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.
95 items
Outward Bound Trust instructors in the UK saw phone-free experiences as more powerful for young people and valued in-person, in-place interaction over social media.
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.
Leave No Trace and its critiques can be used as a context for dialectical learning, helping students see that informed action matters and no action is innocent.
A study of a bring-your-own-device mixed reality (XR) intervention at a New Zealand marine education centre indicates XR can enhance understanding of complex marine conservation science.
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.
Universal Design for Learning gives primary teachers a planning framework for making outdoor learning inclusive of every learner in a diverse class.
Wilderness-based professional development boosted teachers' confidence and plans to use experiential methods, but the effect faded over time and confidence did not predict classroom use well.
Deliberately building fear into adventurous activities can isolate and marginalise students who struggle with it, which challenges the assumption that fear benefits everyone.
Drawing on Dewey and pupils' experiences of learning outside the classroom, this Norwegian study argues that learning activities support deep learning when they involve both transaction and continuity.
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.
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.
In one Australian primary school, findings indicate that school-ground teaching framed by self-directed learning tasks increased student autonomy, efficacy and achievement.
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.
Dutch primary teachers found barriers to teaching in green schoolyards and worked out practical solutions: just start, get training, use real-life experiences and build an outdoor mindset.
Immersive outdoor residencies for teachers, with their unpredictable physical and social conditions, can help teachers see community as central to learning and build their confidence with challenge.
The first synthesis of Canadian outdoor education research produced a model linking common teaching components, learning processes and students' short-term outcomes.
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.
A framework for deciding whether and how to use digital technology outdoors, and for weighing the intended and unintended consequences of that choice.
Ingold's idea of enskilment offers a way to bring together outdoor activity skills and a deeper relationship with place in outdoor education.
Former students of a two-year Wilderness Studies class from the 1970s still remembered it vividly 30 years later, and many went on to outdoor or environmental work.
This conceptual article uses self-determination theory to link Forest School practices to children's needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness, and suggests need-supportive teaching approaches.
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.
A trip to a Great Barrier Reef island led to a grounded theory of five dimensions of giving (to self, others, communities, environment and the whole), offered as a beginning framework for teaching with meaning and social concern.
In two 28-day Australian outdoor education programmes, carefully sequenced activities, a facilitative teaching style and active engagement were the teaching strategies that stood out.