Learning in the outdoor environment: a missed opportunity?

Moving Physical Activity Beyond the School Classroom: A Social-ecological Insight for Teachers of the facilitators and barriers to students' non-curricular physical activity

“…Risk taking is suggested to increase children's confidence in themselves and develop learning paths and dispositions (Maynard & Waters, 2007) which are important educational considerations for enhancing and embracing the challenges of learning in any context. However, students mentioned that unsafe surfaces and structures (Physical Environment) could act as a barrier to their physical activity participation.…”

A critique of “Forest School” or something lost in translation

“…The translation required in the move from Scandinavian cultures to the UK is something which is critical for educators working in Forest Schools in the UK to understand, yet it poses cultural challenges. As Maynard and Waters (2007) highlight, Bthe outdoor environment is not a central feature of British cultural identity and as a result, for some [teachers] … the idea of being outside for an extended period of time may have been anathema^(p.262). For many working and living in contemporary urban educational settings in the UK, this may provide a good description of how being outside is often seen.…”

“…Observational methods are an unreliable method of assessing an individual pupil's self-esteem, a point reinforced in a small-scale study by Miller and Parker (2006), who advise caution when teachers make judgements about pupils' self-esteem. Further to this Maynard and Waters (2007), writing on learning in the outdoor environment, note that Bthe significance of self-esteem and learning styles may be over emphasised^(p.320).…”

What Does the Skill of Observation Look Like in Young Children?

“…Secondly, children brought their previous knowledge and experiences to the observation, enabling them increasingly to explain then interpret their observations. In this way the theories developed through prior exploration, investigation and teaching were applied to their observations (Duschl, 2000;Tompkins and Tunnicliffe, 2001), so the children moved from simple to more Maynard and Waters (2007) found that an outdoor environment, where children can explore the world around them, has the potential to support observation of natural phenomena. Both the resources available to children, and the context for learning, were found to be important factors for developing children's observational skills.…”