Children are more creative when they learn in natural surrounds according to new research from Â鶹ֱ²¥.<\/p>\n
Primary school students in Australia and England were put to the test to see whether writing poetry in a natural outdoor setting produced more creative outcomes than writing in a classroom, and the answer was yes.<\/p>\n
Dr Paul Gardner and Sonja Kuzich from Curtin\u2019s School of Education ran comparative trials with 10-year-old students in both countries and the results, recently published in the Cambridge Journal of Education,<\/em> gave a big thumbs-up to the positive influence of natural settings.<\/p>\n \u201cWe found that students who had direct contact with nature by immersing themselves in a bush or forest setting were much more descriptive and vivid in the language they used than the classroom-based writers who \u2018imagined\u2019 being in nature through photos,\u201d Dr Gardner said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a much higher and richer level of imagery amongst the poems crafted by the \u2018outdoor\u2019 groups compared to the \u2018indoor\u2019, which suggests that learning in natural environments could enhance creativity and language development.\u201d<\/p>\n In total, 97 students took part in the study, split across four classrooms, including two based at an English primary school and two from a primary school in Western Australia.<\/p>\n In each country one class visited natural bush or forest before writing a poem based on what they saw, smelt and felt. The other class viewed A4 laminated images of the same bush or forest setting.<\/p>\n Ms Kuzich said the difference in creative language used between the classes was obvious with twice as many UK forest students using figurative language (such a similes and metaphors) compared with their class-based counterparts.<\/p>\n In Australia that figure rose to more than four times when comparing the poetry of the bush-based students to those who remained at school.<\/p>\n \u201cOur results showed that being in a natural environment resonated with the kids finding their poetic voices, drawing on inspiration from what they experienced. Some of the student\u2019s descriptions about their natural experiences included \u2018it was like walking on marshmallow ground\u2019, \u2018sharp pine cones like grenades\u2019 or \u2018crows that bark like a dog\u2019,\u201d Ms Kuzich said<\/p>\n The researchers made sure that the student groups in both countries were as alike as possible in order to provide a sound comparison. Classes in both England and Australia were similar in size, age, gender makeup, their suburban settings and both were public or state schools.<\/p>\n The study took place in May in the UK and June in Australia so the climates were as similar as possible, and the bush or forest settings were also comparable in size and travel distance from each school.<\/p>\n The researchers say further studies of larger groups is now recommended to gain greater understanding of the influence of nature spaces and \u2018green learning\u2019 in schools.<\/p>\n Future research may also be needed to examine if the green learning can be translated into other learning themes or context to see if there is a flow on effect in different environments.<\/p>\n