Program
Special Education M.A.
Number of Pages
60
Year Approved
2023
First Advisor
Cavalier, Meghan
Second Reader
Erin Wanat
Abstract
The learning environment for students, which has been indoors for decades, has moved outdoors in many locales. As the stakeholders contemplate the use of outdoor space for learning, questions about its benefit(s) for students have been explored. Many researchers had focused on younger students, although there were studies that looked at grade levels all the way through post-secondary. Researchers wrote about the connection between outdoor classroom time and an increase in student’s well-being and mental health. Studies indicated that students also had an increase in their cognitive functions of attention, self-regulation, and academic progress when the physical setting for their classes was outdoors. The following paper investigated the deliberate use of outdoor space for part of the academic day and the implications for the emotional development, the physical and mental health status, and the academic achievement of students.
Degree Name
Special Education M.A.
Document Type
Masterʼs thesis
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Johnson, M. S. (2023). The Impact of Outdoor Classrooms on Students [Masterʼs thesis, Bethel University]. Spark Repository. https://spark.bethel.edu/etd/978