Nature-Based Early Childhood Education and Children’s Social, Emotional and Cognitive Development: A Mixed-Methods Systematic Review
Abstract
:1. Introduction
- (a)
- Determine if attending nature-based ECE is associated with children’s social, emotional, and cognitive development.
- (b)
- Explore children’s, parent’s and/or practitioner’s perceptions of nature-based ECE on children’s social, emotional, and cognitive development.
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Eligibility Criteria
2.2. Information Sources and Search Strategy
2.3. Selection Procedure
2.4. Data Extraction
- Study ID (authors, year of publication)
- Country of origin
- Study design.)
- Participants (age, gender, socioeconomic status, sample size, etc.)
- Intervention/exposure type and duration and information on what the comparator groups received.
- Outcome measures (type, assessment tool, time point of assessment, etc.)
- Outcomes and results (effect estimates, standard deviation, confidence intervals, etc.)
- Study ID (authors, year of publication)
- Country of origin
- Participants (as above)
- Intervention/exposure type and duration
- Research aims
- Outcome measures (interviews, focus groups, etc.)
- Outcomes and results (summary of key themes derived from data extractor and author).
2.5. Quality Appraisal of Included Studies
2.6. Data Synthesis
2.7. Certainty of Quantitative Evidence
3. Results
3.1. Results of the Literature Search
3.2. Characteristics of the Eligible Studies
3.2.1. Geographical Location
3.2.2. Study Designs
3.2.3. Exposures
3.2.4. Sample Size and Participant Characteristics
3.3. Quality of Included Quantitative Studies
3.4. Trustworthiness of Included Qualitative Studies
3.5. Main Findings—Quantitative Studies
3.5.1. Social and Emotional Development
- 1.
- Social and emotional outcomes (n = 13 studies)
- (1)
- Nature-based ECE (n = 7 studies, n = 388 children)
- (2)
- ECE natural playgrounds (n = 3 studies, n = 868 children)
- (3)
- Natural elements within ECE (n = 2 studies, n = 252 children)
- (4)
- Garden-based interventions (n = 1 study, n = 336 children)
- 2.
- Play (n = 10 studies)
- (1)
- Nature-based ECE (n = 4 studies, n = 257 children)
- (2)
- ECE natural playgrounds (n = 5 studies, n = 347 children)
- (3)
- Natural elements within ECE (n = 1 study, n = 36 children)
3.5.2. Cognitive Development
- 3.
- Cognitive (n = 11 studies)
- (1)
- Nature-based ECE (n = 7 studies, n = 438 children)
- (2)
- ECE natural playgrounds (n = 1 study, n = 16 children)
- (3)
- Natural elements within ECE (n = 1 study, n = 198 children)
- (4)
- Garden-based interventions (n = 2 studies, n = 391 children)
3.5.3. Nature Connectedness
- 4.
- Children’s connectedness to nature (n = 9 studies)
- (1)
- Nature-based ECE (n = 9 studies, n = 792 children)
3.6. Main Findings—Qualitative Studies (n = 10 Studies)
“The children also invent themselves; when they have stimulus for their eyes, children invent it [activity] without your help. And it should be like this; some part should be like this. But you need to have stimulus. It’s not enough to have a brown yard and a climbing frame. So, it [green yard] added somehow; they definitely had good games. They pretended that they had a campfire, they got the stones as sand pretended that they were on a trip. And their imagination was in use there, and when children use their brains, natural tiredness arises, and it did them good, a lot of good. Then rest comes naturally, and you have a good appetite and we’re in the positive cycle. So they could use their imagination, and we encouraged them. We didn’t prohibit them, we just advised them not to rip anything.”[61]
“I like playing in the fallen logs and trees on the playground; it is so much fun, but a bit scary too! I like the big pile of sticks and logs that we made—it is for another fort that is going to be really high off the ground.”[49]
“I like being outside with my friends. We make shelters and we make up different games, like getting trapped on an island, or being on a boat and making our escape! I like doing science outside too—like different experiments, especially when the sun is out.”[49]
“The children are shouting ‘X… can’t you catch us? Please catch us, try to catch us …’. The staffs join the situation and run after the children. The children are shouting ‘Catch me … can’t catch me’ … There is excitement and the staff are running after the children, catching them and holding them before releasing them. The staff have high energy, the children focus on the adults, avoiding being caught. The adults show empathy, holding and hugging the child when it is caught. The game is exciting and creates enthusiasm. A high level of physical activity is created, by climbing up, sliding down, running around and hiding in the tower to escape capture by the adults. They run at high speed and the children’s body language shows that they are very much engaged in the game.”[51]
“[CogG] has poor concentration, sees herself as the baby, finds it difficult to sit and listen to story. She is extremely lacking in confidence … shy … she won’t look at you indoors. With child-led learning she is totally engrossed and remains on task. Outside is the best learning environment for her … she remains on task. When outside she will come over and say ‘I like this’ and ‘I like doing that’, ‘this is my favourite place’.”[58]
“Especially about the forest floor mat, I remember that our children kept asking, ‘what is it’ and ‘what’s growing there’ and explored it very carefully; they were almost lying on their stomachs there. Especially the older ones, and they had a lot of questions about it.”[61]
“Comparing the two play environments, they both seem to include an extensive number of affordances for risky play. At both preschool playgrounds, there are opportunities for play in great heights such as climbing, jumping down, and balancing and as well as opportunities for play with high speed such as swinging, sliding/sledding, running, and bicycling.”Taken from authors conclusions [52]
“I like going outside and playing! I like playing with my friends, Sydney and Megan. We play hide and seek on the playground and hide in the forest in the logs and trees. I like outside because it’s so fun and I really like to play. Sometimes I play with my sister too; I like all the colours outside and all the space.”[49]
“Now it’s become very difficult to finish playing. They would rather continue, and those who need to take a nap, they’ve had a nice, long time outdoors and nice games, so they fall asleep more easily, and it affects their energy in the afternoon. Some children have very long days here. They come in the morning and stay until five o’clock; they seem to be somehow energetic and lively in the yard. This is new for us. The contrast to the previous yard is so great that the effects can be seen here very quickly.”[61]
3.7. Synthesis of Quantitative and Qualitative Findings
3.8. Social, Emotional and Environmental Development
3.9. Cognitive Development
3.10. Nature Connectedness
4. Discussion
4.1. Strengths and Limitations of the Review
4.2. Strengths and Limitations of the Evidence
4.3. Future Directions
5. Conclusions
Supplementary Materials
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
Abbreviations
ECE | Early Childhood Education |
EPHPP | Effective Public Health Practice Project |
ERIC | Education Research Information Centre |
PI(E)COS | Population, Intervention or Exposure, Comparison, Outcomes and Study design |
PRISMA | Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses |
RCT | Randomised controlled trial |
SES | Socioeconomic status |
SWiM | Synthesis Without Meta-analysis |
GRADE | Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation |
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Nature-based ECE | This category represents studies with a higher exposure to nature. These ECE settings would integrate rich and diverse natural elements in their environment and children would spend most of their ECE time outdoors. Examples of a typical nature-based ECE environment may include: wooded areas, forest, trees, hills etc. ECE practitioners would be present and may lead on formal and informal educational activities that involve/incorporate nature. |
ECE natural playgrounds | This category includes studies that utilize interventions that enhanced the nature in the playground or where natural playgrounds were compared to traditional playgrounds. Children would typically spend less time outdoors in nature in these studies. |
Natural elements within ECE | This category represents a lower exposure to nature and included studies (mostly cross-sectional in design) that looked at the association of specific natural elements, such as trees, vegetation, hills, grass, etc., or specific features or quality of the playground on specific health outcomes. |
Garden-based interventions | This category represents studies that included an intervention with a garden component and was delivered within an ECE setting. |
Study Author and Year | Study Design | Sample Size (E/C) | Study Quality | Social Skills ⊕ | Social & Emotional Development ⊕ | Attachment ⊕ | Initiative ⊕ | Fewer Behavioural Problems ⊕ |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cordiano et al. (2019) [26] | Controlled before & after | 12/14 | Weak | ▼ | - | - | - | ▼ (favours control) |
Müller et al. (2017) [47] | Controlled before & after | 43/45 | Weak | ▲ | - | - | - | ▼ (favours control) |
Agostini et al. (2018) [59] | Controlled before & after | 41/52 | Weak | - | ▲ | - | - | - |
Cooper (2018) [56] | Controlled before & after | 13/11 | Weak | - | ▼ | ▼ | ▼ | - |
Ernst et al. (2019) [29,30] | Uncontrolled before & after | 78 | Weak | - | - | ▲ | ▲ | - |
Fyfe-Johnson et al. (2019) [33] | Controlled cross-sectional | 20/13 | Weak | ▲ | ▲ | - | - | ▲ |
Summary effect direction | ▲ | ▲ | ▲▼ | ▲▼ | ▼ (favours control) |
Study Author and Year | Study Design | Sample Size (E/C) | Study Quality | Play Interaction ⊕ | Play Disruption ⊕ | Play Disconnection ⊕ |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cordiano et al. (2019) [26] | Controlled before & after | 12/14 | Weak | ▼ | ▼ | ▼ |
Burgess & Ernst (2020) [27,30] | Controlled before & after | 84/24 | Weak | ▲ | ▲ | ▲ |
Robertson et al. (2020) [41] | Controlled cross-sectional | 15/15 | Weak | ▲ | - | - |
Summary effect direction | ▲ | ▲▼ | ▲▼ |
Study Author and Year | Study Design | Sample Size (E/C) | Study Quality | Attention ⊕ | Self-Regulation ⊕ |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Burgess & Ernst (2020) [27,30] | Controlled before & after | 84/24 | Weak | ▲ | - |
Müller et al. (2017) [47] | Controlled before & after | 43/45 | Weak | ▼ | ▲ |
Cooper (2018) [56] | Controlled before & after | 13/11 | Weak | - | ▲ |
Ernst et al. (2019) [29,30] | Uncontrolled before & after | 78 | Weak | - | ▲ |
Fyfe-Johnson et al. (2019) [33] | Controlled cross-sectional | 20/13 | Weak | ▲ | - |
Summary effect direction | ▲▼ | ▲ |
Study Author and Year | Study Design | Sample Size (E/C) | Study Quality | Nature Relatedness/ Biophilia ⊕ | Environmentally Responsible Behaviour ⊕ | Awareness of Nature/ Environment ⊕ |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Elliot et al. (2014) [46] | Controlled before & after | 21/22 | Mod | ▲ | ▼ | - |
Müller et al. (2017) [47] | Controlled before & after | 43/45 | Weak | ▲ | ▼ | - |
Agostini et al. (2018) [59] | Controlled before & after | 41/52 | Weak | - | - | ▲ |
Yilmaz et al. (2020) [65] | Uncontrolled before & after | 40 | Weak | ▲ | - | - |
Barrable et al. (2020) [57] | Controlled cross-sectional | 141/110 | Weak | ▲ | ▲ | ▲ |
Giusti et al. (2014) [54] | Controlled cross-sectional | 11/16 | Weak | ▲ | - | - |
Rice & Torquati (2013) [34] | Controlled cross-sectional | 68/46 | Weak | ■ | - | - |
Summary effect direction | ▲ | ▲▼ | ▲ |
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Johnstone, A.; Martin, A.; Cordovil, R.; Fjørtoft, I.; Iivonen, S.; Jidovtseff, B.; Lopes, F.; Reilly, J.J.; Thomson, H.; Wells, V.; et al. Nature-Based Early Childhood Education and Children’s Social, Emotional and Cognitive Development: A Mixed-Methods Systematic Review. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 5967. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19105967
Johnstone A, Martin A, Cordovil R, Fjørtoft I, Iivonen S, Jidovtseff B, Lopes F, Reilly JJ, Thomson H, Wells V, et al. Nature-Based Early Childhood Education and Children’s Social, Emotional and Cognitive Development: A Mixed-Methods Systematic Review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2022; 19(10):5967. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19105967
Chicago/Turabian StyleJohnstone, Avril, Anne Martin, Rita Cordovil, Ingunn Fjørtoft, Susanna Iivonen, Boris Jidovtseff, Frederico Lopes, John J. Reilly, Hilary Thomson, Valerie Wells, and et al. 2022. "Nature-Based Early Childhood Education and Children’s Social, Emotional and Cognitive Development: A Mixed-Methods Systematic Review" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 19, no. 10: 5967. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19105967
APA StyleJohnstone, A., Martin, A., Cordovil, R., Fjørtoft, I., Iivonen, S., Jidovtseff, B., Lopes, F., Reilly, J. J., Thomson, H., Wells, V., & McCrorie, P. (2022). Nature-Based Early Childhood Education and Children’s Social, Emotional and Cognitive Development: A Mixed-Methods Systematic Review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(10), 5967. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19105967