to enrich sustainability education.
This article sets out a Hawaiʻi framework for ʻāina-based pedagogies, grounding Indigenous land-based education in ancestral Hawaiian principles.
A Kaipara hapū used an estuary monitoring toolkit with NIWA and local high schools to lead Indigenous environmental education, supporting self-determination and environmental guardianship.
Observing a veteran outdoor educator on camp showed how they drew on a range of teaching strategies, and highlighted place-responsive teaching and pedagogic agility.
Forest school leaders see regular, repeated time in the same natural place as helping children connect with nature, feel ownership and want to protect it.
Pilot data from two high school field trips that combined environmental science, arts and humanities produced a framework for active and passive place relationships.
Auckland primary children who created a one-on-one performance about their city for adults developed deeper understanding, connection and empowerment. Their parents' learning was less clear.
Ingold's idea of enskilment offers a way to bring together outdoor activity skills and a deeper relationship with place in outdoor education.
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.
After a six-week bird-feeding and monitoring project in school grounds, primary children showed gains in knowledge of local birds and in attitudes towards them. The largest gains were for children with little prior nature experience.
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 outdoor education's Romantic focus on trips and expeditions has limited inclusion, and that a renewed focus on place and everyday experience could widen its reach.
Instructors in a Toronto urban outdoor programme described building children's nature connection as creating space for it, engaging that space, and broadening it.
An 18-month pilot in Taupō led to a Collaborative Community Education Model that may serve as a starting point for creating or modifying school-community partnerships.
A literature review argues that combining mindfulness with place-based education may help teachers and students experience place more deeply and think critically about power structures.
Secondary teachers adopting place-responsive and culturally responsive outdoor education faced challenges, including colleagues' views of the subject and the complexities of senior assessment. The approaches also created opportunities for curriculum alignment, holistic development and cultural diversity.
The article argues for blending place, space and sustainability in primary geography and outdoor learning.
Working with young adolescents, the study found the Arts play a crucial role in embodied, multi-sensory learning that nurtures nature awareness and attachment.