What is this all about?!
The aims of this research are as follows:
The Evidence
For several decades there has been a growing body of evidence highlighting the benefits of outdoor education but from 2012 to 2016 Natural England, Defra, Historical England and other bodies came together with the University of Plymouth to conduct England's biggest study into Learning in the Natural Environment.
Overwhelming benefits to both students and teachers were observed including better engagement in learning and academic achievement, better motor skills and increase levels of physical activity and improvement in behaviour and attendance rates for students, along with positive impacts on teaching practice, professional development, job satisfaction and the health and well-being of teachers.
95% of children surveyed said outdoor learning makes lessons more enjoyable
85% of schools saw a positive impact on behaviour
90% of staff surveyed found outdoor learning to be useful for curriculum delivery
92% of schools said it improves pupils’ health and wellbeing and engages them with learning
The Natural Connections Demonstration Project 2012-16
Who am I?
Research Ethics
York St. John University take ethics in research very seriously and as such this research has had to pass through their research ethics process before it gained clearance for me to start.
This includes ensuring the privacy of those individuals taking part, as well as that of the schools involved. As such, no individual or school will be identified in this research.
For further details of these and other safeguards that are in place for this research please see this blog post.
** THIS RESEARCH HAS NOW FINISHED **
THANK YOU to everyone who contributed to this research!
I really appreciate the time you have all taken to help me, and even more so to share your wealth of experiences of outdoor education.
It has been enlightening speaking with you or reading about your experiences, both good and bad.
I hope the findings will help to implement more LiNE across the City.
You can read about the findings by clicking the button.
THANK YOU!
Updates...
** This project has now finished **
The blog post below showing the findings of the research is useful, and the other blog posts may still be of interest to you.
And of course, don't forget the OutdoorEducationResources.UK website.
The results are in… What did this research show?
Here’s a selection of comments from the participants of the research into outdoor education in York: Thank you to all the participants who took time out to complete the questionnaire or speak with me directly. You can download a summary report of the research into Learning in the Natural Environment here. This research had 40+ Read more about The results are in… What did this research show?[…]
The Various Types of Outdoor Education (and what they mean!)
(updated July 2018) You may not have heard of the term ‘Learning in Natural Environments’ or the acronym ‘LiNE’ before and maybe more used to describing these activities as ‘outdoor education’ or ‘learning outside the classroom’. To confuse matters you may see me using these expressions interchangeably! As part of my research I have tried to make sense of Read more about The Various Types of Outdoor Education (and what they mean!)[…]
Extra details of my research into Outdoor Education in York
What can be done to enhance the provision of Learning in Natural Environments (LiNE) for school children in York LEA? Background: • The Natural Connections Demonstration Project (Waite et al, 2016) was a 4-year study involving 40,000 school children in 125 schools in the south-west of England. It looked at the benefits to children and Read more about Extra details of my research into Outdoor Education in York[…]
Research Ethics of the Outdoor Education in York study
The ethics and implications of conducting research are taken very seriously by York St. John University and they have a rigorous scrutiny procedure to gain ethical clearance for any research to be undertaken by their staff and students. Here you can see how your data will be collected and used during this outdoor education research project. Read more about Research Ethics of the Outdoor Education in York study[…]