Purposeful Outdoor Learning Empowers Children to Deal with School Transitions
Carnegie School of Sport, Leeds Beckett University, Leeds LS6 3QS, UK
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Sports 2019, 7(6), 134; https://doi.org/10.3390/sports7060134
Received: 17 April 2019 / Revised: 27 May 2019 / Accepted: 30 May 2019 / Published: 31 May 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Health and Wellbeing in an Outdoor and Adventure Sports Context)
UK schoolchildren are vulnerable to transitional stress between primary and secondary school, which may impact negatively upon their psychological health and academic achievement. This is experienced most acutely by children from ethnic minorities and lower socio-economic status (SES) households. Outdoor Adventure (OA) residential programmes are purported to develop behavioural adaptations which enable positive educational transitions of children. Personal, social and academic skills (self-reliance, getting along with others, curriculum alignment) may be best acquired through bespoke nature-based residential OA programmes. A mixed methods study evaluated the efficacy of a bespoke OA programme for developing school children’s psychological well-being and self-determination during their transition into secondary school. Participants were representantives of ethnic minorities and lower SES groups. A bespoke OA residential programme achieved the strongest scale of change in children’s psychological well-being (F (30,69) = 1.97 < 0.05) and self-determination (effect size 0.25) compared to a generic OA residential and a non-OA school-based induction programme. Qualitative testimonies illuminated personal experiences and processes underpinning the perceived changes in the self-determination domains of Autonomy (the capacity to self-direct learning), Competence (the ability to complete tasks) and Relatedness (developing connections with others). Providing early opportunities for children to take control for their own learning through nature-based tailored OA programming improves their psychological well-being and adaptability to combat transitional stress.
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Keywords:
school children; transitions; primary and secondary school; nature; tailored outdoor education programming; individuality; adaptable productive functioning; green spaces; health and psychological well-being; self-determination
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MDPI and ACS Style
Slee, V.; Allan, J.F. Purposeful Outdoor Learning Empowers Children to Deal with School Transitions. Sports 2019, 7, 134. https://doi.org/10.3390/sports7060134
AMA Style
Slee V, Allan JF. Purposeful Outdoor Learning Empowers Children to Deal with School Transitions. Sports. 2019; 7(6):134. https://doi.org/10.3390/sports7060134
Chicago/Turabian StyleSlee, Vikki; Allan, John F. 2019. "Purposeful Outdoor Learning Empowers Children to Deal with School Transitions" Sports 7, no. 6: 134. https://doi.org/10.3390/sports7060134
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