The learning landscape of biophilia : outdoors activities for kindergarten schools with marginal space and resources

Abstract

Contact with nature can have beneficial effects on people of all ages, gender, and socio-economic conditions (Sanesi, Lafortezza et al. 2006, Nilsson, Sangster et al. 2011). With respect to children, they spend less time in outdoor environments due to many factors including parental concerns for their safety and attraction of indoor entertainment and technologies (Bires and Schultz 2014, Skar, Gundersen et al. 2016). This has resulted in what Richard Louv has identified in his book, “Last Child in the Woods (2008)”, as a nonclinical condition called “Nature Deficit Disorder”. Early Childhood is a critical stage where children are viewed as “thinkers” who are trying to understand the world around them (Santrock 2004). Children who have direct positive and regular interaction with nature feel more connected to the natural world and consequently their love for nature, “Biophilia”, is strengthened (Schultz 2002, Sellmann and Bogner 2013, Bires and Schultz 2014). Therefore, exposing children to nature will help develop a sense of caring and desires to take small actions to protect their surrounding environment. Outdoor natural environments are ideal enabling environments, because they are dynamic and offer rich learning opportunities to foster children’s senses, creativity, imagination and physical activity (Simmons 1995, Moylett and Stewart 2012, Campbell 2013). Young children spend 30-40 hours per week in kindergartens and this may be one of the best opportunities to create a future generation that values and preserves nature by seeking to reconnect children with the natural world (Bires and Schultz 2014). However, the problem is that most schools lack the enabling environments in their kindergarten playgrounds, particularly in the public sector of many developing countries such as Lebanon; this could be due to limited physical, intellectual and operational resources (Abdou 2010, Soueid, Ghanem et al. 2014, Chami and Mikhael 2016 ). The objective of this r