What is a child really asking when they ask 'Why are the leaves yellow?' Is it a scientific question requiring a scientific answer? Or a metaphysical question, best responded to through a story or a poem? Or is it an aesthetic question requiring follow-up opportunities to draw, paint and experiment with colour?
Twelve early years practitioners from eight settings developed their own mini research projects to explore the complexity of children's learning outdoors. They wanted to explore:
- What is the particular value of the outdoor learning environment and in what ways is nature itself a teacher?
- How can early years educators best respond to young children's lines of enquiry in nature, so as to deepen their appreciation of the natural world and develop their thinking, understanding and creativity?
The practitioners involved in this project inspired each other to observe children's learning outdoors, consider their own responses, and develop sustained shared lines of enquiry. The concept of 'eco-literacy' was developed as an important area of learning for children and practitioners alike.
THE METHODOLOGY
Oxford Brookes University briefed the practitioners on the process of action research and recording techniques, while advisors from Learning through Landscapes and the Oxfordshire Forest School Service offered guidance and support. During the project, the practitioners discussed and evaluated the research process and principles. The methods used were observations in written, photo and video format.
As with any form of qualitative research, the researchers' and subjects' values and beliefs became woven into the recorded information, and the practitioners' values and interpretations were shared and valued as part of the learning process.
EMERGING THEMES
As the project progressed, the practitioners developed their own lines of enquiry and focused more on their own role and the challenges and changes needed in their setting.
Common themes that emerged in their presentations and case studies at the end of the project were:
- The effect of space on children's learning, thinking and behaviour
- The role of adults when working with young children outdoors
- Children's fascinations with and the affordances of natural materials
- The value of carrying out research and practitioner enquiry for reflective practice and improvement.
The practitioners found that their observations and reflections with the group helped them to develop their thinking about how they wanted to develop their work with young children (see box).
The eight small studies added to the growing research evidence on the importance of access to nature and outdoor learning for young children. What is clear is that the kinds of learning, the content of learning, possible learning and teaching methods, and children's and adults' responses to space, are all significantly different in an outdoor context to an indoor context.
Understanding child development and the stages in which language and the articulation of thinking and meaning is developed is vital for practitioners and researchers working with very young children.
There are various ways in which adults can gain understanding of the child's 'world view'. This project used video and photographs as well as tried-and-tested tools for observation to help practitioners 'tune in' and respond to children's own imperative to learn.
THE VALUE OF ACTION RESEARCH
This project demonstrated that an action research model over the course of several months works well for practitioners. The model combined a topical theme of enquiry with seminar-style learning, peer support, and some coaching in research methods. Most importantly, it gave the practitioners time within the working day to observe, reflect and apply new ideas, and the opportunity to meet with peers to share questions and ideas about change. It was an opportunity to assess the possible, as well as rigorously check out long-held ideas and assumptions. The resulting change in practice was to the enjoyment and benefit of all involved.
Annie Davy is early years adviser at Learning through Landscapes. Jenny Creese is forest school leader at Oxfordshire Forest School Service
CASE STUDY
Wheatley Nursery School, Oxford
Assistant head teacher Suzanne Woodward explains how the research project helped her and her team improve the school's outdoor provision.
Wheatley Nursery School is fully inclusive, with 30 children on roll. Up to six children who have Severe or Profound Learning Difficulties are also enrolled with John Watson Special School. The school has a well-established garden area and an outdoor policy allowing children free access to inside or outdoors.
Although the garden was well equipped with wheeled toys and climbing equipment, I believed that introducing more natural resources would lead to more involved play than plastic toys. The research project allowed me to test this belief using the Leuven Involvement Scale, developed by Ferre Laevers. Under this method of observation, children are graded from one to five, where one is very low ('the child hardly shows any activity') and five is very high ('the child is continuously engaged in the activity and completely absorbed in it').
I also was interested in the idea of 'affordances', which value the play or learning potential of an object by the number of possibilities for action it offers the child
I chose three target children and used written observations, photographs and videos to record them playing in child-initiated situations. I recorded the number of affordances of different objects that children used during each observation and used the Involvement Scale to observe how deeply children were engaged in learning.
I observed children over a period of time playing with objects such as plastic bricks, wheeled toys and a tractor, as well as a range of natural materials. I found that there was a clear match between the numbers of affordances and their levels of involvement.
A plastic car has an obvious affordance as a car. However, observations of children playing in plastic cars show that it is rarely used as something different. Such a toy helps children to engage in pretend or copied play but limits the use of extending their imagination.
Objects that have less obvious purpose allow for much more scope. Items such as twigs, sticks, stones and water, for example, can be used in a host of different ways.
Although we have a relatively large garden, I found that we needed to introduce more natural materials from the surrounding areas or from garden centres, such as large hazel sticks, branches with leaves from poplar trees, stones, rocks, freshly dug soil, logs and free access to water.
We have recorded sticks being used as:
- handbags
- Quidditch sticks
- fishing rods
- flag poles
- bonfires
- beds
- spades
- brooms
- pens
- dens
- arm extensions to reach things - and many more.
The use of these items was also changed or adapted as children played. For instance, one child started using a stick as a broom but changed its use to a Quidditch stick to join another game.
Adult guidance and behaviour modelling are required when children who have been used to playing only with toys are introduced to flexible materials. Children usually quickly identified one affordance of a stick as 'bashing'! However, over time they used their imagination and played creatively, showing that they were more engaged in high-quality play.
CHANGING PRACTICE
It was important to involve all the staff in the research project and observations outside. We took time to reflect on our findings and what this meant for developing our outdoor provision and practice. We looked at the ideas explored by Stuart Lester and Martin Maudsley in Play, Naturally.
The project also made us aware of the need for adults to foster an environment of independent mobility for the children, as well as sufficient and flexible resourcing. As a staff group we also discussed and implemented consultant Jan White's advice - to get the most out of natural materials:
- - Remember your own childhood
- - Help parents and carers remember
- - Ensure children stay comfy
- - Encourage children to use all their senses and body (for example, bare feet)
- - Observe and think about PLOD (Possible Lines of Development)
- - Take photos and use them to review and extend ideas with children
- - Encourage the use of materials and represent other thing
- - Develop language describing and doing word
- - Invent and retell stories
- - Encourage creative mark-making
- - Tell children they are inventors, engineers, scientists, artists, mathematicians and storytellers as they play
- - Emphasise inventiveness, experimentation and discovery.
REFERENCES
White J (2007) Playing and Learning Outdoors. Routledge
Lester, S & Maudsley, M (2007) Play, Naturally. Play England by the National Children's Bureau
MORE INFORMATION
- The full report and case studies for this project are available from Learning through Landscapes at www.ltl.org.uk
- In September 2010, Learning through Landscapes will be launching a new Calendar and Research Planner based on this project
