Nature Pedagogy

 

What is it?

Nature pedagogy has no age limits, and a sense of being one with nature transcends curriculum levels.

The key benefits of a nature-based learning approach are listed as:

• Increased self-esteem and confidence
• Helping to develop social skills, language and communication skills
• Building confidence in problem-solving, motivation for learning and expanding knowledge
• Improved physical health including fine and gross motor skills
• Promoting curiosity, team building, perseverance and resilience

(Adapted from O’Brien, 2009, p. 50; Realising the Ambition, Education Scotland, 2020, p. 105)

“Nature Pedagogy, the art of being with nature, inside, outside and beyond.”

(Nature Pedagogy: A common thread connecting nature-based settings worldwide, Natural start alliance, Claire Warden, 2018)

Froebel saw nature as the ultimate teacher stating, ‘people are ‘part of’ not separate from ‘the natural world.’

(The Education of Man, Froebel, 1887)

“Nature pedagogy is an understanding of our sense of belonging to land, our sense of working with nature.  There is a pedagogical shift when you move outside into nature… it’s learning with nature, not just teaching about it.”

(Nature Pedagogy, Warden, 2021)

Cree and Robb (2021) believe, “We need a new paradigm (a pattern or model) where nature is part and parcel of our education and health systems, providing ‘human wholeness’ and ecological responsibility.”

(The Essential Guide to Forest School and Nature Pedagogy, Cree and Robb, 2021, p. 367)

Nature pedagogy is not restricted to outdoor nurseries, nature kindergartens or forest schools.  McQuarrie et al. (2013) noted in Realising the Ambition (Education Scotland, p. 105), “local contexts exert an influence not only on the pedagogy and practice within each but on children’s play and learning experiences.”

 

Key messages:

“We come to know the natural world through handling it and being with it inside, outside and beyond the gate.  When we connect to the essence of what it is, then we can start to explore all the possibilities of what it can afford children in their play.”

(Claire Warden, Virtual Nature School, Practitioner Provocation, April 2021)

“The best classroom and the richest cupboard is roofed only by the sky.”

(Margaret McMillan, 1925)

• Settings utilise the abundance of nature’s resources to enable the indoor, outdoor, and beyond the gate environments to offer high-quality provision for children.
• Practitioners create opportunities and a motivational shift for all (children and practitioners together) to get outside to wonder and benefit from shared nature-based experiences.

 

Ways we can do this:

Realise the potential of nature to offer children infinite lines of inquiry that are as broad as they are deep, from the gravel, soil, and plants on our doorstep to outdoor, garden spaces and beyond the gate, to wider and potentially wilder areas of coastline, river courses, and woodlands.

Use nature-based provocations where adult intent can initiate open-ended lines of inquiry and support pedagogy.

Evidence and track pedagogy through Floorbooks, learning journeys (digital or paper), communication books, or memory booklets.

Look to nature first when planning and resourcing your outdoors.  What has the weather offered you?  Puddles from rain, frost patterns, icicles, snow to dig and shape, or shadows, can you catch your shadow?

“Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating: there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.”

(John Rushkin, 1889)

What is the play affordance of nature’s resources, for example, sticks?  To bend into bows, add a string for fishing rods, tie leaves on for brooms, whittle, wrap with wool or ribbons.  The possibilities are endless.

Can you reflect, wonder and make connections to nature indoors, ice lanterns, shadow puppets and plays, mark-making with charcoal, inks made from berries, fruits grown for a snack, or cooking.

Practitioners can create a sense of wonder by posing questions that lead to an investigation.  What creatures are there in the garden, big and small?  What evidence is left (holes in leaves, feathers, footprints)?  Have magnifying glasses at the ready and detailed identification kits to extend children’s language with nature pedagogy; bee, bumblebee, white-tailed bumblebee.  Feathers can be compared, matched or sorted by size, colour and pattern.

Display children’s treasures of nature, indoors and or outside; for example, feathers found outdoors are saved in a treasure log.

Open-ended walks beyond the gate are planned by the children who are involved in the organisation.  Ask them what they will need to take?  Allow the children to risk-assess.  Do we need something to collect treasures in?  Do we need a notepad for records, a measuring tape, a subitising cape?

Nature books within library collections and are available outside.

Seasonal resource banks with images, films, artefacts are available for the practitioners and children.

 

Linked Areas of Practice 

Creativity

Curriculum

Learning Environment

Play

Play Pedagogy

Risky Play

Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths (STEM)

Spaces

Sustainability

 

Tools  

Reflecting on Practice

SBC Guidance to support

National Guidance to support

Further Reading to support

Training to support