“We re Trying to Find Cool Things in the Forest” – Exploring Children s Curiosity and Creativity in the Outdoors

Abstract

Curiosity and creativity are crucial for children's learning and engagement within their worlds. However, research on creative teaching that also addresses children's curiosity is quite limited. In this case study, we adopted visual methods in combination with video-stimulated recall dialogue (VSRD) to explore children’s experiences in a Forest School (FS) program in Southern Ontario. As researchers, we were particularly interested in the nexus of children’s curiosity and creativity in the process of learning. Participating children, aged 6-12 years, wore GoPro cameras to document their lived experiences in the FS. Informed by constructivism, we examined data vignettes, querying the role of curiosity and creativity within children’s entanglements in the natural environment. The results indicate that open-ended materials within nature invited and sustained curiosity and creativity. Children tended to gravitate to the complexity and ambiguity offered within the natural environment. The research findings have implications for educators, namely the importance of the choice of materials and approaches to support and prioritize children’s curiosity and creativity in learning processes. Implications for inviting educators to capitalize upon inquiry moments and the unknown were also evident.

Outdoor learning across the early years in Australia: Inconsistencies, challenges, and recommendations

“…Research increasingly suggests that OL for primary school children is academically beneficial, improving engagement and academic results in varied subjects (Kuo et al, 2019;Otte et al, 2019;Waite, 2019). Outdoor learning has potential to increase opportunities for children's agency (Baker et al, 2021) and curiosity (Harwood et al, 2022), which also promote academic achievement (Anderson et al, 2020). In many Nordic countries, such as Finland and Sweden, children engage in high levels of OL in ECE settings until aged seven, when they begin formal education (Gustafsson & Blömeke, 2018).…”

Argument Driven Inquiry-Based Students’ Worksheets on the Topics of Free Fall Movement to Improve Students' Curiosity

“…Science can be defined as a collection of knowledge that is systematically arranged, formulated in general, characterized by the use of scientific methods and the emergence of a scientific attitude (Lewkowich, 2019). The experimental method is a way of presenting learning material in which students carry out experiments through experience to prove for themselves a question or hypothesis being studied (Harwood et al, 2022). In the learning process using this experimental method, students are given the opportunity to experience or do it themselves, follow the process, observe an object, analyze, prove and draw their own conclusions about an object, situation or process of something (Herwin & Nurhayati, 2021).…”