‘It’s good for their self-esteem’: the substance beneath the label
In this article in the Journal of Adventure Education & Outdoor Learning, Mark Leather provides an informed and critical understanding of the concept of self-esteem. He explores this psychological construct in relation to its use in adventure education and outdoor learning. The paper argues that outdoor educators need to be [...]
Measuring nature connection in nature-based programmes
A number of outdoor programmes try and discover out if this has positively influenced participants' connection to nature. Alexia Barrable has been involved in the following: This review aims to offer an overview of the interventions identified, provide a snapshot of the current state of the literature, briefly present themes [...]
World Environment Day 5 June 2023 – how is your learning for sustainability practice?
Education Scotland is encouraging educators to mark World Environment Day by taking a look at their Learning for Sustainability self-evaluation framework. Closely aligned to 'How Good is Our School 4', it is designed to help schools look inwards, outwards and forwards - a key approach to self-evaluation. It focuses on [...]
What do the children want?
School Outdoor Learning have shared this post (March 26, 2023) by a teacher and Forest School practitioner. She listens to the children she works with, and shares her thoughts. This includes the insight ‘ What I hear from the children doesn't just reinforce all the studies that show that outdoor [...]
Local wild place learning
The John Muir Trust have shared an Onthank Primary School pupil-led short film showcasing local wild place learning. Enjoy a case study on the impact of their learning through improving health literacy and numeracy, and read the Transformative Evaluation pilot report.
Piloting a Transformative Evaluation approach – with an East Ayrshire P6 class and teacher
Read about a transformative evaluation approach that captures the impact of learning outdoors. The John Muir Award is used to inspire action for wild places, and narrow the poverty related attainment gap through improving young people’s health, literacy, and numeracy. You can also find the school case study here.
Practitioner Guide to Assessing Connection to Nature
This very useful guide provides a “one-stop shop” for the range of approaches which can be used for measuring nature connections and the impact of engagement programmes, activities and events. There are a range of measures described, designed for different purposes. This guide helps the practitioner to select the best [...]
Growing among Trees: an evaluation of school based outdoor learning interventions
This paper is written by Marc A Harris (Cardiff Metropolitan University). It can be found in the Journal for Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning. The abstract and full paper are available online (published 24 Nov 2021). The abstract describes a 12-month pilot project in England, which delivered community forest and [...]
