Designing an outdoor learning environment for and with a primary school community: a case study in Bangladesh

Abstract

In Bangladesh, school grounds are usually barren areas devoid of any designed features. This study explored children's, teachers' and parents' views of what would constitute an effective school ground for learning, socialising and play at primary schools in rural Bangladesh. Working within the theory of behaviour settings to design school grounds, several methods were applied: focus groups with children, teachers and parents, a drawing session with children and a child-led/teacher supported modelmaking workshop. The results suggest that children want to connect with nature, to explore their environment, to challenge themselves, to be physically active and to socialise with friends. They also wanted their school ground to be more attractive. The parents highly valued gardening whereas teachers preferred an area with loose materials where the children could learn by themselves. None of these ideas were mutually exclusive and the subsequent design was able to incorporate elements from all groups.

Can an Outdoor Learning Environment Improve Children’s Academic Attainment? A Quasi-Experimental Mixed Methods Study in Bangladesh

“…As part of the natural learning area and gardens, new plants were planted, which resulted in 27 types of vegetation in the school ground after redesign compared with only two types before intervention. A detailed description of the design and development of the school ground is published elsewhere (Khan et al, 2019). After the school ground was ready for use, the use of the school ground for teaching of the curricula (science and math) was limited to only the TIS group (see Figure 4); however, the school ground was used for play and other informal learning activities by all the children in the school.…”

“…These indoor classrooms offer few, if any, opportunities for independent exploration and collaboration as children are typically seated in rows facing a blackboard, with insufficient space for group work or exploration to occur naturally or easily. It is in these contexts that a well-designed outdoor school ground could provide an alternative place for children to learn more effectively, and offer greater opportunities for independent exploration and cooperation (Khan, 2012; X. Wu, Anderson, Nguyen-Jahiel, & Miller, 2013).…”

“…Gibson’s (1979) theory of affordances refers to those properties of an environment that support and complement people’s development. The opportunities for learning offered by different physical features of the school ground have been termed “cognitive affordances” by Khan, Bell, McGeown, and Silveirinha de Oliveira (2019). Indeed, rich and diverse outdoor environments provide more affordances for play and learning (Cosco, 2006; Moore & Wong, 1997), whereas barren school grounds can discourage children from diverse play, social interaction, ecological experience, and learning (Samborski, 2010).…”

The impact of nature and outdoor learning on students

“…After proposing Takahashi and Titman's related theories, designing, managing, and monitoring outdoor classrooms were regarded as remarkable issues throughout the world (Billmore, Brooke, Booth, Funnell, & Bubb, 1999;Takahashi, 1999;Titman, 1994). Moreover, protecting and managing the natural and artificial landscape of schools are studied in some of the articles (Bell, 2019;Bentsen et al, 2013;Johnson, 2010;Khan, Bell, McGeown, & Silveirinha de Oliveira, 2020). Accordingly, the Learning through Landscapes (LtD) Charity, UK, builds each year several landscaped school grounds, and then presents the experiences and proper basics of landscape design by evaluating them (Richardson, 2017).…”

“…In the education and learning environment, current studies have announced a restorative impact related to direct or indirect submission to trees and other forms of greenery on students across age categories (Guardino et al, 2019;Williams, Rose, Olsson, Patton, & Allen, 2018). For elementary school students, the recognized restrictiveness of school playgrounds is positively related to naturalness and vegetation volume (Bagot, Allen, & Toukhsati, 2015;Collado & Corraliza, 2015;Khan, Bell, McGeown, & Silveirinha de Oliveira, 2020). This paper summarizes the major theories about the following four subjects: "the importance of landscape in educational spaces", "designing the open space of educational environments", "fundamentals of designing landscapes and schoolyards", and "the effect of open yards and natural environments of schools on students' learning.…”