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
Girls at a school that builds outdoor adventure into its curriculum linked their experiences to relationships, perseverance, enjoyment of nature, leadership, confidence and personal growth.
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.
An updated Natural England evidence briefing reports a substantial body of evidence supporting a positive association between engagement with the natural environment and a diverse range of learning processes and outcomes, including educational, social, developmental and health outcomes.
Instructors rated students' social-emotional skills as improving over an immersive outdoor programme, but they saw larger gains for white students than for students of colour.
Outward Bound instructors were stressed by unsafe conditions and student behaviour. Taking responsibility for safety, learning and control on themselves made that stress worse, and seeing themselves as failing to meet these demands led to role strain.
This paper sets out a six-week outdoor programme for primary school children that combines trauma-informed practice with outdoor learning to support emotional regulation and wellbeing.
Teachers saw modest gains in students' social and emotional learning during a three-year adventure-based programme, but a few students' behaviour could affect the whole class.
In a New Zealand positive youth development outdoor programme run in schools, all 5 Cs and a sixth C, contribution, were seen. Young people and adults valued different outcomes.
A week-long trip built a sense of community for most participants, but one participant experienced it very differently. Leaders need to respect individual needs within group-focused goals.
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.
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.
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.
Drawing on anxiety, school refusal and homesickness research, this article sets out a case-based approach for supporting Australian students who are reluctant to attend school camp or refuse to go.
A close look at one bush walk shows how an early childhood teacher and four-year-olds worked together on outdoor features in ways that encouraged risk-taking and resilience.
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.
Weekly Forest School and outdoor sessions over three years were linked to better attendance and academic attainment for disadvantaged young children. The authors also link emotional learning and wellbeing developed outdoors with academic development.
School camps in Victoria, Australia were linked to gains in some areas of adolescent wellbeing and connectedness, with no change in others.
Students in one-semester outdoor education programmes showed gains in self-authorship, which they linked to their instructor and to the outdoor experiences.
Observations show time outdoors helps young children's physical and social development, including confidence in the face of risk.
The study looks at what predicts positive change in body image for females in an outdoor programme who started with a negative body image.
The study looks at how teaching a class outside one day a week influenced pupils' social relationships.
A research collaboration with the Wikwemikong people looked at how a ten-day leadership experience promotes resilience and wellbeing for Indigenous youth.
Findings suggest service-based learning supports young students' academic and social learning and civic efficacy.
A project tried to quantify the personal and social benefits of outdoor adventure education and got mixed results.