Browsing by Subject "luonto ja oppiminen"

My goal in this study was to find out how environment is defined by researchers and how natural environment enhances learning and skills essential for learning. According to previous studies natural environment has a plethora of different effects on humans. For example, effects have been recorded on self-esteem, self-confidence, academic skills, motor skills and social relations. From an early age, children nowadays are accustomed to sit inside. We require that a 7-year-old child can sit quietly at a desk for a whole schoolday. At the same time we are worried about how little exercise children get and how they spend too much time sitting inside. Even Finland’s newest curriculum states that teaching should happen in diverse environments. This study is and integrative literature review. Material for this study was collected from various databases, including ERIC. I chose five different studies to include in this review. All chosen reviews were peer-reviewed and published after the year 2008. The studies were analyzed using qualitative content analysis based on the collected data. I divided all the recorded environments into three categories: urban, semi-urban and natural. I reported all the outcomes included in semi-urban and natural environment. I divided all the obtained results into two sections: individual and group level. Individual level contains all the results that involve anything related to an individual’s cognitive, physical and academic skills, and motivation. Group level includes the results that relate to social behavior or group dynamics. The results indicate that natural environment enhances several different aspects important to learning such as self-confidence, psychological flexibility, attentiveness, academic skills and communication skills. My results verify results that have been published previously. However, the exact relation of environment and learning abilities was not confirmed in this study. It is not clear whether the results were caused by green environment’s restorative elements or by the different format of outdoor education compared to traditional classroom education. Outdoor education is often more phenomenon-based and stimulating compared to traditional, teacher-directed education.