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A Low-Cost Method for Understanding How Nature-Based Early Learning and Childcare Impacts Children’s Health and Wellbeing

Nature-based play and learning provision is becoming increasingly popular across the early learning and childcare (ELC) sector in Scotland. However, there remains a lack of understanding of how the program is expected to function. This has implications for program learning and may affect wider rollo...

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Autores principales: Traynor, Oliver, Martin, Anne, Johnstone, Avril, Chng, Nai Rui, Kenny, Jessica, McCrorie, Paul
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9260060/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35814071
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.889828
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author Traynor, Oliver
Martin, Anne
Johnstone, Avril
Chng, Nai Rui
Kenny, Jessica
McCrorie, Paul
author_facet Traynor, Oliver
Martin, Anne
Johnstone, Avril
Chng, Nai Rui
Kenny, Jessica
McCrorie, Paul
author_sort Traynor, Oliver
collection PubMed
description Nature-based play and learning provision is becoming increasingly popular across the early learning and childcare (ELC) sector in Scotland. However, there remains a lack of understanding of how the program is expected to function. This has implications for program learning and may affect wider rollout of the program. Secondary data analysis of parent interviews (n = 22) and observations (n = 7) in Scottish ELC settings, and review of internationally published studies (n = 33) were triangulated to develop a program theory using the Theory of Change approach. This approach makes a program’s underlying assumptions explicit by systematically demonstrating the relationship between each component: inputs, activities, outcomes, impact, and the contexts of the program. Findings suggested that location of outdoor nature space, affordances, availability of trained practitioners, and transport to location lead to activities such as free play, educator-led activities, and interactions with nature, resulting in longer durations of physical activity, interactions with peers and educators, and increased engagement with the natural environment. These activities are vital for supporting children’s physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development. Our results demonstrate the value of using secondary data analysis to improve our understanding of the underlying theory of nature-based ELC which can support future evaluation designs. These findings will be of interest to program evaluators, researchers, practitioners, and funders, who find themselves with limited resources and want to better understand their program before investing in an evaluation. We encourage researchers and evaluators in the field of early years and outdoor play in other countries to refine this logic model in their own context-specific setting.
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spelling pubmed-92600602022-07-08 A Low-Cost Method for Understanding How Nature-Based Early Learning and Childcare Impacts Children’s Health and Wellbeing Traynor, Oliver Martin, Anne Johnstone, Avril Chng, Nai Rui Kenny, Jessica McCrorie, Paul Front Psychol Psychology Nature-based play and learning provision is becoming increasingly popular across the early learning and childcare (ELC) sector in Scotland. However, there remains a lack of understanding of how the program is expected to function. This has implications for program learning and may affect wider rollout of the program. Secondary data analysis of parent interviews (n = 22) and observations (n = 7) in Scottish ELC settings, and review of internationally published studies (n = 33) were triangulated to develop a program theory using the Theory of Change approach. This approach makes a program’s underlying assumptions explicit by systematically demonstrating the relationship between each component: inputs, activities, outcomes, impact, and the contexts of the program. Findings suggested that location of outdoor nature space, affordances, availability of trained practitioners, and transport to location lead to activities such as free play, educator-led activities, and interactions with nature, resulting in longer durations of physical activity, interactions with peers and educators, and increased engagement with the natural environment. These activities are vital for supporting children’s physical, cognitive, social, and emotional development. Our results demonstrate the value of using secondary data analysis to improve our understanding of the underlying theory of nature-based ELC which can support future evaluation designs. These findings will be of interest to program evaluators, researchers, practitioners, and funders, who find themselves with limited resources and want to better understand their program before investing in an evaluation. We encourage researchers and evaluators in the field of early years and outdoor play in other countries to refine this logic model in their own context-specific setting. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-06-23 /pmc/articles/PMC9260060/ /pubmed/35814071 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.889828 Text en Copyright © 2022 Traynor, Martin, Johnstone, Chng, Kenny and McCrorie. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Traynor, Oliver
Martin, Anne
Johnstone, Avril
Chng, Nai Rui
Kenny, Jessica
McCrorie, Paul
A Low-Cost Method for Understanding How Nature-Based Early Learning and Childcare Impacts Children’s Health and Wellbeing
title A Low-Cost Method for Understanding How Nature-Based Early Learning and Childcare Impacts Children’s Health and Wellbeing
title_full A Low-Cost Method for Understanding How Nature-Based Early Learning and Childcare Impacts Children’s Health and Wellbeing
title_fullStr A Low-Cost Method for Understanding How Nature-Based Early Learning and Childcare Impacts Children’s Health and Wellbeing
title_full_unstemmed A Low-Cost Method for Understanding How Nature-Based Early Learning and Childcare Impacts Children’s Health and Wellbeing
title_short A Low-Cost Method for Understanding How Nature-Based Early Learning and Childcare Impacts Children’s Health and Wellbeing
title_sort low-cost method for understanding how nature-based early learning and childcare impacts children’s health and wellbeing
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9260060/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35814071
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.889828
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