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.
42 items
Parents and a teacher of young children in a short nature-based programme in Turkey described the children's experiences in themes covering physical, social, emotional and cognitive development and their relationship with the environment.
This study presents the beach as a setting for sensory, open-ended play with seaweed, stones, ash and sound, valuing learning encounters that resist predetermined outcomes.
Australian educators co-designed an assessment tool for bush kinder that helped them understand children's learning in nature more deeply.
Eight Australian case studies describe three facilitator styles in nature play: nature pedagogues, nature guides and nature players.
Beginner early childhood teachers from migrant backgrounds moved from protective views of risk towards seeing children as competent, while managing tensions with regulation, culture and relationships.
Beaches and coastal 'blue spaces', such as those used in Australian beach kinder, offer rich contexts for young children to develop mathematical habits of mind.
Children in Aotearoa, Norway and Tanzania explored and expressed meanings of local water, and the study reveals tensions in how early childhood curricula address water.
A 10-week nature play programme for Year One students in Sydney was linked to significant gains in mathematics, along with children expressing joy, autonomy and a growing awareness of their relationship with nature.
Norwegian early childhood educators said supporting children's play in nature depends on their pedagogical, bodily and communicative knowledge, together with flexibility and pedagogical tact.
All 40 studies in this scoping review linked nature-based risky play and adventure education with positive development, but parental anxiety and liability concerns still limit practice.
Repeated nature walks in a local park elicited affective, cognitive and sensory responses to nature in Malaysian preschoolers. The authors see the walks as a low-cost, accessible way to foster nature connectedness.
Bringing wild pedagogies into Danish early childhood institutions revealed two 'shoots of change': altering the place of nature in practice, and carving out time for more open approaches.
Educators in an English nursery and primary school video-recorded their outdoor teaching and reflected on it. They theorised about their role in supporting children's autonomy and discussed ways of combining outdoor and indoor learning.
In a Vancouver urban forest, young children's self-chosen play centred on sticks, which suggests outdoor curriculum should build on children's choices and tactile contact with natural objects.
Preschool teachers saw field trips as valuable gateways to out-of-school learning, but limited time, resources and security concerns can hold back practice.
A year-long UK study uses Foucault's ideas to show how power is negotiated between early years teachers and Forest School leaders.
Ethnographic work in four Australian bush kinders shows how educators can observe children's play and use it to build their understanding of, and affinity with, nature.
Owner/managers of English early childhood settings can lead outdoor practice for infants and toddlers by creating cultural, physical and reflective spaces for their staff.
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.
Ten weeks of nature-based teaching on placement boosted Turkish preservice early childhood teachers' confidence. The study also names barriers such as family and management attitudes.
US preschool playgrounds scored lowest on challenge, and teachers' average risk tolerance score was 29 out of 100, which points to a need for teacher education about risky play.
Croatian early childhood teachers' attitudes to risky play differed by education level. The authors suggest that teacher education shapes attitudes but not the ability to act against restrictive safety procedures.
A practical text on immersive nature play programmes in the early years, covering the benefits of learning in natural spaces, pedagogy, First Nations perspectives, sustainability and risk management.
In a kindergarten quasi-experiment, outdoor learning had a significant effect on young children's early numeracy literacy.