1st Edition
Forest Schools The Research Evidence
Interest in Forest Schools has seen a phenomenal rise in recent years in many countries around the globe with thousands of children now experiencing this new context for learning. Forest Schools have also provided a new focus for researchers wishing to find out more about the opportunities and benefits that can be derived from this specific form of outdoor learning. This text brings together a wealth of material from academics, independent researchers and practitioners who have explored this topic in detail and will be of interest to academic researchers, those undertaking their own research on this and related topics for undergraduate and higher degrees, and to practitioners and school leaders who wish to find out more about this intriguing approach to the education of children.
The chapters in this book were originally published in Education 3–13.
Introduction
Mark Brundrett, Elizabeth Malone and Avril Rowley
Section A: The Forest School in theory and practice
1. The Forest School impact on children: reviewing two decades of research
Ziad F. Dabaja
2. Reviewing two decades of research on the Forest School impact on children: the sequel
Ziad F. Dabaja
3. Does engagement in Forest School influence perceptions of risk, held by children, their parents, and their school staff?
Alice Savery, Tim Cain, Jo Garner, Tracy Jones, Emily Kynaston, Kirsten Mould, Laura Nicholson, Sophie Proctor, Rosanne Pugh, Emma Rickard and Deborah Wilson
4. Fostering children’s relationship with nature: exploring the potential of Forest School
Michelle A. Smith, Ally Dunhill and Graham W. Scott
5. Sometimes there are rules about what girls can do’: a rights-based exploration of primary-aged children’s constructions of gender in Forest School
Shirin Hine
6. Encounters with Forest School and Foucault: a risky business?
Trisha Maynard
Section B: UK perspectives on Forest Schools
7. Learning outdoors: the Forest School approach
Liz O'Brien
8. The place of forest school within English primary schools: senior leader perspectives
Nicola Kemp and Alan Pagden
9. Practitioners’ perspectives on children’s engagement in Forest School
Frances Harris
10. Challenges and pedagogical conflicts for teacher-Forest School leaders implementing Forest School within the UK primary curriculum
Victoria A. Whincup, Linda J. Allin and Joanna M.H. Greer
11. Footprints in the woods: ‘tracking’ a nursery child through a Forest School session
Melanie Mackinder
SECTION C: International perspectives on Forest Schools
12. Forest School in an inner city? Making the impossible possible
Heather Elliott
13. A bird’s eye view: comparing young children’s play in Forest School in England with Forest Kindergarten in Denmark
Melanie Mackinder
14. ‘Wow! Is that a birch leaf? In the picture it looked totally different’: a pragmatist perspective on deep learning in Norwegian ‘uteskole’
Øystein Winje and Knut Løndal
15. A balancing act: a constructivist perspective of the adult’s role in Forest School in England and Forest Kindergarten in Denmark
Melanie Mackinder
16 The importance of recognising and promoting independence in young children: the role of the environment and the Danish Forest School approach
Anna Cerino
Biography
Mark Brundrett is Professor Emeritus at Liverpool John Moores University, UK, and Executive Editor of Education 3–13, International Journal of Primary, Elementary and Early Years Education.
Elizabeth Malone is Reader in Education, Pedagogy and Citizenship, Manchester at Metropolitan University, UK, and Editor of Education 3–13, International Journal of Primary, Elementary and Early Years Education.
Avril Rowley is Senior Lecturer in Primary Education at Liverpool John Moores University, UK.
