DOI: https://doi.org/10.26758/14.1.2
LUMSA University, Rome, Italy
Address correspondence to: n.rosati2@lumsa.it
Abstract
Objectives. Research suggests that mindfulness practice has had a positive impact on the development of personality. Outdoor education is also considered an important aspect of early childhood education. Research on the use of mindfulness with children is scarce at present, and it focuses entirely on the primary school level and beyond. This informal survey aims to illustrate how mindfulness practice and outdoor education can be combined in activities for nursery school children.
Material and Method. Forty children from two to three years of age participated in the survey. They were divided into two groups: the intervention group and the control group. They both practiced mindfulness exercises to develop concentration and selective attention, together with sensory-motor activities. Children in the intervention group could practice mindfulness in outdoor activities, whereas children in the intervention group practiced the same activities in the classroom. Grids and a logbook for each child were used to record observation data. In addition, the Social Behavior Scale and the GMT-ER test were used for the assessment of children’s social-emotional and motor-cognitive skills before and after mindfulness practice combined with or without outdoor activities.
Results. The qualitative analysis of the results indicates that the teaching of mindfulness practice, together with outdoor activities, encourages children to reflect on themselves, to maintain concentration on activities for a longer period of time, to have pro-social behaviors, and to become aware of the environment.
Conclusion. Nursery school activities should always involve body, mind, and emotions, together with mindfulness practice. When a child can experience this connection within a natural environment in the context of play, this has a significant impact on their psychological wellbeing
Keywords: mindfulness, outdoor education, pro-social behavior.
Introduction
With the term outdoor education, we refer to more than merely those activities engaged in the outdoors in contact with nature and their fruition, but also a true educational philosophy and a specific mission for an educational structure that strives to apply those principles relating to outdoor education.
Over time, several definitions of outdoor education have been put forth: Lewis 1975; Lappin 1984; Smith 1995; Neill 2003. Each of these authors has underlined the practice from the more naturalistic to the closer connection of experiencing time and space to the social aspect that deals with the lack of exercise leading to physical issues such as obesity or other emotional issues.
Research on the topic has shown the educational benefits resulting from learning in an open-air environment. Additionally, this form of learning allows for greater opportunities for exercise and physical well-being derived from the outdoor experience. Children become more active, more creative, and more capable of finding opportunities for play when they are involved in outdoor activities. This is not the case when children are presented with the same activities within the confines of the classroom.
Peterson (2013), moreover, has indicated how play in a natural environment appears more varied, more imaginative, and more creative, resulting in an overall positive influence on linguistic competencies and the child’s collaborative abilities.
Another aspect to be considered in enhancing the effect of outdoor education is the practice of mindfulness with children.
Mindfulness may be defined as a series of practices with the aim of developing self-awareness using systematic concentration techniques. Central to these techniques is focusing one’s attention on the present moment without forming a judgmental attitude (Kabat-Zinn, 1994, p. 16). Mindfulness techniques in adults were first studied in the 1990’s, and findings were positive, showing a link between mindfulness practices and feelings of well-being (Brown, Ryan, & Creswell, 2007). Research on the practice of meditation with high school and middle school students has also yielded positive outcomes for these age groups (Britton et al., 2010; Broderick, Khalsa, Greenberg, Reichl, & Kabat-Zinn, 2010; Mendelson et al., 2010). Research regarding young children has only just begun, but studies point to some positive effects (Burke, 2010; Thompson & Gauntlett-Gilbert, 2008). Children from seven to eight years of age with anxiety benefited from focusing on their breathing for several minutes at a time (Semple, Reid, & Miller, 2005). Research is scarce for preschoolers due to the difficulty in deciding on the most appropriate practices for that age group (Lillard, 2011).
This contribution describes an informal survey taken in two nursery schools in Rome during the scholastic year 2022-2023, in which two groups of children from two to three years of age took part in mindfulness practices in outdoor activities. These represented the intervention groups, while another group of the same age functioned as a control group and where mindfulness activities were not carried out in the open air. This was the first instance of combining mindfulness practice and outdoor education involving very young children in Italy.
The objectives of the survey were to investigate how sensory-motor activities, selective attention exercises, and practical life activities can be made a part of mindfulness training in outdoor education and how best to plan mindfulness exercises and outdoor activities for children at the nursery school level.
Materials and Methods
Participants in the intervention group (22 children from 2 to 3 years of age) took part in activities of selective attention. Examples included observing details of a leaf, a flower, a small animal, or a cloud in the sky, playing with small objects, or wandering around the pond. Children were also asked to focus on their breathing and their movements while walking, or climbing, or moving natural objects around the garden or in a little wooded area. The book “Sitting Still Like a Frog. Mindfulness Exercises for Kids” (Snel, 2016)” was instrumental as a source in promoting awareness of what was being done at various times of the child’s day.
Children were observed by the teachers and the researchers during mindfulness practice outdoors, and grids were used to record data. Questions included: “How long does the child observe the leaf or small animal? How much time is spent playing with natural materials?” A three-point Likert scale was applied to measure the level of selective attention and concentration during play.
Researchers compiled a logbook for each child in the intervention group. Here, researchers recorded the concentration times, the type of attention paid to natural elements, and the games that children spontaneously invented using the materials under the guidance of the teachers. The Social Behavior Scale (SBS) (Merrell, Sanders, Popinga, 1993) was the measurement tool used during observation, a scale used for exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis for Italian preschoolers. Factors included in the scale are: Emotional Competency, Social Engagement, and Aggressiveness. Another tool used was the GMDS-ER test (Luiz et al., 2006) for the assessment of children’s motor, cognitive, and social skills before and after mindfulness practice combined with outdoor activities.
Children in the control group (18 children from 2 to 3 years of age) engaged in the same type of activities as did those in the intervention group: observing nature, looking at the sky through the classroom window, playing with water in a little pot in the classroom, etc. The mindfulness practices from the book by Snels (2016) were part of the classroom activities as well.
Educators observed the children from the control group, then recorded the data using the same tests and the same grids and logbook used with the children from the intervention group.
Educators working in the schools in the survey also answered two questionnaires: the former consisted of 12 items focused on teachers’ previous and eventual experience in teaching mindfulness practice and outdoor education. The latter consisted of 30 items focusing on competencies needed to develop a child’s concentration and sensory-motor skills. A curriculum was planned based on mindfulness practice in addition to everyday outdoor activities.
Results
The recorded data were compiled and analyzed by both the educators and the researchers.
The observations reported in the grid and in the SBS test show a direct correlation between the grid data and the SBS (p≤ 0.001). It was evident that the children in the intervention groups appeared calmer, had longer attention spans, and were more apt to engage with their peers.
The children in the control group, instead, appeared more agitated, with the same ability to concentrate but for shorter periods of time.
From the logbook entries, it appears that the control group exhibited more frequent difficulties in sharing materials while playing with peers than were exhibited by the children in the intervention group. The latter group found a solution to the conflict by themselves, whereas in the control group, children asked the teachers for help to solve conflict. In short, the children in the control group did not exhibit the same level of concentration and social willingness as did those in the intervention groups.
Quantitative results indicate that, according to the pre-school teachers, the surveyed mindfulness has significant value in early childhood education (p≤ 0.001). Moreover, they see a need for a curriculum that focuses on concentration activities, selective attention, and sensory-motor experience in the context of outdoor education. The teachers interviewed expressed a positive view of combining mindfulness and outdoor education (100%) and welcomed the possibility of a curriculum based on outdoor education with mindfulness practice in the open air (p≤ 0.001).
Discussion
This survey was conducted over a period of two months, and the data that emerged from the observation of the two groups suggests the effectiveness of mindfulness programs in the outdoor context. The findings seem to indicate that children who engage in outdoor mindfulness training exhibit improved psychological health and that mindfulness practice enhances the fit between the outdoor environment and the child.
A study was conducted in 2015 by Flook, Goldberg, Pinger and Davidson, in which the effects of mindfulness training to improve social behavior and self-control in preschoolers were examined. Children in the intervention group demonstrated greater social competence and enhanced learning abilities, along with improved health and emotional development, compared with those in the control group.
Another study was conducted by Lee and his collaborators (Lee et al., 2020) about the condition of wellbeing for children in kindergarten. The researchers demonstrated the presence of positive effects on children’s emotional and social behavior when children have the opportunity to practice unstructured free play together with mindfulness intervention.
In addition, several psychologists recognize the important role that bodily experiences and selective attention exercises may play in cognition and vice versa (Glenberg, 1999; Niedenthal, Barsalou, Winkielman, Krauth-Gruber, and Ric, 2005; Lillard, 2011).
Conclusion
Mindfulness practice can be quite useful in the formulation of an educational and teaching framework centred on very young children. This framework, in which sensory-motor experiences are fundamental, should focus on developing concentration techniques to achieve a balance that aims to establish healthy relationships with others and with one’s environment. The interaction among body, mind, and emotions, integral to mindfulness practice, represents a child’s developmental stages from zero to three years of age.
When a child can experience this connection within a natural environment in the context of play, there is a significant impact on the psychological wellbeing of the child and his ability to feel good about himself as a part of his environment.
Traditionally, the indoor classroom has represented the sole venue for learning about the natural world. The concept of the outdoor classroom, in contrast, suggests an innovative approach, particularly adapted to the learning style of nursery school children.
Venturing outdoors to discover and learn from the outside environment is the focal point of outdoor education. The act of bringing into the classroom what has been discovered, observed, and gathered as the focus of the child’s attention can be a new way for the child to experience nursery school and to learn from it.
Outdoor education, along with mindfulness practice, can represent an effective approach, especially well-suited to the age group 0-3.
Acknowledgements
A summary of this paper was presented at the online international conference: Individual, family, society – contemporary challenges, fifth edition, 4 to 5 October 2023, Bucharest, Romania, and published in the journal Studii şi Cercetări de Antropologie, No. 8/2023
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