Our aims were to examine the efficacy of a new observational instrument "System for Observing Outdoor Play" for detecting changes in outdoor play and chart the use of recycled and repurposed materials in the school playground during the course of an intervention to increase outdoor play. Children from one Sydney primary school were…

This article examines learning processes and learning opportunities in the outdoor school based on 13 focus-group interviews with children (ages 8-9) at three German elementary schools. For 1 year, cross-curricular teaching had taken place once a week outside the classroom--in natural settings, at cultural sites or on school grounds. The article…

Research evidence suggests that outdoor education offers significant potential in priming healthy physical activity behaviors, developing life skills, enhancing self-esteem and promoting improved academic performance. The aim of the current study was to explore from a cross-sectional perspective the perceived benefits of a dinghy sailing program…

Creativity is described as an important cognitive process by which ideas are generated, developed and transformed. Despite the importance of creativity for students' intellectual development, the types of outdoor physical activities students engage in within primary schools according to creativity criteria has yet to be explored. The purpose of…

This study aims to enhance awareness of what young children want to do outside and their preferences regarding their outdoor environment. Views of children as active participants, the affordance of the environment and the importance of place for children's learning constitute the theoretical background of the study. The study was part of a…

Two teachers from a school in Copenhagen were allowed to move their third grade teaching into a forest every Thursday for three years. Thus 20% of the class's regular teaching took place in an outdoor environment. The purpose of the present study was to ask the children how they experienced lessons in the classroom and the forest settings.…

Physical activity levels were measured with an accelerometer in a case study including 19 children, from nine to ten years of age, in a Danish primary school. The teachers conducted their teaching in a forest every Thursday from 2000 to 2003. The purpose of this study was to measure the students' activity levels during outdoor learning days in the…