Evaluating research carried out in relation to Forest School

So in theory Forest School sounds ideal for developing the children of today to become all round great learners – but where is the evidence?

There have been numerous studies that have taken place around the benefits of Forest School; here are summaries of two of them.

A Critical review of research and literature exploring the relationship of the child with the natural world – Rowena Kenny 2010

·         growing dissociation of children from the natural environment ·         tension between biological drives and the socio-political contexts of modern culture ·         Nature Deficit Disorder ·         renaturing of childhood Kenny’s research is to explore why there is a need for Forest School. She goes back to research humans’ inherent biological need for nature – including our need for a connection with our environment. Western society has progressed to an extent that children don’t have the opportunities to develop this relationship, in the way that they did historically, and will subsequently not be able to see the need to preserve the natural world as they don’t have that connection. Alongside this, she discussed the need for children to be re-naturalised and hypothesized that common childhood issues including obesity and ADD/ADHD could be due to NDD – Nature Deficiency Disorder.

The benefits of a forest school experience for children in their early years – Sam Massey for NFER 2005

This study was to get an all-round view of the forest school experience and what they were gaining from it. It was also to ascertain if forest school provides skills and confidence for a child’s lifelong learning and to gain an insight into the types of learning experiences being offered and the relation to the EYFS. The study was thorough and used a variety of methods for the research including interviews, questionnaire and videos of the children during a Forest School session. The resulting findings from the research highlighted that forest school programmes: evolve from the needs of the child and includes the child’s interests; develop good self-esteem in a climate of small achievable steps; provides a real context for developing language; provides the practitioner with an alternative view of the child and further insights into a child’s particular development; are beneficial to a child’s all-round development, particularly in the areas of personal, social and emotional development, and language and communication; underpin the principles laid down in the foundation stage guidelines; have been very well received by all those involved in it; provides opportunities for the children to take risks, solve problems and employ thinking skills; complements learning in the classroom and can be transferred. It was an interesting insight also into parents’ reactions to seeing their children in a Forest School session where they, “expressed their wonder at the level of independence and confidence.” Overall this was a positive piece of research backing up the benefits of the whole ethos of Forest School.

More musing on behaviour

Thinking about the impact of a learner’s positive behaviour on their own learning and development within Forest School brings me to the wealth of experiences they can build on and take with them throughout life. If they have positive behaviour they will: fully engage with the whole process; learn new knowledge about their natural world local environment, which they can then build on and explore further; develop new skills of working with and in nature, for example making shelters out of natural materials and tent pegs through whittling a piece of wood; develop survival skills; develop observation skills – not just seeing trees but being able to identify them by their twigs, bark, shape, leaf, fruit and flower; develop listening skills and thinking about the impact of humans and noise pollution; develop an understanding of looking after the natural world and how they can play a part for future generations, and take calculated risks by having a go at things they never considered they would be able to do before. All in all positive behaviour can have a huge impact on their current and future learning and development not just within Forest School but throughout life.

In comparison if a learner shows negative behaviour due to a multitude of variables both within and outside of school this can really create barriers to their learning and development. Negative behaviour can create a barrier to their learning. It’s important to try to discover reasons why they could be displaying the negative behaviour, which can be done through starting at the bottom of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. The learner may be showing negative behaviour because they are out of their comfort zone and have a fear of the unknown and it is important to ensure that they feel safe within the Forest School environment. Negative behaviour can impact through them being defensive about what they are doing; not opening up to new ideas; distrusting the leader or not feeling safe to take risks. All of these will mean that the learner will either stand-still or move backwards in their learning and development. For the learner to see that others are all advancing and engaging around them will then make them feel even more insecure about their own learning. They might start to feel incredibly isolated from the group which could subsequently turn into frustration and anger. In subsequent session the learner could then arrive with a negative mindset and not even attempt to move on – this could also impact on their learning and development in other areas of life.

If a learner shows positive behaviour it can not only have a beneficial impact on themselves, but also on the whole group. This would be observable through fantastic teamwork skills where there is collaboration and cooperation between learners. It could also be observed in the way they were learning from each other, for example peer learning where one child is assisting another with the correct way to tie a particular knot. These are examples of the learners building a cohesive group together and supporting each other to learn more. Sharing discoveries and skills provides mutual support and self-worth and builds stronger teams and friendships. It allows learners to develop new friendships and also to see people differently which can consequently positively impact across their whole school and social life.

In contrast, if a learner demonstrated negative behaviour it could have a detrimental impact on the whole group. Negative behaviour, even by just one learner, can completely upset the dynamics of the group, the flow of activities and the trust of the group. If they begin to dominate then they can prevent others from learning and developing, by distracting others, unnerving others and taking the group leader’s time from the rest of the group. Although during a couple of my pilot sessions I had one such learner and surprisingly the remainder of the group carried on with their exploring and activities and appeared to ignore this particular learner.

It is crucial that we use emotional intelligence and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to provide for all learners to get the most out of each session and therefore diminish any negative behaviour.

Encouraging positive behaviours

Being a teacher I use a range of strategies of encouraging appropriate behaviour for in the classroom but I had to rethink slightly in order to transfer these to Forest School. In order to evaluate I will look at both behaviour management and how to encourage Forest School behaviour.

A massive part of Forest School is allowing and ensuring it is pupil led. This demonstrates my trust in the learners and engages them, because it is what they want to do. This then creates two-way respect which should encourage positive behaviour. This is built on trust and relies on the learners appreciating that they are being trusted too so I personally believe this will be more effective the older the learner due to this.

As a practitioner I ensure that I model behaviour that is appropriate to Forest School. This could be through the way I walk through the woods to respect it, to the way I include all ideas. This is behaviour I would always use in the classroom, or indeed life, but it is not enough alone when thinking about all behaviour not just positive behaviour. During one of my Forest School sessions, I presume I had not explained clearly enough because the learners were looking a little lost. At this point I had a go at making something myself and experimented with different things and it was almost as if I was giving permission to explore as within 2-3 minutes lots of the group had followed suit, so I guess modelling behaviour did work in this instance.

Another appropriate behaviour for Forest School is that of independence, which is embedded in all our learning at school through Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills and so something the learning I am working with are used to. I have encourage this through providing very loose guidelines as to what we are doing to enable them to be creative, think about who they would like to work with, pick themselves up when something does not go quite to plan. Initially the group I worked with struggled with this almost free rein but through repetition and opportunities for them to share, reflect and feedback on their learning they soon got into the mindset that they were free to explore and there wasn’t a right or wrong. Although, at the time of writing I have not used any tools with the learners where obviously they will have to follow instructions for correct use rather than wield them in whatever way they choose!

By sharing and agreeing mutual guidelines for behaviour with the learners it allows everyone to feel secure about expectations. It allows for: mutual agreement, rather than being told; being upfront, so no surprises; sharing the rationale for the agreed behaviour and handing over ownership to the learners. Again this is something that can be done at different levels for learners – working in LKS2 meant that the children were mature enough to understand why the guidelines were needed. This approach may not be as effective with EYFS or learners with SEND.

Rewarding positive behaviour and attitude towards Forest School is an option to get learners to repeat this positive behaviour. This can be down through leading the line out at the end of a session; carrying the happy sack or helping with the roly-poly water carrier. This is useful but also very difficult for it to be consistently fair as in the forest you cannot see each learner and the progress they are making all the time.

By creating opportunities for learners to talk about what they are doing or issues and feelings through reflection time or check-in / check-out time is a good opportunity to reinforce expected behaviour in an open forum. By having this built into Forest School sessions it takes the pressure off it being about a particular incident that has happened.

Through ensuring that tasks are ‘small and achievable’ which do not set learners up to fail but still challenge them, learners can build their confidence by having small successes and enable them to want to participate and develop their own self-belief that they can do it. This is a useful strategy but learners can often put pressure on themselves and either overcomplicates tasks or worry about taking risks and not try, in case it is not perfect.

Internal and External impacts on Behaviour

A combination of both internal and external factors impact on social behaviour of children today including:

•          Biology: this is linked to genetic make-up inherited from immediate family. Research has been carried out to look into the brain to begin to understand some of these core roots. It has been documented that it was noted in the brains of Westerners it indicated that they “tend to have a stronger sense of independence and personal self while Easterners tend to view society from a more holistic perspective.” Another study by Cacioppa stated that, “The genes are like the keyboard on which the song of life is played, but the pianist is the social environment, it helps determine which genes are turned on or off.”

This highlights the requirement for a positive social environment in order for our learners to achieve to the best of their ability.

http://www.psychologicalscience.org/index.php/publications/observer/2013/july-august-13/below-the-surface-of-social-behavior.html

•          Environment: I know myself that my social behaviour is affected by the environment I am in. If I am in a crowded hot shopping centre with no natural light I am going to act completely differently to being walking through a country lane with my family. It has been proven that a factor such as light, whether it is natural or artificial, can improve health outcomes for illnesses including depression and agitation in Alzheimer’s. - American Academy of Sleep Medicine 04.06.2014 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/06/140604094110.htm

•          Age: There are certain expectations within our society of what is expected of people at certain age. Even into adulthood there are expectations of career, marriage, owning a home, for example. Within education there are also a huge amount of age-related expectations for children’s development, but is this moving children on too quickly and making them grow up too soon and miss out on developing social skills through play and being outdoors? Running my pilot sessions with a year 4 class (8-9 year olds) has really opened my teacher eyes as to just how young they still are. At first during our sessions they were slightly unsure if they were allowed to, as everything within the traditional classroom is relatively restrictive, but as the sessions went on their imagination and creativity of exploring the natural environment was fantastic. Within society, and within education, we are expecting more from children too early on in their development, as well as expecting all children to be at the same milestones at the same age. Giving children, and adults, the environment and permission to explore allows them to learn at an appropriate pace for them and this is what Forest School allows. Children are building on their own learning and learning new skills which they can understand the real life use of. During our initial Forest School week it was fantastic to see ‘grown-ups’ playing games and exploring nature through imaginative storytelling – not something society would see as expected behaviour!

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/11/17/birthdays-age-expectations-of-todays-young-adult/

https://todaywasmeaningful.wordpress.com/2013/08/06/because-im-a-twentysomething/

 

•          Gender: Following on from age expectations society has also certain stereotypes for the different genders: girls are clean, tidy and exact; whereas boys like getting dirty and fight.

Male and female brains develop at different rates affecting the kind of activities that they prefer to do at an early age and the way in which they interact with others. There is debate over how much of this is biological and how much is taught, most agree that it is a combination of the two. 

Learned gender stereotyping about how they are taught these stereotypes, known as ‘Gender Schema Theory’ states that there are three main sources within a child’s environment which shape their perspective on gender: parents, teachers, and the media and culture. Therefore when children first come into the Forest School environment they often, initially, adhere to this learned gender expectation.

http://study.com/academy/lesson/understanding-the-impact-of-gender-differences-in-social-development.html

 

•          Nutrition: Nutrition can have a significant impact on the social behaviour of those within a Forest School. There have been numerous studies including: ‘The Links between Diet and Behaviour: The influence of nutrition on mental health.’  - Report of an inquiry held by the Associate Parliamentary Food and Health Forum 2008. This provided evidence that the impact of eating breakfast in the morning was significant in the function of the brain for a school child, furthermore eating a low glycaemic breakfast, such as All Bran – rather than Coco-Pops, created better results in brain behaviour and subsequently social interactions. The study also stated that a balanced diet would have a significant impact on both physical and mental health; due to the brain being the highest consumer of glucose in the body. In relation to social interaction: low iron intake equated to poorer behaviour, Omega 3 fatty acid DHA decreased hostility and aggression in a person whilst Omega 6 increased hostility. All in all it is apparent that we need to ensure that children whilst at Forest School need to be provided for and linked to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, physiological needs (including food) are at the foundations of the pyramid.

http://www.foodforthebrain.org/media/229766/FHF.pdf

 

•          Education: Prior education can have an impact on social behaviour of Forest School learners as this will influence their relationship with Forest School. For example, for a child who is a high academic achiever within a traditional classroom, they could feel unnerved about being in a new environment where there are different expectations and they might not perceive themselves as being very good. On the other hand, there could be a child who is switched off from learning due to previous poor behaviour or low academic ability or poor relationships with teachers due to them not enjoying sitting still in the classroom, they could feel empowered in Forest School and a release.

http://www.foodforthebrain.org/media/229766/FHF.pdf

PLAY, PLAY, PLAY!

Play at school - what would the parents say?
Parents have so much say and control about what and how their children are taught at school; gone are the days of teachers being respected as professionals despite the fact they have been through university. School is seen by many as a place where children are now brought up as well as taught academically; so the idea of play would make parent start complaining about why their child was playing rather than doing maths and English: short sighted.

I really had to research the benefits and importance of play for myself as I am used to academic teaching in the classroom, where my sense of humour and approach to teaching is my attempt at making learning enjoyable.

When thinking about the relevance of play within Forest School it is important to look at how children learn through play - I have tried to summarise the key principles.

The four key principles behind ‘Play England’s – Charter for Children Play’ are:

1. Play is an essential part of every child’s life – vital to his or her development. It is the way that children explore for themselves the world around them; the way that they naturally develop understanding and      practise skills.
2. Play is essential for healthy physical and emotional growth, for intellectual and educational development, and for acquiring social and behavioural skills.
3. Play may or may not involve equipment or have an end product. Children play on their own and with others. Their play may be boisterous and energetic or quiet and contemplative, light-hearted or very serious.
4. Children’s own culture is created and lived through their play.

Being in an outside environment/ space without the constraints of the walls of a traditional inside classroom allows children to follow their own lines of enquiry and interests through undirected play. The nature of an informal area allows children to explore and not feel confined by regimented learning, such as sitting at a desk and learning from a text book, where their work is either right or wrong. Children naturally feel more relaxed outdoors.

Looking at principle #1 is all about children exploring and learning for themselves about the world around them. Forest Schools allow children to go out into the world around them to explore, see and experience first-hand. It also allows them to learn new skills whilst playing and exploring; allowing them to relax and focus on learning these without thinking it is learning – as they perceive it as just play.

Principle #2 focuses on Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills – looking at lifelong learning and skills transferable to many different situations and roles. Forest School allows children to be outside breathing in fresh air along with physically exploring their environment and using the outdoor space to growth physically. Being in an environment that has uneven surfaces and low hanging branches enables children to develop their observation of their environment and to slow down and look around them whilst moving their bodies in appropriate ways to move around their outside area. Emotional and behavioural skills are developed in Forest Schools through the requirement of teamwork for a variety of situations. Children have the opportunity to experience having to communicate in order to move on. Alongside this they have the experience of success and failure when things do or don’t go to plan; which in its own turn develops resilience and empathy when they assist another child.

The focus of principle #3 is around the need for play to have not specific criteria, for example: solo-play, group play, partner play, energetic, quiet, process or end product. This is aligned with the Forest School approach of child-led learning and the flexible approach to the way sessions go. Forest School also provides options for children to work in their way of choice and encourages having a go.

Principle #4 focuses on how children need play to live out their experiences of society and culture. The imaginative approach of Forest School allows children to play and take their play in their own directions and therefore allows them to link this play to their own experiences of life; in order to make sense of them.

The Forest School approach fits in with the principles of play whilst also being in the natural world. It makes sense as children will feel so much more confident and relaxed: perfect for high quality and deep learning.

Wrapped in Cotton Wool?

Being a parent and a teacher I have responsibilties for the children in my care - but not allowing children to learn from mistakes or in a controlled environment will not help them learn and will make them reliant on others to make decisions for them.

Risk taking is often brought up by all involved with Forest School. The media often discussed the way children are brought up today and wrapped in cotton wool, as stated in The Telegraph 1.02.15, “Children should not be wrapped in cotton wool and must be allowed to play, fall over and hurt themselves, the head of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has insisted.”  This is all well and good but there are still people who are incredibly over protective and have been brought up that way themselves. Forest School is therefore a perfect way of developing appropriate risk taking. This does not mean that there is no health and safety and the children are allowed to do what they please. Instead there is careful consideration and planning and risk benefit analyses that take place before every session. These are there to recognise risks and the associated benefits that accompany them and then work out what does need to go in place for the risk to be managed.

Activities, such as fire lighting, would raise concerns with anyone not previously accustomed to Forest School, but upon investigating further they would discover the way in which the children are taught rules and systems to manage the risk so that they can still participate and learn from such a valuable activity.

Making managing risks part of Forest School embeds the precautions for the children, for example incorporating safety signals and spot checks on entering the fire circle or where the ‘blackthorn’ is situated and to be avoided. Removing the ‘blackthorn’ would perhaps be the easy option but would prevent children from: knowing what it was; what it looks like; and how it can harm. This is demonstrating trust in the children and providing them with the tools to become more independent. This educates children in techniques to manage their own abilities and develop an understanding of what is, or is not, safe to do. It develops their skills at recognizing hazards then assessing and managing risks, themselves – developing their ‘self-management’ and ‘independent enquirer’ skills. Children are also taught about fire, trip hazards and the dangers of fauna and flora and how they can use personal protective equipment.

Again, because Forest School is learner led, children will be building on prior experiences and each challenge will be the next small step. This compliments developing and ultimately having a growth mindset; where feeling free to take risks and making mistakes is expected.

More about holistic development

Holistic development links in with the Personal, Learning and Thinking Skills that we use at school - PLTS.

• Reflective learners
• Self-managers
• Independent Enquirers
• Creative Thinkers
• Team Workers
• Effective Participators

Forest School fosters resilient learners through providing opportunities that are the right size of challenge: the next small step – allowing the child to achieve it but not carry it out easily. Providing enough confidence to have a go at doing it but if initially unsuccessful, not too much of a challenge to then give up. These small steps of achievable tasks are crucial in developing their experience at Forest School, where they are free to have a go without worrying about a test at the end. The nature of learning is all exploratory and there is no right or wrong, just trying to improve themselves and reflecting on their learning and thinking about what they could do differently next time. At the end of a session and the task of returning the woodland back to how it was at the start of the session also allows children to be able to move on with their learning and understand that nothing is permanent.

In addition to becoming more resilient at Forest School, children are also becoming more confident through being immersed in the outdoor environment and learning new skills and gaining new knowledge about the natural environment; whether this be how to safely use a bow saw with a partner, or being able to recognize and name a tree by looking at the bark and buds on a winter twig. They are developing trust with one another and confidence in their own abilities and ultimately developing a growth mindset.

I have previously explored the benefits are developing a Growth Mindset in learners and do so in all my teaching, so this makes complete sense to me.

The structure of Forest School being child-led allows children to develop as independent learners. Giving them the freedom to be creative and explore and make connections with their understanding themselves and through positive questioning by the facilitator fosters independence. Partnered-up with creativity and exploration through the imagination and play this is really powerful. Showing the children that they can have a go and explore and be independent and you are still learning and giving them the freedom allows them to excel without having a cap on their expectations.