Nature-Based Learning: Improving learning and well-being by teaching with nature in mind

Close your eyes for a moment. Take a deep breath and let your mind travel to the last natural space you visited. What can you see, smell, hear? Where is this place? A forest? A beach? The minute you start to notice nature, however, you realise that it really is everywhere; from the bee that flies into your kitchen through an open window to the spider that lives behind your dresser. So-called ‘urban nature’ has been overlooked for a long time, and yet research suggests that it can have measurable positive effects on people’s health and well-being.¹

Nature-based solutions – the sustainable use of natural processes and features to tackle societal challenges – are front and centre in our bid to restore balance and create a sustainable future. 

In education, nature-based learning could be one of the ways in which to creatively tackle some of the biggest challenges in schools right now – from attendance to behaviour. But the benefits of considering a turn towards nature-based education, whether it is on a small or incrementally larger scale, are numerous – not just for humans, but for the planet too. We need to develop a love of all things natural in all children. It is not only about taking them outside into nature – it’s about bringing nature inside to them too. 

Nature-based education is not a set of activities. It is an ethos and a philosophy that brings nature to the forefront. In this sense, nature-based education does not have to take place solely in natural spaces; instead, it is about learning with nature and about nature. It is about helping children become adults who will love, respect and care for the natural world at a time when the natural world in in trouble; man-made trouble. 

Furthermore, nature-based learning can have a positive effect on children’s ability to learn, their health and well-being, as well as their behaviour and social skills. Early contact with nature in childhood can help build a more robust immune system through exposure to germs that can help develop a measured immune response. Other associated benefits linked to the outdoors include improved sleep², better eye health³ and higher physical activity.⁴ 

Growing up in Athens in the 1980s, Dr Alexia Barrable’s childhood games and first memories were governed largely by urban nature. Now, in a new book called Independent Thinking on Nature-Based Learning, she explains her goal of bringing nature into every classroom: ‘My research has been focused on nature connection in childhood and beyond, as well as the exploration of human–nature interactions. This book brings some of my accumulated knowledge of practice and research into what I hope will be a useful primer to help teachers bring nature into their teaching.’ 

The book considers the evidence-based research behind the benefits of nature-based learning, including on behaviour, independence, relationships, attainment and well-being. It can be read from start to finish or dipped into on specific topics. 

By nurturing the relationship between pupils and the natural world, helping them to understand their place within nature rather than apart from it, teachers have the power to bring about an important cultural shift towards increased respect and empathy towards the natural world, while simultaneously boosting school improvement and pupil health and well-being.  

Independent Thinking on Nature-Based Learning:

Improving learning and well-being by teaching with nature in mind 

by Dr. Alexia Barrable

Published 4th October 2022

ISBN: 9781781354087
www.crownhouse.co.uk

Independent Thinking on Nature-Based Learning is one of a number of books in the Independent Thinking On ... series from the award-winning Independent Thinking Press, an imprint of Crown House Publishing.

Dr. Alexia Barrable was born in Greece and had a wild childhood climbing trees and rescuing tortoises. After moving to the UK in her early teens, she went on to study at Oxford and Cambridge, where she qualified as a teacher. Alexia has a Ph.D. in psychology in education and conducts research on the human–nature relationship.

“Botheredness is a beautiful balance of deep classroom practice and thorough research. It is funny, tear-jerking and thought-provoking all at once. If you feel that your teaching style is a bit stuck, Hywel is exactly what you need.”
- Paul Dix, Author of When the Adults Change Everything Changes

Botheredness®:
Stories, stance and pedagogy
by Hywel Roberts

ISBN: 9781781354094
Price: £16.99
Published by: Independent Thinking Press
Date of publication: 28th February 2023

A funny, engaging and rapturous read that will inspire teachers to reclaim their professional imagination and reignite the excitement they felt when they entered the teaching profession. It’s about botheredness – a made up word that everyone understands

Hywel Roberts is on a mission to put botheredness into classrooms everywhere...

Maisie sits in class learning about Ancient Greece. She’s excited because that’s where she’s going on holiday in the Summer. And when she did Romans, it was cool because her family piled into their Volkswagen camper van and off they went to Hadrian’s Wall. It’s splendid for lovely Maisie. She’s buzzing and bothered. Her parents are ace and fair play to them for being bothered.

Amber isn’t that bothered though. Amber hasn’t got a bed or a mum. She hasn’t really got headspace for Hadrian, walls or Romans. She’s got enough on. Besides, these walls and ancients are just so long ago. They tell her nothing about her life. The challenge, then, for Amber’s teacher, is: how are you going to get her bothered? How do you make it all matter?

‘Botheredness’ sums up the kind of authentic care and adult positioning that is real and deliberate and gets children and young people on board with learning. It’s ensuring that schooling is about children. It’s about modelling interest, enthusiasm, optimism, values and manners in the classroom. To exude botheredness, one has to be an authentic professional. If a teacher has botheredness, then they’ll have impact beyond the subject coverage. They’ll be the role model for the child, a significant adult, a carrier of warmth.

When we ask novice teachers what they want it to feel like to be taught by them, they say things like:

• I want it to be engaging and fun
• Fun, exciting, varied and engaging
• Inspiring a desire to explore and to ask questions
• Fun, insightful, thought-provoking and inspiring

For experienced teachers or leaders, these statements may smack of naivety. When seeking new teachers, however, it’s interesting that these are exactly the qualities we’re looking for, aren’t they? We want colleagues to be excitable puppies. We want them to be bothered.

Now, in his trademark style, Hywel Roberts has captured the art of botheredness in a funny, engaging and rapturous new book called (you guessed it) Botheredness®: Stories, Stance and Pedagogy.

Botheredness is a word Hywel wrote about in his first book for teachers, Oops!. This book is intended to take things further; to offer opportunities to think beyond a path laid out by scripted lessons, downloadable schemes and slavish quick-fix fads, and perhaps move into more uncharted territories. It is not a book that’s going to tell readers what to do minute by minute, lesson to lesson. It won’t batter them with impenetrable research or tell them what to think. You won’t even find a scheme of work in it – some planning ideas for sure, even a template or two, but there’s no spoon-feeding. It’s just a book that invites readers to consider and reflect on where they’re up to in their own educational journey, be they a parent, a teacher or a student.

Providing clear strategies around imaginative and effective planning, supported by genuine examples of powerful classroom work from primary, special and secondary settings, this book is an essential guide to reclaiming professional warmth, passion, and care – botheredness – in the classroom. Written by a travelling teacher and film buff who’s on a mission to put botheredness into classrooms everywhere, Botheredness® will liberate thinking and rekindle the excitement teachers felt when they decided to enter the profession in the first place. It will help them to reclaim their professional imagination in the classroom and get everyone bothered.

Suitable for teachers, teaching assistants and school leaders, as well as
other education professionals.

“Hywel’s book gets to the heart of good teaching as the right combination of method and warmth and the stories he tells will resonate. As you read the book, you will be reminded of the power of good teaching and will feel glad that Hywel has bothered to write it.”

- Mick Waters, educationalist and author

Hywel Roberts has taught in secondary, primary and special settings for almost 30 years. He contributes to university education programmes and writes regularly for TES as the ‘travelling teacher’. A true Northerner, Hywel deals in botheredness, creative practice, curriculum development and imagineering.

He was recently described as ‘a world leader in enthusiasm’ and his first book, Oops! Helping Children Learn Accidentally, is a favourite among teachers. Hywel is a much sought-after educational speaker, an Independent Thinking Associate and has contributed to events worldwide. He also contributes fiction to prison-based literacy reading programmes developed by The Shannon Trust and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.