With science attainment up 27% and classroom engagement rising by nearly half, outdoor learning offers a proven solution for parents worried about their child’s academic progress.

Research consistently shows that nature-based learning environments can dramatically improve academic performance by enhancing concentration, memory retention, and problem-solving skills through hands-on, real-world applications of classroom concepts.

Children who previously showed little interest in subjects like science or mathematics often experience renewed curiosity and enthusiasm when these topics come alive in outdoor settings, directly addressing the engagement issues that frustrate many parents.

One such piece of research has shown that children who attended outdoor classes raised their science attainment by 27% and the increase in science knowledge was maintained for several weeks following the programme participation.¹ In another study, results revealed a 48% uplift in classroom engagement following lessons in nature compared to matched indoor instruction covering identical material.²

These striking statistics reveal the transformative potential of Nature-Based Education (NBE) - an approach that may be the missing element in a child's learning journey.

As screens dominate our children's attention and traditional classroom settings continue to present limitations, innovative educational approaches that integrate natural environments are proving increasingly valuable. This article explores how bringing nature into education creates innovative learning opportunities that enhance a child’s academic performance, improves their emotional wellbeing, and develops their understanding of the importance of environmental stewardship.

Understanding nature-based educational approaches

Before diving into the benefits, it's important to understand the terminology and approaches in this field:

• Nature-Based Learning (NBL)/Nature-Based Education (NBE): Broad terms encompassing educational activities that take place in natural environments, using nature as both setting and teaching tool.
• Forest Schools: Originating in Scandinavia, this child-led approach focuses on regular, long-term experiences in woodland settings, emphasising personal development, risk assessment, and connection to nature.
• Udeskole: A Danish approach meaning "outdoor school," where curriculum subjects are regularly taught outdoors, applying academic concepts to real-world environments.
• Education Outside the Classroom (EOtC): Structured learning experiences that happen beyond the traditional classroom, including natural environments, cultural institutions, and community spaces.
• Friluftsliv: A Nordic concept literally meaning "open-air life," integrating outdoor experiences into everyday living and education.

While these approaches share common elements, they differ in implementation frequency, pedagogical focus, and integration with traditional curriculum. What unites them is the recognition that natural environments enhance learning in ways that indoor settings cannot aspire to replicating.

The evidence-based benefits of outdoor learning

Research from leading educational systems in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark has demonstrated remarkable outcomes when natural environments become part of the learning experience.³ The benefits extend across multiple dimensions and are not limited to those mentioned here:

Enhanced Learning Ability

• Enhanced cognitive development - Studies show that nature-based learning can improve attention spans, creativity, problem-solving abilities, and critical thinking skills.
• Multisensory learning experiences - Outdoor environments engage all senses, creating richer, more memorable learning opportunities that can benefit diverse learning styles.
• Real-world context for academic concepts - Natural settings provide tangible examples of scientific, mathematical, and ecological principles, making abstract concepts more concrete and relevant.

Improved Behaviour

• Calming effect: A green environment has been found to have a calming effect on children. A 2018 study from the University of Illinois revealed that third-grade students, who had their biology class outdoors, were significantly more engaged and focused in their subsequent classes than the group of students who had their biology lesson indoors.⁴
• Reducing attention deficit symptoms: For children with an attention deficit, research has found that green outdoor settings appeared to reduce ADHD symptoms leading to less impulsive behaviours.⁵

Physical Development and Health

• Increased physical activity: Children in outdoor learning environments engage in substantially more movement than those confined to classrooms.
• Health improvements: Regular outdoor learning correlates with improved health markers, including healthier body weight, and stronger immune function.⁶

Emotional and Social Development

• Stress reduction: Exposure to natural environments consistently lowers cortisol levels and other physiological stress markers.
• Social skills: The development of people skills in school children, such as critical and creative thinking, inquiry, problem-solving, communication with peers and adults, were shown to improve as observed in research carried out by Swansea University.⁷

Combating “Nature-Deficit Disorder”

Richard Louv's influential concept of "nature-deficit disorder" describes the human costs of alienation from the natural world. It considers that, while not a medical diagnosis, the term captures the developmental impacts when children lack regular, direct experience with nature.⁸

Today, just 27% of children playing out today compared to 80% in the past. This profound shift correlates with rising rates of attention difficulties, anxiety, obesity, and decreased sensory awareness.⁹

Nature-Based Education (NBE) offers a structured, purposeful counter to these trends, reintroducing natural experiences while maintaining academic rigour.

Integrating nature with academic excellence

Nature-Based Education isn't separate from academic excellence—it's integral to it. Here's how this integration works in practice:

Science in Natural Contexts

• Biology comes alive through marine and pond ecosystem exploration, biodiversity surveys, and seasonal phenology observations.
• Physics principles become tangible when students measure kinetic energy through log rolling experiments or construct water wheels to understand energy transfer.
• Chemistry reveals itself through soil pH testing, natural dye extraction, or exploring decomposition processes in forest floors.

Mathematics with Real-World Application

• Geometry can be applied to map hiking trails, to calculate tree heights using trigonometry, or determine area and volume of natural features.
• Data collection and analysis takes on new meaning when tracking wildlife populations, analysing weather patterns, or measuring growth rates in a garden project.
• Problem-solving skills develop naturally when creating efficient irrigation systems or designing sustainable structures.

Humanities Through Place-Based Learning

• History becomes tangible through archaeological simulations, exploration of land use changes, or walking in the footsteps of historical figures.
• Geography concepts like erosion, watershed dynamics, and human-environment interaction are studied firsthand.
• Cultural studies gain dimension through exploration of local plants used traditionally by Indigenous communities or examining how different cultures interact with similar landscapes.

Nature-Based Education (NBE) in urban settings

Not every family has immediate access to forests or the sea, but Nature-Based Education principles can be adapted to urban environments with remarkable effectiveness:

• City parks provide accessible green spaces for structured learning activities, from soil studies to urban wildlife observation.
• School and community gardens offer hands-on opportunities to explore plant science, nutrition, and sustainable food systems.
• Urban ecology presents unique learning opportunities through studies of adapted wildlife, air and water quality monitoring, and green infrastructure evaluation.
• Green spaces within urban environments, however small, can serve as "micro-field stations" for ongoing scientific observation and data collection.
• City farms combine agricultural education with accessible urban locations.

For urban learners, these experiences can be particularly transformative, offering novel perspectives on familiar environments and fostering a sense of place and stewardship within city settings.

Delivering a flexible learning experience

The integration of traditional learning with outdoor learning comes naturally to a private tutor who works with a family to tailor a child’s educational experience, without being restricted by a traditional classroom’s four walls.

They are ideally placed to provide one-to-one attention with an individualised curriculum allowing students to benefit from all the opportunities that learning both indoors and outdoors produce.

For families that travel, and in particular, spend significant time travelling the world by sea, having a tutor on board to ensure continuity of a child’s education is paramount. What better place to deliver a flexible learning experience than the sea?

In the following case study from Jo Dunckley Phillips, one of Tutors International’s tutors, we showcase the benefits a tutor can bring to a child’s learning when family life moves on board a yacht and the high seas become their classroom.

Case Study: Ocean-based learning in the Mediterranean

"My approach to tutoring aboard the family's yacht combines traditional academic subjects with the marine environment surrounding us.

"Mathematics lessons incorporate navigation calculations and tide predictions. Science curriculum is expanded through daily water quality testing and marine species identification. Even literature takes on new dimensions when reading maritime classics while experiencing similar journeys firsthand.

“The results have been remarkable. The student, previously disengaged in traditional classroom settings, demonstrated a 35% improvement in standardised test scores within six months. More importantly, their curiosity and self-directed learning flourished. Three years later and they are pursuing marine biology at university—a path directly influenced by their integrated educational experience."

This case exemplifies the flexible, integrated learning approach taken by our award winning company Sea Tutors, a division of Tutors International, and highlights our commitment to environmental education. Sea Tutors has also been formally recognised in this sector by gaining the Marine Tourism Conservation Award from LuxLife magazine, which acknowledges dedication to sustainable and educational approaches to travel-based learning.

Private tutors are uniquely positioned to create seamless indoor-outdoor educational experiences tailored to individual students' needs, learning styles, and environments. Without the constraints of traditional classroom settings, tutors can build a curriculum that flows naturally between settings, using each environment to its fullest potential.

Nurturing Tomorrow's Environmental Stewards

Beyond academic and developmental benefits, Nature-Based Education cultivates environmental literacy and stewardship—increasingly crucial skills in our changing world. Students who learn in and about natural systems develop:

• A sophisticated understanding of ecological principles and environmental challenges.
• Personal connection to natural environments that motivates conservation behaviour.
  Critical thinking skills to evaluate environmental information and proposed solutions.
• Practical knowledge of sustainable practices that can be implemented in daily life.

As Adam Caller, CEO of Tutors International, notes:

"The most effective education doesn't just prepare children for exams—it prepares them for the complex world they'll inherit. Students who develop deep connections with natural environments through their education are better positioned to understand and address the environmental challenges of their generation."

Conclusion: The essential nature of outdoor learning

The evidence is clear: Nature-Based Education isn't simply a pleasant addition to traditional learning—it's an essential component of comprehensive educational development. Students deprived of these experiences miss crucial opportunities for cognitive, physical, and emotional growth.

In a world where academic pressure continues to intensify while connection to natural environments diminishes, intentionally integrating nature into education offers a powerful pathway to develop capable, confident, and environmentally literate young people.

Whether this is delivered through forest schools, urban green spaces, on the high sea, or from a personalised tutoring that bridges indoor and outdoor, the integration of nature into education honours both our educational aspirations and our environmental imperatives. By bringing these worlds together, we provide our children with the diverse experiences and connections they need to thrive.

Parents who give their child access to outdoor education aren't just addressing immediate academic concerns; they're investing in their child's long-term success by fostering a genuine love of learning that extends far beyond standardised test scores.

For more information on how Tutors International incorporates Nature-Based Education into private tutoring, please visit our related articles:

• Forest Schools and Outdoor Learning
• What Finland's Education System Teaches Us About Raising Happy, Capable Children
• The Best Education For Your Children Will Not Be Found In The Classroom

Sources

¹American Institutes for Research – Effects of Outdoor Education Programs for Children in California

²Kuo, M., Browning, M. H. E. M., & Penner, M. L. (2019). Do lessons in nature boost subsequent classroom engagement? Refueling students in flight. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 2253. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02253

³https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14729679.2022.2027796#abstract

⁴https://news.illinois.edu/lessons-in-nature-boost-classroom-engagement-afterward-researchers-report/#image-1

⁵https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1448497/ University of Illinois

⁶https://www.cdc.gov/physical-activity-basics/health-benefits/children.html

⁷https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0212242

⁸https://richardlouv.com/blog/what-is-nature-deficit-disorder

⁹https://www.savethechildren.org.uk/news/media-centre/press-releases/2022/children-today-far-less-likely-to-play-outside-than-their-grandparents