New research added to the library each week, chosen for outdoor education and EOTC in Aotearoa.
9 October 2026
- Pupils’ Conceptions of Forests and Foresters’ Work after a Place-Based Forest Education Programme
After a single 4.5-hour forest programme, pupils aged 11–13 described forests and foresters' work in more specific, sensory and forestry-related language. - Affordances in motion: beach-school pedagogy, materials and atmospheres in early childhood education
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. - South African Geography teachers’ perceptions of fieldwork – constraints and benefits of fieldwork practice
South African geography teachers see learner safety as the biggest barrier to fieldwork, and the authors suggest using school grounds and walkable local areas. - The Bush Kinder Assessment Tool: Supporting Educators to Understand Children’s Learning in Nature-Based Early Childhood Education Settings
Australian educators co-designed an assessment tool for bush kinder that helped them understand children's learning in nature more deeply. - Outdoor Activity-Based Physical Education to Enhance Physical Literacy, Physical Fitness, and Environmental Awareness among Elementary School Students
An eight-week outdoor activity-based PE programme was linked to large gains in physical literacy, fitness and environmental awareness for fifth-grade pupils.
2 October 2026
- Te Waiora - Ngā Tau 0-10
The final Te Waiora curriculum presents wellbeing as including taha taiao, with outdoor experiences and kaitiakitanga as part of Māori-medium learning.
25 September 2026
- Outdoor school-based nature education programs improve social life and vitality: evidence from a six-wave longitudinal study on Italian secondary school students
In a study of 203 Italian students, outdoor programme participation was linked to early gains in social identity and civic engagement, but later effects were inconsistent. - Health and Physical Education consultation feedback analysis
The Ministry's longer analysis of consultation feedback includes a section on Outdoor Education in the draft HPE curriculum. - What you told us and how we responded: Health and Physical Education consultation response
From 786 submissions, the Ministry says it broadened Outdoor Education in the final HPE curriculum beyond a narrow safety focus.
18 September 2026
- Place, identity, and adaptation: conceptual insights from elementary science education initiatives in rural Hawaiʻi, Maine, and Montana
A three-year professional learning programme in three rural regions shows teachers moving from adapting given units to designing their own place-based units. - Personal health impacts of adventurous outdoor learning
This open-access analysis proposes physiological and neurological pathways through which adventurous outdoor learning may affect stress, mood and cognition.
28 August 2026
- Students' positive, negative and ambivalent outdoor experiences
Among 419 Hungarian students, nearly 55 per cent linked school nature experiences with too much discipline or too little free time, so going outdoors is not always a positive experience. - Green spaces do not automatically transform teaching
In three newly greened Paris primary schools, teachers often moved usual lessons outside without engaging with the place itself. - Learning that lingers
Young women who did a compulsory 28-day school outdoor programme still recognised enduring learning years later, and some recalled significant difficulty.
21 August 2026
- A framework of facilitator pedagogical typologies in place-responsive, unregulated Australian nature play programmes
Eight Australian case studies describe three facilitator styles in nature play: nature pedagogues, nature guides and nature players. - Development and validation of the School Contexts of Outdoor Learning (SCOOL) scale
An 18-item scale measures barriers and enablers of outdoor learning at teacher, school and education-system level.
14 August 2026
- Outdoor education and sustained student wellbeing: a scoping review
A review of 20 studies found 80 per cent reported positive wellbeing outcomes from outdoor education, sometimes lasting months or years. - Outdoor environments in school physical education: a scoping review
Research on outdoor PE mostly measures physical activity, and the line between outdoor PE and outdoor education is conceptually blurred. - Expanding curricular outdoor learning: teacher-identified current practice, barriers and enablers
Expanding outdoor learning depends on school leadership, time, space and support as well as individual teacher skill.