Teaching and caring for young children is demanding, and usually doen't leave much time for keeping up with the scientific literature. But we all want to be sure that what we're doing is in line with what the current research tells us about what works. Research can also help point to needs in the field, suggesting where we should focus our efforts. And it can help us build the case for the work we want to do. For these reasons and many more, we're launching an effort to summarize academic research that we think is of interest to our members. We'll add to these resources over time. And if you know of a research study that you think we should include, let us know.
Early Childhood Educators Face Barriers to Nature Play
This paper describes a study to understand the challenges faced by childcare providers in Minnesota in providing children with nature play experiences. Key barriers included: access to natural areas, lack of appropriate clothing, safety/liability concerns, and lack of time. Efforts to reduce obstacles may be of particular importance for providers serving children of lower socio-economic status.
Gaps Exist between Belief and Practice in Using Natural Environments for Teaching
The educators in this study recognized the value of experiences in natural outdoor settings for developing environmental appreciation in young children, and in fostering children’s physical, cognitive, and social development. These beliefs, however, were not associated with use of natural outdoor settings. This gap was linked with the perceptions of difficulty—or barriers—in using these settings. The most frequent barrier was lack of walking access to a natural outdoor setting and/or the need for transportation to a natural outdoor setting. Other barriers were: lack of time, winter weather, safety concerns, and lack of extra supervision. Several of the barriers relate to lacking the "know-how" to provide experience in natural outdoor settings.
Childhood Development and Access to Nature
This article highlights current research from the environmental health, environmental education, and environmental psychology fields regarding the importance of childhood exposure to nature. It also summarizes the few studies that have examined class- and race-based inequalities in children’s exposure to the natural world and industrial environmental hazards. The article also reviews the limited number of studies that ask whether poor and minority children have fewer nature experiences and less access to nature than do white and non poor children.
Creating Comfort with the Concept of Natural Environments as “Third Educators”
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.