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Our Proud Heritage. Take It Outside: A History of Nature-Based Education

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Educating children in nature is an essential part of active, engaging, and comprehensive learning. While not a new concept or approach, direct and sustained interactions with nature may be increasingly important for children’s development today. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced programs and families to navigate the complex world of remote learning, not only restricting children’s access to classmates and educators but often limiting the opportunities for learning about nature and for playing outdoors. This unexpected move away from in-person education for a time has caused a surge in attention toward nature-based education by the press and the public, along with the acknowledgement of earlier pandemics when learning was shifted outside. An example is the New York Times article, “Schools Beat Earlier Plagues with Outdoor Classes. We Should, Too” (Bellafante 2020).

In this column, I put this renewed interest into context by reviewing the past 200 years of ideas and practices in nature-based education for young children. In doing so, I explain concepts that help us understand the approaches of nature-based early learning programs past and present, and how we might adapt these approaches for implementation moving forward.

Defining Nature-Based Education

Nature-based education is a 21st-century reform effort that aims to improve learning outcomes and move away from more traditional approaches that rely on little to no direct interactions with the natural world. However, as mentioned earlier, the idea is not entirely new. Theories and methods of learning in nature have been proposed and tested for more than two centuries, often with young children in mind. Looking across that history reveals how wide-ranging nature-based education is and how long the notion of learning in and through nature has been around.

Two historically prominent nature-based education initiatives sparked by education and health reforms nearly a century apart include

• nature study, an initiative followed in the United States from the 1890s to the 1920s
• forest schools, which began in the early 20th century in Germany for their health benefits but were reintroduced and modernized in the mid-20th century (in Denmark and Germany) and in the 1990s (in England and the United States)

These two initiatives are based on similar ideologies and theories, informed by a small set of scientific and esoteric concepts (here, esotericism is the spiritual reality expressed in nature). However, the connections between the two are not well understood. The literature on the history of nature study continues to grow (Armitage 2009; Kohlstedt 2010; Kass 2017). On the other hand, the history of the forest school has been dismissed as “folklore” (Shields 2010). Moreover, the forest school approach lacks a firm theoretical footing (Leather 2016; Sharma-Brymer et al. 2018). The associated research literature “often fails to look beneath description of practices and outcomes to the underlying philosophical and pedagogical basis for their implementation” (Waite, Bølling, & Bentsen 2016, 869). However, there is emerging research about forest schools that does go deeper into the theory, and a burgeoning number of forums, conferences, and networks for teachers and researchers have emerged, creating excitement over the potential of nature-based education today.

Situating Nature and Education Within Beliefs About Child Development

Over time, viewpoints and beliefs about childhood have varied. Ideas about “the child” and what is “best” for their education are always interpretations rooted in culture and history. They are gendered, classed, and racialized, and they often reflect the priorities of adults. In turn, discourses and philosophies have interpreted childhood in different ways, leading to differing views on the role of nature and education in children’s development. One prominent viewpoint related to nature education and childhood is naturalism , which refers to the belief that human development “is in accord with the laws of nature which hold the secret of their influence” (Selleck 1968, 180). Naturalism, or a naturalistic viewpoint, is underpinned by two related theories of child development: unfoldment theory and recapitulation theory.

Unfoldment Theory

Unfoldment theory formed the basis for kindergarten inventor Friedrich Froebel’s system of early education, which he established in Germany in 1839. Froebel believed that children were complete beings from birth, capable of higher-order thinking when given guidance. This meant that children’s development unfolded naturally and that development was predetermined, having been “ordered by God.” As he wrote, “each following generation and each following individual man [ sic ] is to pass through the whole earlier development and cultivation of the human race” (1885, 11). Today, unfoldment theory can be seen in the theory behind teachers’ support for children directing their own play and other activities according to their interests.

Recapitulation Theory and Culture-Epoch Theory

In the now-discredited recapitulation theory , each child’s growth repeats the development of the entire species from so-called “savage” to “civilized,” and it is based on unfounded ideas about racial hierarchies. Followers of the German educator Johann Friedrich Herbart, prominent in the early 1800s, applied this theory to educational contexts, calling it culture-epoch theory . The theory was used by educators to sequence curriculum to broadly reflect stages in human history, such as studying the portable homes of nomadic peoples before colonial houses, or introducing fables and folk tales before more “scientific” literature.

To Froebel, who was influenced by Herbart, culture-epoch theory meant a cycle of cultural and spiritual development: children progressed from “primitive” to higher abilities over time. As Bloch described it, even “play was seen as a stage of primitive development in which young children, more primitive animal species, and more primitive people around the world were engaged” (28). Froebel’s own theory, therefore, was also established on a notion of child development that was based on racial hierarchies (Fallace 2015). Remnants of culture-epoch theory—though discredited—can still be seen today in the common preschool activities of beading and weaving. Lee-Hammond and Colliver (2017) suggest that this practice had a potential benefit by giving “educators at the time a theoretical framing to appreciate the educational value of providing children with Indigenous practices, [and] paving the way for a more respectful way of engaging with different cultures that resists the hegemonic power of European influence” (498).  

Culture-epoch theory continued into the 20th century, reflected in the ideas of American psychologist G. Stanley Hall and Russian psychologist Alexander Luria, Lev Vygotsky’s colleague (Scribner 1985; Kozulin 1990; Fallace 2015). Culture-epoch theory was used in education to explain why particular content should be taught to children according to their age. Supporters of the theory also suggested what materials, such as specimens from nature, were needed for teaching and learning. For example, lessons on the beginnings of the agricultural period of human history would include germinating and planting seeds and tending to the growing plants.

Conceptualizing Nature and Education in Tandem

Whether of the past or present conceptualizations, two key components of nature-based education are environments and relationships. On both accounts, nature-based education is concerned with the natural and the human-centered: on the one hand, natural and human-centered environments (those created to meet human needs, such as cities) and on the other hand, the natural world and human relationships (those shaped by different spiritual, moral, or biological ideas). Further, the relationship between people and nature is shaped by the scientific rationalism of Enlightenment period thinking (measuring, classifying, and categorizing nature) and German idealism. German idealism held that nature could only be comprehended by linking observation and experimentation with the self through creativity and emotion. This included connecting with nature (i.e., being in nature, seeking to understand what is going on in nature, and respecting the life forms and processes that occur in nature) (Wulf 2015; Beiser 2017).

Today’s nature-based education builds on notions of child development and perspectives about the environment and relationships. Indeed, some proponents with humanist arguments or values focus on developing children’s knowledge of sustainability issues and their responsibility for the natural environment, while encouraging them to engage freely in unstructured, “risky” nature play (Finch 2016). They believe that humans have an affinity for nature from birth, so it does not have to be taught. They are also concerned with the impact of a “nature deficit” on the well-being of children and the planet (Louv 2010). This line of thinking ties back to naturalist theories of child development and the idea of humans’ unity with nature.

Other nature-based education supporters, those with posthumanist arguments or values, agree that humans have a connection with nature from birth, but they focus on humans’ special status or centrality in nature. They argue that “children are nature” (Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles, Malone, & Barratt Hacking 2020a, xiv). Because of this, they want to redefine childhood and transform education. From a “childhoodnature” perspective, it is more important to support children’s attachment to nature than to support their encounters with it, where “children and nature are enmeshed as they are ” (Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles, Malone, & Baratt Hacking 2020b, xv).

The Evolution of Nature-Based Education

Although some have examined nature and child development from a theoretical or philosophical stance, others have aimed to put their ideas and values into practice. As noted earlier, two prominent nature-based education approaches have included nature study and forest schools.

In the late 19th century United States, many psychologists, biologists, and educators worried that children’s development was being harmed by life in an industrial society, a “book-based” school curriculum, and teacher-centered methods. This led to the nature study movement (1890–1920), which sought to correct this harm by connecting children’s learning to the everyday things in their environment through observation and experience. Nature study aimed to reveal a completely new spiritual reality, and it also strived to improve children’s mental and moral faculties.

As the nature study movement faded in the 1910s and 1920s, forest schools were emerging in the United Kingdom and in North America as a part of the movement that began in Germany in the early 20th century. Originally, these schools were set up for children recovering from illness, particularly tuberculosis. They were medically oriented, combining public health and educational goals with a supposedly scientific basis in racial theory and eugenics. Classes were held outside to expose the children to fresh air and sunshine. In medically oriented forest schools (also called “open-air schools”), nature study was treated as a school subject. This type of forest school declined in popularity after 1945 and with the development of antibiotic treatment for tuberculosis (Châtelet 2008).

The modern forest schools established later in the 20th century “reclaimed and reimagined” the earlier forest school idea to make child-nature the central focus (Op de Beeck 2018, 74). In the present century, “forest school” is the name for both an educational model and a philosophy. Today’s forest schools uphold principles developed by advocacy organizations such as Naturschule Deutschland e.V. in Germany, the Forest School Association in the United Kingdom, and the American Forest Kindergarten Association in the United States; they are learner-centered, play-based, generally located in a wooded area, and offered over the long term, usually year-round (McCree & Cree 2017).

Borrowing approaches from nature-based schools in Germany and Scandinavia, programs in the United Kingdom and the United States follow one or more of these models:

• schools in urban settings that provide regular opportunities to visit outdoor areas (For more on this, see “From Puddles to Pigeons: Learning about Nature in Cities” by Marion Goldstein and colleagues, published in Young Children , November 2018.)
• early learning programs that feature nature as a main component of their outdoor play area (For more on this, see “Using Principles of Nature-Based Preschools to Transform Your Classroom” by Rachel A. Larimore, published in Young Children , November 2018.)
• Waldkindergärten (German forest kindergarten) that are located in natural settings with no fixed buildings (For more on forest kindergartens, see “Walking in the Woods: Understanding German Waldkindergärtens” by Cecilia Maron-Puntarelli, published in Young Children , March 2020.)

In general, nature-based education models prioritize child-nature experiences. Such experiences have been grouped into three distinct types (Kellert 2002):

• direct experiences in natural settings (play in a forest)
• indirect experiences in structured contexts (a visit to an arboretum)
• symbolic experiences with representations of nature (reading a children’s book about trees)

How these experiences were enacted differed over time. For example, in Froebel’s esoterically based nature study, children went on guided walks in the woods (direct), tended to gardens to observe and engage with nature (indirect), and used specially designed blocks that had a spiritual meaning (symbolic). In a late-19th century scientific nature study, children learned from the physical objects gathered on nature field trips (direct), from studying collections of specimens (indirect), and from examining pictures of objects (symbolic). Because taking children to visit nature sites was often thought to be impractical, many experiences of the past were indirect or symbolic, usually involving object-based teaching in classrooms with collections of specimens. This is the opposite of the active, engaged learning advocated in a modern forest school approach.

In current forest schools, the central focus is on children’s direct and ongoing engagement in natural settings. For instance, the Cedarsong Nature School on Vachon Island in Washington state, which opened in 2008, was regarded as the first school of its kind in the United States (The Cedarsong Way 2021). Based on humanist arguments, its founder, Erin Kenny, was inspired to start the school after reading Richard Louv’s book, Last Child in the Woods (Valdes 2010). The preschool children at Cedarsong were engaged in firsthand experiences with nature, spending the entire day out-of-doors regardless of the weather. They investigated, explored, and observed whatever provoked and sustained their interest: a stream, mud, trees, birds, insects, and more. The school closed in 2019, following Kenny’s death, but Cedarsong is still involved in nature-immersion pedagogy and provides training and program accreditation.

Even though forest schools were introduced into the United States fairly recently, by 2017 there were approximately 250 nature preschools and forest kindergartens in the country (NAAEE 2017). On top of that, many more programs are offering nature-based education as part of the curriculum.

Nature-based education is a 21st-century education reform aimed at changing learning outcomes by enhancing children’s connections with nature. But as described here, the idea is not entirely new. Theories and methods of learning in nature have been proposed for more than two centuries. There are inspiring examples of practice in recent forest school history, such as the Cedarsong program, and there are a growing number of networks available for teachers to exchange ideas and experiences, including the Natural Start Alliance, organized by the North American Association for Environmental Education (see “Learn More About Nature-Based Education” below for further details).

(For more information about how to incorporate nature-based education in your setting, check out the Fall 2021 issue of Teaching Young Children , available in October.)

Learn More About Nature-Based Education

Check out the following resources to learn more about nature-based education, the history of the movement, and prominent nature-based programs.

• The Freedom of Forest Kindergarten – Erin Kenny.   Uncivilize podcast by Jennifer Grayson, episode from March 12, 2018.

In this podcast episode, Jennifer Grayson interviews Cedarsong Nature School founder Erin Kenny, touching on the history of forest kindergartens and the origins of the program, addressing curriculum, and sharing practical matters of teaching young children out-of-doors.

•  Out of the Classroom and Into the Woods,  by Emily Hanford for nprEd, May 26, 2015.

Emily Hanford profiles a teacher’s experiment with outdoor learning one day each week in her kindergarten in Vermont, which involves a modified version of forest school in a public-school context. More information on her kindergarten and the experience of other teachers and programs is included on the Natural Start Alliance website .

•   When Fears of Tuberculosis Drove an Open-Air School Movement,  by Sara Pruitt for History , July 30, 2020.

Sara Pruitt charts the history of medically oriented forest schools, with a focus on the United States and with photographs of open-air schools in action. Additional photographs can be viewed at the Library of Congress website by searching “open-air-schools” in Photos, Prints, Drawings .

Copyright © 2021 by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. See Permissions and Reprints online at  NAEYC.org/resources/permissions.

Armitage, K.C. 2009. Nature Study Movement: The Forgotten Popularizer of America’s Conservation Ethic . Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas.

Beiser, F. 2017. “The Enlightenment and Idealism.” In The Cambridge Companion to German Idealism , 2nd ed., ed. K. Ameriks, 21–42. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bellafante, G. 2020. “Schools Beat Earlier Plagues with Outdoor Classes. We Should, Too.” New York Times . https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/17/nyregion/coronavirus-nyc-schools-reopening-outdoors.html .

Bloch, M.N. 2006. “Educational Theories and Pedagogies as Technologies of Power/Knowledge: Educating the Young Child as a Citizen of an Imagined Nation and World.” In The Child in the World/The World in the Child: Education and the Configuration of a Universal, Modern, and Globalized Childhood , eds. M.N. Bloch, D. Kennedy, T. Lightfoot, & D. Weyenberg, 21–42. New York: Palgrave.

Châtelet, A.M. 2008. “A Breath of Fresh Air: Open Air Schools in Europe.” In Designing Modern Childhoods: History, Space, and the Material Culture of Children , eds. M. Gutman and N. de Coninck-Smith, 107–27. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles, A., K. Malone, & E. Barratt Hacking. 2020a. “Childhoodnature Preamble.” In Research Handbook on Childhoodnature: Assemblages of Childhood and nature research , eds. A. Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles, K. Malone, & E. Barratt Hacking, vii–xi. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.

Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles, A., K. Malone, & E. Barratt Hacking. 2020b. Prologue to Research Handbook on Childhoodnature: Assemblages of Childhood and Nature Research, eds. A. Cutter-Mackenzie-Knowles, K. Malone, & E. Barratt Hacking, xi–xvi. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.

Fallace, 2015. “The Savage Origins of Child-Centered Pedagogy, 1871–1913.” American Educational Research Journal 52 (1): 73–103.

Fine, M. 2018. “ ‘There’s a Hole in the Tree!’ Kindergartners Learning in an Urban Park.” Young Children 73 (5): 8–13.

Finch, K. 2016. “The Risks and Benefits of Nature Play.” In Nature Preschools and Forest Kindergartens: The Handbook for Outdoor Learning , ed. D. Sobel, 137–57. St. Paul, MN: Redleaf Press.

Froebel, F. 1885. The Education of Man . Translated by J. Jarvis. New York: A. Lovell & Co.

Jones, J. 2014. “Nature Study, Aborigines and the Australian Kindergarten: Lessons from Martha Simpson's Australian Programme Based on the Life and Customs of the Australian Black.” History of Education 43 (4): 487–503.

Kass, D. 2017. Educational Reform and Environmental Concern: A History of School Nature Study in Australia . New York: Taylor & Francis.

Kellert, S.R. 2002. “Experiencing Nature: Affective Cognitive, and Evaluative Development in Children.” In Children and Nature: Psychological, Sociological, and Evolutionary Investigations , eds. P.H. Kahn & S.R. Kellert, 117–51. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Kohlstedt, S.G. 2010. Teaching Children Science: Hands-on Nature Study in North America, 1890–1930 . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Kuo, M., & C. Jordan. 2019. “The Natural World as a Resource for Learning and Development: From Schoolyards to Wilderness.” Frontiers of Psychology 10: 1763.

Lee-Hammond, L., & Y. Colliver. 2017. “Indigenous Methodologies in Education Research: Case Study of Children’s Play in Solomon Islands.” In The SAGE Handbook of Outdoor Play and Learning , eds. T. Waller, E. Äremalm-Hagsér, E.B.H. Sandseter, L. Lee-Hammond, K. Lekies, & S. Wyver, 495–510. London: SAGE.

Leather, M. 2016. “A Critique of ‘Forest School’ or Something Lost in Translation.” Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education 21 (1): 5–18.

Louv, R. 2010. Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder Revised edition. London: Atlantic Books. 

McCree, M., & J. Cree. 2017. “Forest School: Core Principles in Changing Times.” In Children Learning Outside the Classroom from Birth to Eleven, 2nd ed., ed. S. Waite, 222–32. London: SAGE.

Meier, D., & S. Sisk-Hilton, eds. 2013. Nature Education with Young Children: Integrating Inquiry and Practice . New York: Routledge.

NAAEE (North American Association for Environmental Education). 2017. Nature Preschools and Forest Kindergartens: 2017 National Survey . Washington, DC: NAAEE.  https://naturalstart.org/sites/default/files/staff/nature_preschools_national_survey_2017.pdf

Op de Beeck, N. 2018. “Children’s Ecoliterature and the New Nature Study.” Children’s Literature in Education 49 (1): 73–85.

Selleck, R.J.W. 1968. The New Education: The English Background 1870–1914 . Melbourne: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons.

Sharma-Brymer, V., E. Brymer, T. Gray, & K. Davids. 2018. “Affordances Guiding Forest School Practice: The Application of the Ecological Dynamics Approach.” Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education 21 (1): 103–15.

Shields, P. 2010. “Forest School: Reclaiming it from Scandinavia.” Forum 52 (1): 53–60.

Sussman, R.W. 2014. The Myth of Race: The Troubling Persistence of an Unscientific Idea . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

The Cedarsong Way. 2021. “History of the Cedarsong Way.” https://cedarsongway.org/history-of-cedarsong-way/

Valdes, M. 2010. “‘Forest Kindergartens’ Taking Root.” The Spokesman-Review , May 30.  https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2010/may/30/forest-kindergartens-taking-root/

Waite, S., M. Bølling, & P. Bentsen. 2016. “Comparing Apples and Pears?: A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Forms of Outdoor Learning Through Comparison of English Forest Schools and Danish udeskole .” Environmental Education Research 22 (6): 868–92.

Wilson, E.O. 1993. “Biophilia and the Conservation Ethic.” In The Biophilia Hypothesis , eds. S.R. Kellert & E.O. Wilson, 31–41. Washington, DC: Island Press.

Wulf, A. 2015. The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Larry Prochner, EdD, is professor of early childhood education at the University of Alberta, in Edmonton, and co-president of the International Froebel Society. Larry is working on a history of forest kindergartens in England, Germany, and the United States.  [email protected]

Vol. 76, No. 3

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• Conservation

Books & Literature

The best books for outdoor kids.

I’ll always remember the bookshelves. They rose from the floor to the ceiling in my parent’s old house, their spines gleamed in the light through the window. With the rustling of loose pages from haphazardly stacked volumes fluttering gently in the breeze of the air conditioning, they almost seemed alive. Those bookshelves were an endless source of fascination for me with each book resting upon them acting as a doorway to a new adventure. I would climb up those shelves and pull out a new book each week. I spent most of my childhood reading through them, learning from them, and acting on what I had learned.

My parents weren’t big hunters or anglers, but they are both great readers and instilled their love of literature into me. Without anyone to mentor my wilderness pursuits, books taught me how to recreate in the outdoors, and it was from reading and applying what I read to the field that I eventually became competent and fell in love with the woods. Over the years, I developed a few personal favorites that I believe helped to shape me from a wide-eyed kid who would stare out the window in wonder into the outdoorsman I am today. So, if you have a kid interested in the outdoors , these books might just be the perfect thing to springboard them into that world, helping to ensure that you’ll have a hunting and fishing companion for life.

My Side of The Mountain (Jean Craighead George, 1959)

Perhaps one of the most in-depth outdoor books ever written, My Side of The Mountain tells the story of Sam Gribley, a 12-year-old boy who decides to leave the hustle and bustle of New York City behind to live off the land in the Catskill Mountains. A brilliantly written and rich text, My Side of The Mountain is a story of struggle and triumph in the outdoors as you follow along with Sam as he tries to survive.

The story is full of thorough and accurate methods for hunting gamebirds , fishing for trout, trapping snapping turtles , gathering edible plants , and even tanning hides . It’s also filled with illustrations that detail exactly how Sam creates different tools. From making fish hooks out of twigs and building a deadfall trap to preserving food, reading this book will soon have your kids out in the woods trying Sam’s methods for themselves.

Hatchet (Gary Paulson, 1986)

The quintessential outdoor story and required reading in many education systems, Hatchet has remained a favorite book for many adult hunters and anglers since its publication and is the perfect book for any young adult curious about the backcountry. The Newbery Honor-winning young-adult novel tells the story of Brian Robeson, a 13-year-old boy who is forced to survive in the wilderness after a plane crash strands him in the Northern Canadian wilderness.

Throughout the story, Brian learns to survive with nothing but a hatchet as he builds a shelter , hunts rabbits and grouse , catches panfish , and deals with nature’s wrath. An in-depth and extremely entertaining novel, Hatchet is the perfect book for any kid wishing to test their mettle in the wilderness and find out what the outdoor world is really all about.

Brian’s Winter (Gary Paulson, 1996)

A follow-up to Hatchet and the third book in the series, Brian’s Winter, explores what would have happened to young Brian Robeson if he hadn’t been rescued at the end of the first story. A much heavier-themed book than Hatchet, Brian’s Winter details the difficulties of winter and how much harder Brian must work to survive.

Throughout the story, Brian builds a winter shelter, constructs a pair of snow shoes, builds a more powerful bow for big game hunting , and subsequently deals with the emotional fallout of taking a life for sustenance and learns how to preserve meat . A detailed and instruction-rich text, Brian’s Winter is the perfect book for helping kids understand the realities of being an outdoors person and for teaching them to respect the harsh realities of nature itself.

Where the Red Fern Grows (Wilson Rawls, 1961)

One of the most beloved novels of all time, Where the Red Fern Grows, is a story of determination, joy, sorrow, and love—but mostly, it’s a book about coon hunting . Set in rural Oklahoma in the 1920s, Where the Red Fern Grows tells the story of Billy Colman, a young man from the backwoods who wants nothing more in life than to get a pair of hounds so he can become a raccoon hunter .

Though his family cannot afford to get Billy the dogs he so desires, through hard work and determination, Billy eventually gets a pair of redbone hounds and subsequently becomes the best hunter in the country. In a text full of fantastic hunting references that reflect the respect and love a hunter should have for not only his dogs but for his quarry, Where the Red Fern Grows is an enthralling read for both children and adults alike. It is the ideal story for anyone who loves their dogs, the woods, and the magical combination those two things can make when brought together.

Little House Series (Laura Ingalls Wilder, 1932/1935)

Though it has become a rather controversial story in the modern age, there are still very few novels out there that will better introduce and educate young children in the ways of the outdoors than Wilder’s Little House book series. An autobiography based on Wilder’s own childhood growing up in the 1870s, Little House in the Big Woods and Little House on the Prairie describe the homesteading skills that were both observed and practiced by Wilder and her family.

A generally lighthearted read, the books both depict the hard work necessary for surviving in the wilderness and the fun that can be had along the way. The stories provide rich yet simple details about hunting and gathering as well as about butchering and preserving meat in such a way that children can be enthralled rather than repelled by the idea of hunting. It’s the perfect book for introducing a young child to the outdoors that will pique their curiosity and hopefully have them wanting to experience it for themselves.

Swiss Family Robinson (John David Wyss, 1812)

Though Disney’s 1960 film turned Swiss Family Robinson into a swashbuckling story of adventure, the original novel is actually an easy-to-read and wonderful story about a family who survive and thrive on an island by hunting, fishing, and gathering. The book opens with a Swiss family in the hold of a ship during a great storm, which is soon wrecked on a reef of a tropical island. The ship’s crew has evacuated, so William and Elizabeth, along with their sons Fritz, Ernest, Jack, and Francis, must sail ashore to build their own homestead .

Over a period of ten years, the novel is chock full of details about the family’s needs and their homesteading operation, as well as details about hunting everything from deer and pheasants to lions and bears . The book also goes into detail about how to butcher and skin different animals and how to preserve their meat and hides, and even has a few good wild game recipes . Swiss Family Robinson is a story about respecting and working with the natural world instead of against it and is a great book for kids interested in hunting and fishing and utilizing the wild places of the world to their fullest potential.

The Jungle Book (Rudyard Kipling, 1894)

Another great work that is often muddled by its Disneyfied version, The Jungle Book is actually a collection of short stories written by Kipling that tell the story of Mowgli, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, and The White Seal. While it’s not a book about hunting per se nor a story about accurate animal behavior, The Jungle Book is nevertheless a great read for any child interested in the outdoors because all the stories maintain the underlying theme of respecting nature.

From “the law of the jungle” to the wildness and unrestrained energies of the different animal characters, the stories in The Jungle Book all reflect the responsibilities we have as outdoors folk to respect and protect the natural world . It’s a great book and a great way for kids to learn about conservation and to understand the responsibility that they have when they’re out in nature.

Call it Courage (Armstrong Sperry, 1940)

A story set in the Pacific Islands and focused on that culture, Call it Courage, is a short novel about a young boy named Mafatu, the son of a Chief, who is afraid of the sea. Originally titled The Boy Who Was Afraid, the book centers around Mafatu challenging himself by taking a canoe out onto the ocean alone.

He is caught in a storm and later ends up stranded on an island with only his dog, Uri, for company. To survive, Mafatu must learn to hunt and fish around the island and subsequently to find his courage through these tasks. An excellent story that gives accurate detail on several outdoor skills—from how to make a fishing line , to how to make a spear , to how to cook a whole wild boar — Call it Courage is a great read for any kid who is nervous about being outside alone or who wants to learn more about hunting and gathering for survival.

Skeeter (Kay Jordan Smith, 1992)

A relatively unknown book that can quickly become a personal favorite for young hunters, Skeeter is perhaps one of the most detailed and well-written stories about hunting published in the last century. The book tells the story of Joey and Steve, two teenage boys who are completely obsessed with hunting but still aren’t that good at it . That is until they trespass on the land of and eventually befriend an old woodsman named Skeeter.

Throughout the novel, Skeeter teaches the two boys how to become better hunters, with the text going into detail about the importance of accurate shooting , how to find game birds , rabbits , and deer , and even how to properly train a gun dog . It is an excellent piece of work and an ideal read for any young adult frustrated with their success in the field and looking to improve both their hunting skills and their knowledge of just what it takes to be a true woodsman.

Over the Rainbow

In a digital age where so many children are engrossed and entertained with iPads and video games and becoming less and less interested in anything not offered on a flashing screen, it seems like reading has almost become a lost art. Yet, it may be that books have become our last bastion to ensuring that future generations remain interested in the outdoor world.

For as helpful as outlets like YouTube and other internet resources can be, I still maintain that there is no better way to learn nor to stoke the fires of interest in a child than by having them read a good book. For kids interested in hunting and fishing or for parents wishing them to be so, having them read a certain book can change a quiet interest in the outdoors into a full-blown obsession—that is, so long as they are reading the right books.

And if you’re a parent reading this, be sure to check out Steven Rinella’s book Outdoor Kids in an Inside World , an essential resource for any parent looking to immerse their children in the outdoors .

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The whole point of the conservation movement is to keep our nation’s wild places and animals around long enough for our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren to enjoy them. Then, in turn, those generations would hopefully have the same plans for their own wild places, animals, and offspring. But what good is all that effort if the generations we’re working so hard to raise don’t want to get outside in the first place? This is a...

Steven Rinella's New Book is Out Now!

The day we've all been waiting for is here: Outdoor Kids in an Inside World: Getting Your Family Out of the House and Radically Engaged with Nature is finally out and available for purchase. Raising healthy, well-rounded children comes with a lot of challenges these days. Screen time can overtake playtime and imagination can falter. Long hours indoors can quickly make the outside world a foreign place. Outdoor Kids dives into how outdoor...

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Hearts & Minds Books

More than a bookstore.

Books for outdoor education, adventure experiences, finding God in the outdoors, nature writing, and faith-based creation care.

Some of these are explicitly Christian; in fact, some are recommended by groups such as the Christian Adventure Association , an organization we are pleased to serve as a book provider. (Some. but not all, of these books may be listed at their inventory list at their own bookstore.) As you most likely know, here at the shop we read widely and enjoy books from many perspectives. Some of the views of some of these writers are less than orthodox as they describe faith and some of the memoirs, for instance, may have some colorful language. We selected them, though, for their overall worth, quality of writing, insight or general importance.  We hope you like how we have curated this list.

At the end of this list there are two links to other pages of the Hearts & Minds website.

One, marked INQUIRE , takes you to an inquiry page near our order form page, and you should click there if you have questions.  Don’t forget to tell us what you want to know. 

The other, marked ORDER , takes you to our webpage’s order form.  It is certified secure, and you only have to fill in the obvious information, and tell us what books you want to order.  If you have shipping preferences, there is a place to note that, too.  We take any standard credit cards and, if you’d rather, are happy to just send a bill along with the book shipment, and you can pay by check, in a return envelope which we will provide .

WE OFFER MOST OF THESE TITLES AT A 10% OFF.  A few exceptions are noted.  The regular retail price is shown, and we will deduct the discount when you order.

OUTDOOR EDUCATION RESOURC E S

Gold Nuggets: Readings in Experiential Education Jim Schoel & Mike Stratton (Project Adventure) $20.95  This is a little spiral bound, underground classic, prepared by Project Adventure outdoor educators, reflecting on experiences they’ve had…

Ethical Issues in Experiential Education Jaspers Hunt (The Association for Experiential Education) $29.95    A serious, professional monograph exploring the complex ethical issues (secrecy, sexuality, risk, environmental care, etc.) that come up in experiential education.

OUTDOOR TRIPS

Allen & Mike’s Really Cool Backcountry Ski Book: Traveling and Camping Skills for a Winter Environment Allen O’Bannon & Mike Clelland (FalconGuide) $14.95 Practical insight and fun illustrations on wilderness camping and skiing.

Allen & Mike’s Really Cool Telemark Tips: 123 Amazing Tips to Improves Your Tele-Skiing (revised & expanded)   Allen O’Bannon & Mike Clelland (FalconGuide) $14.95 Practical insight and fun illustrations on wilderness skiing.

Allen & Mike’s Avalanche Book: A Guide to Staying Save in Avalanche Terrain Allen O’Bannon & Mike Clelland (FalconGuide) $14.95 Practical insight and fun illustrations about a matter of utmost seriousness.

THE PHILOSOPHY AND THEOLOGY OF PLACE & LANDSCAPE

EXPERIENCING GOD IN THE OUTDOORS

& THE SPIRITUALITY OF CREATION

OUTDOOR MEMOIRS AND NATURE WRITING

CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVES ON CREATION CARE

inquire here if you have questions or need more information j ust ask us what you want to know

• © 2023

Key Competences and New Literacies

From Slogans to School Reality

• Maria Dobryakova   ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9475-5476 0 ,
• Isak Froumin   ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9228-3770 1 ,
• Kirill Barannikov   ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5182-9458 2 ,
• Gemma Moss 3 ,
• Igor Remorenko   ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8775-4248 4 ,
• Jarkko Hautamäki 5

Institute of Education, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia

You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

Head of the Observatory of Higher Education Innovations, Jacobs University, Bremen, Germany

Moscow city university, moscow, russia, university college london, london, uk, university of helsinki, helsinki, finland.

Includes case studies from 8 countries on the competence-turn in the curriculum

Describes pedagogical approaches to foster 21st century skills

Outlines the components of environmental literacy

Part of the book series: UNIPA Springer Series (USS)

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• Table of contents

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Table of contents (15 chapters)

Front matter, introduction.

• Maria Dobryakova, Isak Froumin

The World Is Changing, and Education Is Changing with It

A framework of key competences and new literacies.

• Maria Dobryakova, Isak Froumin, Gemma Moss, Norbert Seel, Kirill Barannikov, Igor Remorenko

Canada (Ontario): A Unifying Theme for Canadian Education Is Equity

• Michele Peterson-Badali, Elisabeth Rees-Johnstone, Evelyn Wilson, Bev Freedman, Denese Belchetz, Karen Grose et al.

China: Fostering Students with All-round Attainments in Moral, Intellectual, Physical and Aesthetic Grounding

• Huanhuan Xia, You You

England: Knowledge, Competences and Curriculum Reform—Why the English Case Stands Out

• Gemma Moss, Ann Hodgson, Susan Cousin

Republic of Korea: Cultivating Key Competences

• Junehee Yoo, Euichang Choi, Dongil Kim, Kyunghee So, Chan-Jong Kim, Il Lee et al.

Finland: Improving Pupils’ Opportunities for Experiencing the Joy of Learning, for Deep Learning, and for Good Learning Achievement

• Jarkko Hautamäki, Raisa Ahtiainen, Natalia Gustavson, Risto Hotulainen, Sirkku Kupiainen, Marja Tamm et al.

Poland: The Learning Environment that Brought About a Change

• Maciej Jakubowski, Jerzy Wiśniewski

Twenty-First Century Skills and Learning: A Case Study of Developments and Practices in the United States

• Michael Russell, Henry Braun, Binbin Zhu

Russian Federation: At a Conceptual Crossroads

• Kirill Barannikov, Maria Dobryakova, Isak Froumin, Igor Remorenko

Pedagogical and School Practices to Foster Key Competences and Domain-General Literacy

• Maria Dobryakova, Norbert Seel

A Modern Aspect of Instrumental Literacy: Coding

• Suhas Parandekar, Eugeny Patarakin, Gulcan Yayla

How to Integrate New Literacy in the Curriculum—Example of Environmental Literacy

Maria Dobryakova

How Countries Reform Their Curricula to Support the Development of Key Competences

• Kirill Barannikov, Igor Remorenko, Isak Froumin

This edited book is a unique comprehensive discussion of 21 st  century skills in education in a comparative perspective. It presents investigation on how eight very different countries (China, Canada, England, Finland, Poland, South Korea, the USA and Russia) have attempted to integrate key competences and new literacies into their curricula and balance them with the acquisition of disciplinary knowledge. Bringing together psychological, sociological, pedagogical approaches, the book also explores theoretical underpinnings of 21 st  century skills and offers a scalable solution to align multiple competency and literacy frameworks.

The book provides a conceptual framework for curriculum reform and transformation of school practice designed to ensure that every school graduate thrives in our technologically and culturally changing world. By providing eight empirical portraits of competence-driven curriculum reform, this book is great resource to educational researchers and policy makers.

• Learning Objectives
• New Literacies
• Canadian Education
• Education in China
• Education in the UK
• Cultivating Key Competences
• Education in Republic of Korea
• Education in Finland
• Education in Poland
• Twenty-First Century Skills and Learning
• Education in USA
• Education in Russia
• Key competencies
• 21st Century Curriculum
• Curriculum Reform
• Transversal Competences
• Functional Literacy
• Digital literacy
• Competence-based Education
• Critical Thinking

Isak Froumin

Kirill Barannikov, Igor Remorenko

Jarkko Hautamäki

Maria Dobryakova  graduated from the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences and Manchester University (M.A. in Sociology) and defended her Ph.D. in social stratification at the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Since 2006 and until 2022 she worked at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, where she headed and coordinated a number of large-scale projects in education, social sciences, as well as publications and translation projects. Prior to that, she had worked at the Independent Institute for Social Policy (as head of publications) and the Ford Foundation (Higher Education and Scholarship program). 

Isak Froumin  headed the Institute of education at the National Research University Higher School of Economics in Moscow (Russia)—the first graduate school of education in Russia—from 2009 to 2021. After beginning his career as a principal of Kransnoyarsk University Laboratory School  (Russia), he worked as the Lead Education Specialist at the World Bank, and the advisor to the Minister of Education and Science of Russian Federation. He is a fellow of the International Academy of Education.

Kirill A. Barannikov  is the vice-rector for strategy, Moscow City University. He is working in MCU since 2015 and has led a number of projects over Moscow schools and the university development. Among the most striking projects are the online platform for teachers to create curricula (www.prok.edu.ru), the electronic platform for assessing the quality of the educational environment (www.ecers.ru, www.sacers.ru), internet service for supporting and developing initiatives  (www.zamisli.pro). Over the past ten years, he headed the center for distance education of children with disabilities of the Pedagogical Academy of Postgraduate Education, the center of curricula design and standards of the Academy of Social Management. He coordinated over 40 research projects of the Department of Education of the City of Moscow, the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia. The main areas of interest are competency models in school education, issues of standardization and curricula design in an international context, change management in schools and universities. 

Jarkko Hautamäki  graduated from University of Helsinki (majors in experimental psychology and social psychology) and defended his Ph.D. Dissertation (Measurement and Distribution of Piagetian Stages of Thinking) in University Joensuu. He became a full professor in Special Education in Helsinki University, served also the dean and founded and directed Helsinki University Center for Educational Assessment. He is the honorary professor of Faculty of Psychology at Moscow State University, member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters and member of The Russian Academy of Educational Sciences. His research interests include human development and schooling for thinking, interventions and special education and applying the science of development into schooling. He lives in Helsinki, Finland. 

Gemma Moss  is the professor of Literacy at UCL Institute of Education. She has been the president of the British Educational Research Association (2015–17), was a member of the European Education Research Association Council (2016–18), was director of the Centre for Critical Education Studies at the Institute of Education (2007–11) and was director of the International Literacy Centre at the Institute of Education, UCL (2017-22).  Her main research interests are in literacy as a social practice; literacy policy; knowledge transfer and knowledge exchange; evidence-informed practice and curriculum design; pedagogy and new technologies; primary assessment; and gender and literacy attainment.  Her research includes running multi-site ethnographic case studies, combining quantitative and qualitative methods in innovative ways and using rapid evidence assessment systematic review processes to bring knowledge to bear on contentious questions in education, where funders require rapid answers.  

Igor M. Remorenko  has been holding the post of the rector of the Moscow City University since 2013. He has a Ph.D. and full-doctor degree in Education. From 2009 to 2011, he held the post of the director of the Department of the State Policy and Legal Regulations in Education, Department of the State Policy in Education, Department of the Strategic Development of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation; supervised the top-priority national project “Education” and programs to support the innovative development of the higher education institutes. From 2011 to 2013, he is the deputy minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation. He is the author of a number of the scientific publications, two monographs. He participates in the researches in the field of educational policy, development of managerial approaches in education and multiple international and national projects in the sphere of education.

Book Title : Key Competences and New Literacies

Book Subtitle : From Slogans to School Reality

Editors : Maria Dobryakova, Isak Froumin, Kirill Barannikov, Gemma Moss, Igor Remorenko, Jarkko Hautamäki

Series Title : UNIPA Springer Series

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-23281-7

Publisher : Springer Cham

eBook Packages : Education , Education (R0)

Copyright Information : The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023

Hardcover ISBN : 978-3-031-23280-0 Published: 23 August 2023

Softcover ISBN : 978-3-031-23283-1 Due: 06 September 2024

eBook ISBN : 978-3-031-23281-7 Published: 22 August 2023

Series ISSN : 2366-7516

Series E-ISSN : 2366-7524

Edition Number : 1

Number of Pages : VI, 426

Number of Illustrations : 18 b/w illustrations, 27 illustrations in colour

Topics : Curriculum Studies , Study and Learning Skills , International and Comparative Education , Educational Policy and Politics

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