Children in the Outdoors A literature review

4.3 Children and education in the outdoors “…the outdoor environment can be more than a place to burn off steam, with more educators and architects and designers embracing the ideas that outdoor play space 15 provides chances for the highest level of development and learning. When used best, it can be a place for investigation, exploration and social interaction.” (CCRU, 2008) Within existing research, there is also a strong theme related to the connection between children’s education and their use of the outdoors (Senda and Kuwabara, 2007). Evidence has been presented of a reduction in the amount of time children spend outside the classroom (NFER, 2004). 

This has been coupled with concern over reductions in children’s level of physical activity within the school context (Armstrong and McManus, 1994). Nevertheless, there have been (perhaps in response to this) several concerted efforts to reengage education with nature in a ‘natural’ setting and increase the amount of time that children spend outdoors within an educational context. There has been a growth in the number of Forest Schools and Outdoor Nurseries, for example, in which children engage in outdoor based activities for prolonged periods of time – from woodland crafts to cooking outdoors and free play (Riley, 2007). 

Research has shown the educational benefits to be gained from learning in such an environment (O’Brien, 2006; O’Brien and Murray, 2007) and has also highlighted the added value of increased physical activity and well-being derived from the outdoor experience (O’Brien and Murray, 2007). It has been suggested that a greater engagement with the outdoors throughout the curriculum (not just in play or organised sports activities) for primary and secondary school aged children, can bring benefits associated with a greater connection with nature. 

Tunnicliffe (2008) gives one example by investigating the merits of the pond as a site of “biology and science education”. However, research has shown that school conducted outside also increases levels of children’s physical activity (Groves and McNish, 2008). Mygind (2005) suggests that Forest Schools increase levels of physical activity and Lovell’s work (2009) shows that on Forest School days children are more active – as measured through use of pedometers, sedentary time reduces from around three quarters to a third of the school day. Groves and McNish (2008) suggest the impact is particularly great for girls’ levels of physical activity. 

Research on Forest Schools (Lovell, 2009) has suggested that girls’ level of physical activity increases in the outdoor setting to become much more comparable with that of boys. Therefore, some of the more traditional associations between gender, education and play appear to be broken down within the outdoors setting of the Forest School. Contact with nature has also been seen to be associated with increased creativity and language development (O’Brien and Murray, 2005). 

Tabbush and O’Brien (2002) point out that education in the outdoors need not only be about learning about the environment. This is also demonstrated in Moore and Wong’s (1997) action research which highlights the wide range of benefits afforded to children and teachers through the transformation of a tarmac school playground into a space filled with natural elements and subsequently named the “environmental yard”. 

The Forest School ethos is centred in child-led learning and links, therefore, to the call to give children more opportunities to use the outdoors in ways that they find stimulating (Johnson, 2007). This demonstrates that use of the outdoors and natural features for children’s health and development can be achieved not just within the play environment (Burdette and Whitaker, 2005) but also in the educational context (Mannion et. al., 2006). 

A similar connection has been suggested in relation to out-of-school clubs, although access can be prohibited by cost (Smith and Barker, 2001). 16 In a wider context, this links to understanding the link between use of the outdoors and environmental attitudes and also links between childhood experience and adult behaviour (Chawla, 2007; Wells and Lekies, 2006). 

There is scope for research to examine to a greater extent how the environmental attitudes of children link to their frequency of use of outdoor spaces and what types of activities they do in these outdoor spaces (e.g. see Palmer, 1998; Evans, et. al., 2007). 

Work is also starting to examine the link between childhood use of the outdoors and environmental attitudes, as well as types and frequency of outdoor use, in adulthood (Chawla, 2007; Wells and Lekies, 2006). There is a general agreement that those who use the outdoors more frequently as a child will carry this trend into adulthood (Ward Thompson et. al., 2008).

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