While the benefits of outdoor education (OE) for older children is well documented, related research with preschool children remains lacking. This study helps to fill this gap by investigating whether teachers' perceptions of preschool children's developmental trajectories over 2 school years differed between two kindergartens -- one using an OE approach and the other a more traditional approach.
This study was conducted in Italy with 20 teachers evaluating 93 children (age 3-5) -- 13 teachers from a traditional kindergarten evaluating 52 children (the Traditional Group) and 7 teachers from an OE kindergarten evaluating 41 children (the Outdoor Education Group). The schoolyard at the OE kindergarten consisted of a green park with trees and other types of plants, and no play structures. The schoolyard at the traditional kindergarten had grass and cement, and no large plants and trees or play structures. All the teachers completed the Kuno Beller Developmental Tables for the children in their class for four consecutive months during 2 school years. They also completed the “Outdoor Activities/Trips Diary,” a recording device created for this study to collect qualitative data on the characteristics of outdoor activities.
Data from the Outdoor Diaries indicated that children from the Outdoor Group were going out for longer periods and at least 50% more time than the children in the Traditional Group during the two school years. The Diaries also indicated that the Outdoor Group used the schoolyard more than any other outdoor space and that their activities generally involved physical education and free/structured exploration activities. The Traditional Group, however, spent more of their outdoor time in places outside the school campus, due to not having an appropriate schoolyard. Their outdoor activities tended to be more structured and were highly dependent on the season or weather. Child assessment results showed that, in all the developmental areas assessed on the Kuno Beller Developmental Tables (Domain of Body Function, Awareness of the Surrounding Environment, Social and Emotional Development, Play, Language, Cognitive Development, Gross and Fine Motor Skills), children in the Outdoor Group were perceived by their teachers to be functioning at a higher level than children in the Traditional Group during the first year, but not in the second year. These findings could indicate that “OE is more effective for younger children compared to older ones”, perhaps due to children in the younger years being more sensitive to the benefits of OE on child development. Another possible explanation relates to the possibility of OE having its strongest impact earlier in an intervention, regardless of age.
The results of this study suggest that OE activities offer greater opportunities than indoor activities for promoting young children's development. These results are consistent with evidence from other studies concerning the beneficial effects of nature-related activities for children.
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