Affordances of school grounds for children's outdoor play and environmental learning

Children's outdoor play in school grounds is a fundamental component of their environmental learning because it creates meaningful, enduring environmental connections and increases children's performances. However, the extent of children's engagement in outdoor play and the way they can learn through play is strongly influenced by the physical and social contexts of school grounds. Adults and schools, have often overlooked the values of outdoor play for learning that takes place outside the classroom. Thus, many schools are designed without considering children?s needs and desires. The spaces in schools are shaped with mediocre design standards and school grounds are not recognised as essential to a school?s mission or curriculum. This study explores the factors that influence children's play behaviour patterns and the actualisation of affordances in school grounds, and the connection with children's conception of ideal school grounds for outdoor play and environmental learning. This study was conducted with children (n=80) and teachers (n=71) at two primary schools in the state of Johor, Malaysia. Data on the children's behavioural and perceptual responses were elicited using five methods: walkabout interview and mapping, photography, drawing, preference survey and survey questionnaire. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Rasch Model, and spatial and content analysis. The results revealed different play behaviour patterns and preferences among children regarding the use of school grounds during non-formal and informal learning sessions. The differences that were identified were influenced by the degree of functionality, attractiveness, aesthetic quality, comfortability, accessibility and safety of the school ground environments. The findings of the actualisation of affordances and children?s conceptions of ideal school grounds suggest that children desire school ground environments that meet their physical, communal, emotional and educational needs. These findings contribute to a better understanding of children's interaction with and perceptions of their school grounds environment, and highlight the importance of such environments in promoting outdoor play and environmental learning

Physical Informal Learning Environment on Campus Ground: A Review

Past few decades, there has been a raft amplifying interest in higher education institutions, nationally and internationally, in the creation of new types of learning environment supporting learner-centered or constructivist pedagogy. This paper reviews the effectiveness of the physical informal learning environment initiated by learners outside their formal lecture hours in higher education. The aim of this paper is to present a synthesis of 40 studies from 1979 to 2016 on pyhsical informal learning setting on campus. Learning is the essential activity of colleges and universities. Commonly learning occurs in classrooms which identified as formal learning and sometimes its results from serendipitous interactions among individuals at transitional spaces which classified as informal learning. Space whether physical or virtual can have an impact on learning. Thus, it can bring people together, encourage exploration, collaboration, and discussion. Space can carry an unspoken message of silence which mentioned as the power of built pedagogy in colleges and universities. Nevertheless, the subject remains topical due to the dynamism of the variables, particularly the pedagogy, learning media, spaces, learners themselves and the study location. However, exploring the intermediate space as physical informal learning environment that affect students’ performance and satisfaction in higher education remain crucial and decisive among educators and researchers. Therefore, there is a growing interest in higher education institutions, nationally and internationally, in the creating of new types of learning environment supporting learnercentered or constructivist pedagogy. Hence, The Next Generation Learning Spaces project team (NGLS) under Australian Learning & Teaching Council ( The University Of Queensland) , explored the interdependence of pedagogy, space, and technology to develop the Pedagogy-Space-Technology (PST) framework which permits institutions to develop new teaching and learning setting that will strengthen student engagement and enhance learning outcomes. This paper contributes to the paramount significance of the quality informal learning environment in order to accomplish functional obligation and cater for learner’s emotional urgency for enthusiasm and touch of identity

Assessing Children’s Connectedness to Nature: A Mixed Method Study

This study aims to assess children’s connectedness to nature (CTN) using a mixed-method study. This study used a sequential mixed-method approach that involved 760 children age 10-11 years old from 20 schools that include both urban and rural schools in Kedah and Pulau Pinang, Malaysia. Questionnaires were used in the quantitative part (n=760), followed by focus group discussion and drawing in the qualitative part (n=72). Findings showed that there are eight potential constructs can be used to measure and assess children’s CTN. The directions for future research are also discussed.    Keywords: children; nature; connectedness to nature; mixed method.   eISSN: 2398-4287© 2020. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.   DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v5i14.228

The differences of nature experiences between urban and rural children

This study aims to investigate the differences between urban and rural children in experiencing nature through direct experiences and indirect experiences, as well as non- nature experiences. Questionnaires were distributed to 760 children from 20 schools located in urban and rural areas in Kedah and Penang, Malaysia. The data were analysed using mean score, standard deviation and one-way analysis of variance. The results confirmed that direct experiences with nature among children in both urban and rural areas have declined and children obtain nature experiences mostly through indirect experiences. The results also showed that there were differences between urban and rural children in experiencing nature. Rural children have slightly more direct experiences with nature as compared to children in urban areas, but further analysis showed that the differences of direct experiences between children in Urban Kedah and Rural Kedah were the one that significantly differ with each other. As for indirect experiences, urban children have more indirect experiences with nature as compared to rural children. Meanwhile, for non-nature experiences, there was no difference between urban and rural children. Overall, this study suggests that urban and rural location do influence the frequency of children’s experiences with nature particularly the frequency of direct experiences with nature. However, having nearby nature within children’s places and spaces is rather more important in making a significant difference on how frequent children have direct experiences with nature. This study further highlights the importance to reconnect both urban and rural children with nature within their daily places and spaces such as home yard, neighbourhood areas, playground, and schools. The directions of future research are also discussed

The trends and influential factors of children's use of outdoor environment: a review

In the past two decades, there has been a raft of research on children’s behaviour and their interaction with outdoor environment. The aim of this paper is to present a synthesis of 30 studies from 1985 to 2010 on children’s use of outdoor environments. The aspects taken into consideration include methodological issues and factors that influence the use of outdoor environments. The trends of the studies are discussed. In summary, the children’s place preferences and play behaviours in the outdoor environments are influenced by their developmental needs, individual, physical and social factors

A Review of the Underlying Constructs of Connectedness to Nature among Children

A strong connectedness to nature that developed during childhood forms a basis for human to have a positive attitude and behaviour towards nature in adulthood later. Acknowledging the importance of connectedness to nature during childhood, environmental psychologists have introduced various concepts of connectedness to nature, and various instruments have been employed to measure the concept. However, the underlying constructs to measure connectedness to nature among children seem unclear. Hence, it is worth to formulate a proper understanding on the underlying constructs of children’s connectedness to nature. Based on a systematic review, this paper aims to delineate the constructs of connectedness to nature referring to the existing adult and children instruments. Issues pertaining to connectedness to nature conceptualization and uni-dimensional versus multi-dimensional also will be discussed. This paper further suggests the direction for future research

Affordances of homeschool journey in rural environment for children's performances

The study investigated children's performances during homeschool journey in a rural environment through their actualized affordances at a village in Johor, Malaysia. The study was conducted with fifty-four middle childhood children through drawings, interviews and participant observation. The data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Children engaged more with natural elements rather than manmade elements and positively perceived, utilized and shaped the affordances. Therefore there is evidence to suggest that children recognized homeschool journey as their play spaces allowing them to interact with nature and developed their physical, social and cognitive skills, especially for children with high independent mobility

Homeschool journey's affordances in children's performances within rural environment

The study investigated children’s performances during homeschool journey in a rural environment through their actualized affordances at a village in Johor, Malaysia. The study was conducted with fifty-four middle childhood children through drawings, interviews and participant observation. The data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Children engaged more with natural elements rather than manmade elements and positively perceived, utilized and shaped the affordances. Therefore there is evidence to suggest that children recognized homeschool journey as their play spaces allowing them to interact with nature and developed their physical, social and cognitive skills, especially for children with high independent mobility