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
Teachers and a researcher describe working against the constraints of a North American public school system to build a nature-based schooling culture, and what it took to keep going.
Six 'touchstones' for wild pedagogies give early childhood environmental educators a way to think about nature as a co-teacher and about letting go of control.
This paper adapts the idea of pedagogical content knowledge to outdoor education, proposing a framework for the knowledge outdoor teachers need.
Underserved students in a technology-integrated environmental education programme reported more confidence and knowledge in using technology outdoors.
Instructors in a Toronto urban outdoor programme described building children's nature connection as creating space for it, engaging that space, and broadening it.
Forest school leaders see the outdoor site as a separate, more flexible learning space where children and adults work out new ways of teaching and learning together.
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.
A study explores the successes, challenges, surprises and pedagogical risks for students and a professor in a student-directed experiential education course.
The study supports school-based experiential outdoor education as a way to engage students in meaningful, memorable and motivating learning.
Outdoor educators on field trips often pointed out scientific concepts but rarely worked on values and attitudes; structured active learning stood out as contributing to a variety of outcomes.
The authors argue that a focus on risk and danger limits the teaching potential of adventure, and propose an approach based on the learner's everyday life.
The research suggests outdoor educators have pedagogical skills that mainstream educators could use to teach outdoors or be more environmentally focused.
The article draws together evidence linking service learning to the goals of education, including personal, social and academic achievement.
The article examines how New Zealand primary teachers teach, programme and understand outdoor education.
The research stresses supporting students through the transition home after a long outdoor programme, including assessing learning through project work.
The book outlines the key elements of a pedagogy of adventurous learning that educators can adapt to their own contexts.
Working with young adolescents, the study found the Arts play a crucial role in embodied, multi-sensory learning that nurtures nature awareness and attachment.
The article describes and compares four methods of teaching magnetic declination.
The project examined critical thinking in four experiential sustainability courses and discusses a conceptual model of integrated planning, design, content and scaffolded application.
The article discusses student responses to a challenge by choice programme, including its benefits and caveats.
Students' attitudes toward people with disabilities were examined after lecture material plus direct work with people with disabilities at an inclusive camp.
The article examines progressions in experiential learning and how more proficient kayakers guide learners.
The article discusses giving students independence in outdoor programmes while keeping appropriate supervision and staying within safety bounds.
A guide offering several strategies for assessing experiential learning.