Abstract:
During the past two decades students’ wellbeing has eroded, and school engagement has declined. Alongside this, since the 1980s there has been a global change in childhood, notably a decline in the time children spend playing and learning outdoors. Adding complexity is the long-tail effect of COVID-19 on children’s social skills and sense of belonging Australian Early Development Census data indicates these issues start early with four-year-olds exhibiting increasing struggles with physical health, wellbeing, social competence and emotional maturity on school entry.
An answer to these inconvenient trends may be found in introducing nature play into the “catch-all” compulsory early childhood years of school. Nature play is a child-led intrinsically motivating and joyful experience where children are trusted and given the freedom to regularly explore and engage with an environment that forefronts their relationship with nature. We are not advocating nature play as an add-on to already busy schools nor a panacea, but rather an underutilised approach that has shown multiple immediate and long-term benefits with no apparent harm.
In this roundtable presentation, participants will be introduced to a study investigating the impact of a 10 week nature play program intervention “Bush School” on Year One students wellbeing and school engagement. This research brings unique perspectives to the field. Firstly, while most nature play research adopt case study methodology, this study seeks to join a small number of outdoor education quasi-experimental studies. Additionally, it investigates the correlation between nature play and students wellbeing and engagement. It appears to be the first Australian research to do so. Further, it uses a new methodological instrument - a wellbeing and play self-reporting questionnaire for children in the early years of school – which was developed specifically for this research project. The quantitative data collected through the questionnaire is complemented by qualitative data including observational vignettes and stories from students, teachers and the researcher. The findings of the research will be useful for practitioners, researchers and policy makers across several domains – education, psychology, school playground design.
In this workshop participants will have the opportunity to engage with the emergent findings from multiple perspectives (students, teachers, parents and nature) following a world cafe discussion format. This allows participants to build on each other's thinking while considering implications for their own practice. If time permits, the participants will be invited to consider future possibilities for the research.
An answer to these inconvenient trends may be found in introducing nature play into the “catch-all” compulsory early childhood years of school. Nature play is a child-led intrinsically motivating and joyful experience where children are trusted and given the freedom to regularly explore and engage with an environment that forefronts their relationship with nature. We are not advocating nature play as an add-on to already busy schools nor a panacea, but rather an underutilised approach that has shown multiple immediate and long-term benefits with no apparent harm.
In this roundtable presentation, participants will be introduced to a study investigating the impact of a 10 week nature play program intervention “Bush School” on Year One students wellbeing and school engagement. This research brings unique perspectives to the field. Firstly, while most nature play research adopt case study methodology, this study seeks to join a small number of outdoor education quasi-experimental studies. Additionally, it investigates the correlation between nature play and students wellbeing and engagement. It appears to be the first Australian research to do so. Further, it uses a new methodological instrument - a wellbeing and play self-reporting questionnaire for children in the early years of school – which was developed specifically for this research project. The quantitative data collected through the questionnaire is complemented by qualitative data including observational vignettes and stories from students, teachers and the researcher. The findings of the research will be useful for practitioners, researchers and policy makers across several domains – education, psychology, school playground design.
In this workshop participants will have the opportunity to engage with the emergent findings from multiple perspectives (students, teachers, parents and nature) following a world cafe discussion format. This allows participants to build on each other's thinking while considering implications for their own practice. If time permits, the participants will be invited to consider future possibilities for the research.