By Mamata Pandya
Natural environments are flexible, active, and responsive to the children and teachers who use them; they communicate important values and opportunities for learning. How can early childhood educators read what the natural environment communicates?
This article attempts to address the issue of underutilisation of natural outdoor environments in early childhood education, and explores how to extend the Reggio Emilia conceptualization of learning environments as “third educator” to natural environments. It describes the process and findings of a survey investigating early childhood pre-service teachers’ perceptions of the potential for different outdoor environments to provide opportunities for learning.
One hundred and ten students enrolled in the early childhood education program at a university in Minnesota participated in this study. The study examined associations between knowledge and beliefs related to nature and the actual use of different types of natural environments. It tested the hypothesis that early childhood teachers with knowledge of the benefits for children of spending time in natural areas would be more likely to use natural outdoor areas in their teaching and learning. Participants completed surveys that assessed perceptions of natural settings, intention to use natural settings in teaching, knowledge of nature benefits for children, and nature relatedness. Results of the study indicated that pre-service teachers’ nature relatedness significantly predicted their intention to use natural environments in their future teaching. It is important that teacher preparation programs scaffold pre-service teachers’ own connections with nature, helping pre-service teachers become acquainted with educational and developmental benefits of natural environments in order to effectively use them as “third educators.”
Torquati, Julia and Ernst, Julie A. 2013.Creating Beyond the Walls: Conceptualizing Natural Environments as “Third Educators”. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education Published online: 13 May 2013.