Context and rationale
The authors note that nature play is widely credited with supporting young children's cognitive, emotional and physical development, and that reviews cited in the paper link nature-based experience to sustainability learning. However, they argue that integrating nature play into kindergartens remains difficult in practice, pointing to prior research suggesting teachers face limited outdoor experience, low confidence in facilitating learning outdoors, and constrained resources. Their stated gap is that existing work documents the benefits of nature play but says little about how to build a systematic curriculum for it.
Methodology.
The study used literature review and content analysis. The authors searched academic journals, conference papers, books, databases, policy documents and practice guidelines across educational ecology, kindergarten curriculum design and nature play, then coded key concepts, arguments and conclusions. There is no sample of children, teachers or settings, no fieldwork, and no stated geographic study site. The authors are based at the University of Malaya (Malaysia) and Universitas Muhammadiyah Sidoarjo (Indonesia), and funding came from Malaysian grants, but the literature drawn on appears international. Age focus is kindergarten/preschool; a precise age range is not specified.
What the paper proposes.
The framework has four dimensions:
1. Integrated objectives — set goals from three sources (children's needs, their social environment, expert guidance), differentiated by age group and respectful of cultural and language diversity.
2. Multidimensional content — organised through holistic, societal, life and diversified lenses, drawing on community, park and museum resources and aligning activities with children's own lives.
3. Dynamic organisation and implementation — clear objectives, close reading of children's current development, well-prepared materials, and space for "dynamic generation" (adapting plans in response to how play unfolds).
4. Diverse evaluation — process-oriented, involving multiple perspectives.
The authors identify three implementation factors: environmental (indoor nature areas and classroom corners; outdoor kindergarten spaces plus community sites), human (children, teachers as facilitators, parents as supporters), and material (loose natural materials, plus teaching resources).
Implications for practice.
Use the four dimensions as an audit of an existing programme: ask whether stated aims, chosen activities, delivery and evaluation actually connect. Plan indoor nature materials alongside outdoor time so seasonal or weather disruption does not cancel provision. Build a small evaluation habit — weekly reflective notes plus periodic parent feedback — rather than a single end-of-term judgement. Treat parents and local sites as part of the design stage, not as an audience afterwards.
The Bottom Line
The authors reviewed existing literature and applied content analysis (a method of coding and categorising ideas across published sources) to build a proposed framework for kindergarten nature play. They combined "educational ecology" — a view of settings in which children, teachers, parents, materials and community are treated as one interconnected system — with Tyler's objective-oriented curriculum model. The result is a four-part curriculum structure, a list of factors the authors suggest shape implementation (environment, people, materials), and a three-part evaluation approach. As such, the paper offers a planning and evaluation scaffold.