Connecting students to nature – How intensity of nature experience and student age influence the success of outdoor education programs
Both student age and length of time in natural surroundings influence positive changes in connectedness to nature
A quasi-experimental study was conducted to examine the effects of two outdoor environmental education programs differing in their duration on the degree of students’ connection to nature. The primary goal of the environmental education programs was the reconnection of students with nature through memorable hands-on experiences in a natural environment which, in this case, was a rainforest setting. Students participating in the study ranged in age from 7 to 18 and were from seven primary and 15 secondary school classes in Singapore, which were not randomly selected, but chosen for inclusion/exclusion criteria.
A total of 601 students participated in the study who were then randomly assigned to condition; some in a five-day residential environmental program (N=194); others in a one-day outdoor educational program (N=182); and still others (the control group) participating in lessons at school covering the same content (N=225). In the control group, 124 students had a five-day teaching unit and 101 students a one-day unit. All study participants were divided in age specific subgroups ranging from 7 to 9 year olds up to 16 to 18 year olds.
The Inclusion of Nature in Self (INS) scale was used for data collection. This self-report tool measures the individuals’ level of connectedness with nature, sometimes defined as the degree to which they rationally perceive nature as part of their own identity. In completing the INS, participants use a scale ranging from 1(completely separated from nature) to 7 (completely connected with nature) to indicate the degree to which they feel interconnected with nature. For this study, participants completed the INS at three different times: two weeks prior to the intervention (pre-test), immediately after (post-test), and six weeks after the intervention (retention test). Control group participants completed the same questionnaire within the same time frame.
Baseline (pre-test) scores showed no significant differences between the five-day and the one-day sample. However, there were some significant age based differences: the 10–12 year old students demonstrated a higher nature connectedness compared to 13–15 year olds.
Post-test scores indicated that both experimental groups (five-day and one-day) had significantly stronger connections to nature than they did prior to the intervention. The respective control cohorts did not show any significant change in individual nature connectedness.
Retention-test scores indicated that both experimental groups had highly significant long-term increases in connectedness to nature. This increase, however, was significantly stronger for the participants of the five-day intervention program and, within this sample, the youngest age group demonstrated the strongest effects.
This study indicates that extended outdoor environmental education programs are more effective in obtaining positive long-term shifts in the individual feeling of being connected to nature compared to one-day interventions. These findings are consistent with other studies showing that the amount of time spent in nature is a factor in promoting positive connections with nature. This study also indicates that the age of participants can be a factor in the effectiveness of programs promoting connections with nature, with the younger students making the greatest gains.
Citation
Braun, T., Dierkes, P., (2017). Connecting students to nature – How intensity of nature experience and student age influence the success of outdoor education programs. Environmental Education Research, 23(7),
