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.
356 items
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 Canadian public school district built a lasting nature kindergarten through community planning, co-created guiding principles, and careful hiring and ongoing support of its educators.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The abstract gives background on Education for Sustainability in early childhood and points to teacher education as one way to address it. It does not state the study's aim, method or findings.
A review of international research on learning outside the classroom finds a bias towards hard-to-measure outcomes and weak attention to theory and philosophy.
When New Zealand schools use contract instructors for outdoor education, many outcomes remain undeclared and implicit. The research offers recommendations to help schools and contractors work together.
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'.
Underserved students in a technology-integrated environmental education programme reported more confidence and knowledge in using technology outdoors.
Māori students in one secondary school outdoor education programme valued shared experiences and relationships, and making connections with Te Ao Māori through experience, stories of places and history. Affordability, the influence of friends and whānau, and prioritising educational pathways made engaging Māori in outdoor education complex.
A place-responsive approach can enable Swedish physical education teachers to teach friluftsliv in new ways and to work across subjects more locally.
A review of 22 articles brings together what motivates teachers to run outdoor education field experiences and what holds them back.
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.
School camps in Victoria, Australia were linked to gains in some areas of adolescent wellbeing and connectedness, with no change in others.
This paper argues that Leave No Trace can encourage a sense of separation from nature and suggests encouraging people to 'leave more trace' or 'consider their trace' instead.
On a residential science week in a German national park, students felt more competent outdoors, and this appeared to have the biggest impact on their higher intrinsic motivation.