Direct experience with nature and the development of biological knowledge

Informal, direct exposure to nature fosters the development of biological knowledge in children

A review of the literature examined children’s development of biological concepts with respect to two different types of nature-related experiences: rural versus urban upbringings and pet ownership and care. This review was conducted for the purpose of identifying broad conclusions regarding the role of everyday experience with nature in fostering young children’s factual knowledge and reasoning in the domain of biology. A related goal of this review was to identify directions for further research.

This review article begins with a discussion of why the selected topic is important, and then presents separate sections on studies addressing (a) rural versus urban upbringings and (b) pet ownership and care. Presented in the final section is a summary discussion that includes areas of future exploration and potential applications of the findings.

A total of seventeen studies were reviewed: eight focusing on rural versus urban upbringing; eight focusing on pet ownership and/or caring for animals; and one focusing on both topics. The literature search conducted by the authors revealed only two studies that actually tested the assumption that rural children have more experience with nature than urban children. These two studies — conducted in different populations (China and North America) — produced similar findings: the frequency of nature-based activities decreased as urbanization and population density increased. According to the researchers, these findings support the assumption that children from rural areas have more direct experience with nature.

Other studies support the idea that rural rearing environments are associated with more sophisticated biological reasoning in children. They also suggest that parental transmission of information about the biological world may also be a significant influence. Related research, however, suggests that without detailed analyses of the children’s everyday experiences with nature and features of parental input about biology, it is premature to conclude that these specific factors were responsible for children’s knowledge of and reasoning about biology.

The research on having pets during childhood suggests that regular exposure to pets can promote children’s biological knowledge. It’s not clear, however, which of several related factors promote this knowledge. Possibilities include the experience of caring for the animal, social interaction with the animal, or simply the animal’s presence. The number of pets in children’s lives and witnessing a significant biological event, such as birth or metamorphosis, may also influence children’s level of biological understanding.

This literature review suggests that both rural upbringing and childhood pets positively influence children’s biological knowledge, but perhaps in somewhat differing ways. Rural upbringing tends to foster an understanding of specific biological phenomena as well as a broad understanding of how living things relate to one another. Having pets during childhood, however, tends to foster knowledge and understanding more specific to animal-relevant (or more often, pet-relevant) facts and phenomena. Taken together, the results of these studies support the idea that informal, direct exposure to nature has a positive influence on children’s developing understanding of biology.