Early-Childhood and Nature-Based Learning
These six summaries look at how young children — roughly birth to seven — connect with the natural world, and at the teaching approaches designed for this stage. Three report on specific programmes: a two-week hands-on climate programme in a Greek kindergarten, a week-long climate-themed camp in the United States, and a weekly nature immersion programme at a Melbourne preschool. One is a review drawing together 28 studies on what shapes children's connection to nature, and two are conceptual pieces that set out arguments and frameworks rather than reporting new findings. Taken together, they suggest that very young children can engage with demanding environmental ideas when those ideas are made tangible, active and tied to things children can actually do — and that the quality of nature experiences, and the involvement of families, may matter more than the amount of time spent outdoors. All the studies are small or single-site, so they are best read as promising directions to test in your own setting rather than as settled evidence.
For more, read the eePRO blog post: What Research on Early Childhood and Nature-Based Learning Tells Us About Practice
This review brings together 28 studies and indicates that children's connection to nature is shaped by family values, the quality of outdoor activities and even the weather — not simply by how much time they spend outside. The authors argue that programmes involving whole families may be more effective than those aimed at individual children.
Guidelines: Emphasis on skills building, Instructional effectiveness
This book chapter argues that widely used US definitions of "quality" in early childhood education still picture young children as dependent rather than as capable contributors, and that early childhood education for sustainability offers a stronger framework.
Guidelines: Depth of understanding
Twenty-seven children aged 3–6 attending a week-long climate camp in the United States showed gains in recognising climate-friendly actions, with the strongest improvements for simple, child-doable habits such as using a reusable water bottle and turning lights off. The authors suggest concrete individual actions are learnable at this age, but that superhero-style framing may crowd out ideas about acting together.
Eighteen children aged 4–6 in one Greek kindergarten took part in a two-week hands-on climate programme, and afterwards described climate impacts in clearer, more concrete terms — linking it to cars and factories, and naming actions such as recycling. The study suggests climate education can be introduced in the early years when it is made tangible and paired with things children can do themselves.
Guidelines: Depth of understanding, Emphasis on skills building, Instructional effectiveness
This conceptual paper argues that nature play works best when planned as a whole curriculum — aims, content, delivery and evaluation designed together — rather than as occasional outdoor add-ons.
Eighty-three children at one Melbourne preschool took part in a two-hour weekly nature immersion programme, and teachers rated them as showing more prosocial behaviour and better coping, and fewer behavioural difficulties, after roughly four months. The study suggests nature-based sustainability programmes may support social and emotional development as well as environmental learning, though with no comparison group ordinary development cannot be ruled out as the explanation.