Outdoor education gives fewer demands for action regulation and an increased variability of affordances

Abstract

In children's lives there are a lot of instigators for actions in every milieu and situation. When children grow older, the cortical activity starts to regulate the action instigation from the limbic system. The school system makes demands of action regulation for children. In outdoor education the many instigators for actions are not under the same demands for regulation as inside the classroom. In this study we have interviewed nine children about their experience with outdoor education. The interviews shows a wide variability of affordances grasped from outdoor education, as well as a tendency toward gender differences in what kind of action possibilities they grasp. These activities give the children useful experiences that are directly and indirectly relevant for their curriculum.

Effects of Regular Classes in Outdoor Education Settings: A Systematic Review on Students’ Learning, Social and Health Dimensions

“…Table 2 shows specific information concerning the interventions and data collections. Four studies were conducted in Denmark [4,6,7,27], three in the USA [28,29,30], and one each in Germany [23], New Zealand [31], Sweden [5], the UK [32], and Norway [33]. One study included data from the UK, India and Kenya [34].…”

“…Six studies collected and analysed data on a solely student level [4,23,27,29,34,35], five studies also included data from teachers, staff and parents [6,30,31,32,33] and one study [5] only included data from parents. Eight studies used interviews [6,27,29,30,31,32,33,34], six studies used questionnaires [5,7,28,30,31], three studies used learning assessments [29,30,31], two studies used observations [32,34] and, in each case, one study used a postal survey [23], written documents [29], drawings and concept maps [34], and accelerometry [4]. The quantity of compulsory educational activities in a natural or cultural environment outside the classroom varied from one school day bi-weekly to a duration of eight weeks [27], and a six-month full week programme [23].…”

“…Seven studies reported outcomes on learning dimensions [7,27,29,30,31,32,34] and eight studies on social dimensions [6,7,23,27,28,30,31,34]. Two studies reported on students’ physical activity [4,7], one study [5] on students’ mental health, one study [33] on students’ action regulation behaviour and one study [31] on students’ environmental attitude and behaviour.…”

Individual Differences and Possible Effects from Outdoor Education：Long Time and Short Time Benefits

“…The boys seemed to be more active, explorative and, in a much higher degree, they did activities which they were not able to do at the ordinary school environment. (Fiskum & Jacobsen, 2012), but whether they really differ in their actions during those days, remains to explore.…”

Children with Reading Disabilities and Outdoor Education

“…Earlier studies have shown outdoor education as a useful intervention to reduce undesirable behavior, such as different degrees of agitations, as well as to vitalize the children, provides a positive experience and increases the amount of desirable behavior like for example, more focus on task and more holistic presence (Dyment, 2005;Dyment & Bell, 2008;Fiskum & Jacobsen, 2012b, Contingent events, frustration or satiation are the main factors which might bring us to reversals from one state to another (Apter, 2001). These reversals are not anything we are making by free will; they are being guided by the situation (contingency, frustration and satiation) and our personality (dominance and liability to easily change state) (Apter, 2001).…”