What is the value of nature pedagogy in primary education?

 

“They need to be outside. They need to explore, get dirty, find stuff—they need to have fun” (Kriesberg, D, 1999).

The value of Nature in primary education has massively increased throughout the years, especially from when I was in primary education but more significantly from the impact of the changing curriculum through the use of ‘The Donaldson Report’. The focus of environmental education is to encourage children to explore and experience their local environment, to develop a sense of wonder and sense of their place (Athman, J.; Monroe, M.C. 2001). When I was in Primary School the only emphasis on the importance of nature we had was through the use of forest schools. Although forest school is still a part of the curriculum today and allowed myself the opportunity to interact with nature at a young age, I feel I’ve missed out in truly engaging with nature in the way of which wider pedagogy influences throughout the years have allowed children to do so today.

As previously said, one of the significant changes to natures importance within education has been because of the ‘The Donaldson Report’ influencing the curriculum. Donaldson’s four purposes can be linked to the pedagogical influence of nature. For example, one of the purposes is creating ‘ambitious and confident learners’ (Donaldson,2015). This involves children being ready to learn throughout their lives. This can be linked to the value nature pedagogy because If a child is both ambitious and confident, they’re allowing themselves to fully engage in different experiences that learning outside involving nature has to offer. The more ambitious and confident the child is the more determined and open minded they’ll be with the involvement and influence of nature throughout their lives in order to learn and succeed to their full potential. For example, a child who is confident and has an interest for a certain subject like maths or art, potentially would be more willing to the idea of learning maths outdoors or even using different resources like sticks, leaves and rocks to create and work out an answer to an equation or problem further benefiting and increasing a child’s knowledge within this subject. Similarly, with art, children can use different resources to create an image, or choose things from their environment to create or paint. On the other hand, nature pedagogy can have a significant impact on children who may struggle with subjects within the curriculum. Some children struggle to engage with learning within a classroom. By taking children outside to learn different subjects within the curriculum allows them to potentially build a greater understanding by being more practical using outdoor resources to their advantage rather than classroom work. By doing it like this could potentially increase the likelihood of them remembering what they’ve learnt because they’ve been practical and further associating it with learning in the future.

Another purpose is having ‘Healthy, confident learners’ (Donaldson, 2015) meaning children are ready to lead fulfilling lives as valued members of society. The use of the outdoors can be significant to a child’s health. Allowing children to play and explore outdoors allows many to exercise without evening knowing whilst having fun as they do so. Nowadays children spend far too much time indoors using technology than they do exploring outdoors, therefore child obesity has risen massively. As a child I spent a lot of time outdoors due to the fact that the technology we have today wasn't accessible then. I didn't have a phone when I was in primary school and although I had game consoles I feel I still much preferred to be outside. Children who engage in lots of physical activities at school tend to engage in more energetic activities at home, however, children who tend to lack active physical activity tend to engage in non-active behaviours at home, such as watching TV and excessive use of technology (Dale, Corbin, & Dale, 2000).

In order to increase the value of nature pedagogy in primary education its crucial to involve parents and the community. The involvement of parents and the community allows children to continue their learning experiences with nature outside of school hours. Having parents, teacher and other role models showing interest in nature increases the likelihood of children becoming more engaged. Children are more likely to listen to those they value and are significantly influenced by. Research suggests that children are more likely to participate in environmental opportunities if their parents are also interested in this way, or give them approval and encouragement to take part (Chawla, L.; Cushing, D.F, 2007).

In their early years, children's developmental tendency towards empathy with the natural world which needs to be supported with free access to an area of limited size over an extended period of time. (Sobel, David, 1996). Forest schools allows children to do so. As I previously spoke about, my experiences with nature within primary education were only limited as far as forest schools. To me, forest schools massively favours and increases the value of nature pedagogy. We would use natural resources to create dens and images on the ground.  Environmental educators need to reintroduce learners to their local area by exploring and experiencing it, by learning about it and celebrating it. By doing so, environmental educators help learners develop a sense of wonder and a sense of place (Athman, J.; Monroe, M.C. 2001). Children who are unfamiliar with woodlands can become confident in using them allowing a basis of a life-long relationship with natural spaces. Forrest schools is a good resource in allowing children to understand the importance of nature and why we need it whilst building upon life skills such as team building but also dependence.

To conclude, its clear that the value of nature pedagogy is massively important within primary education today and in future. Without nature pedagogy, children will lack greater experiences and learning with the outside rather than being purely subjected to indoor learning. Outdoor learning increases a child’s development and also has a great benefit on a child’s mental and physical well-being. Therefore, nature pedagogy must always be apart of the curriculum.

 

References

Kriesberg, D. (1999) A sense of place. Teacher Ideas Press, Englewood CO.
(Accessed 5/11/18)

Athman, J.; Monroe, M.C. (2001) Elements of Effective Environmental Education Programs. In A. Fedler (Ed.). Defining Best Practices in Boating, Fishing, and Stewardship Education.Washington DC: Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation, pp. 37–48. (Accessed 5/11/18)

https://gov.wales/docs/dcells/publications/150225-successful-futures-en.pdf (Accessed 5/11/18)

http://www.communityplaythings.com/resources/articles/2010/outdoor-play (Accessed 6/11/18)

Chawla, L.; Cushing, D.F. (2007) Education for strategic environmental behaviour. Environmental Education Research, 13(4):437–452. (Accessed 6/11/18)

Sobel, David, (1996) Beyond Ecophobia: Reclaiming the Heart in Natural Education, Great Barrington, MA, The Orion Society. (Accessed 6/11/18)