Recreation Proposed Quantitative Research: Outdoor

Recreation

Proposed Quantitative Research: Outdoor Recreation and Academic Performance

The background of outdoor activity as an aspect of education parallels the relative history of progressive education in the United States. During the 19th century, as formal ideas regarding education had begun to give way to a broader discourse on the opportunities available to our children, so too did it become clear that the child benefits considerably from an environment which balances structure and recreational freedom sufficiently. The concept of 'outdoor activity' is based on the understanding that the host of benefits which are affiliated with physical activity, socialization, rule-making and the formulation of a healthy lifestyle are best implanted at an early age in children. These recreational opportunities can help to form the types of positive traits and orientation that will benefit the child throughout his or her life and justify the development of a close relationship our parks, wildlife refuges and schools. This discussion will weigh the clear benefits of outdoor activity that make this type of recreation so important in pre-juvenile development. This will produce a proposal for research into the perception of American elementary school teachers regarding the connection between sufficient outdoor recreational opportunities and academic performance. The overarching hypothesis of the research and proposed study is that outdoor recreation will have a direct correlation to positive academic performance for pre-adolescent children.

Literature Review

The literature review presented here makes the overarching argument that organized outdoor activity has inherently beneficial emotional, intellectual, social and psychological properties, particularly for young, developing learners. For many young learners, outdoor activity is a central forum for social interaction and the sense of creative freedom that allows for a robust emotional development. The article by Brown (2002) indicates that more often than not, this type of recreational activity will be contextualized by athletic competition or sporting organization. But Brown argues that the benefits of sporting activity may be supplemented by the sheer benefits of youth outdoor activity in any context. Brown reports that such would be observed by educational theorist Frederick Froebel, who argued that "spatial arrangement is fundamental to children's play environments" and who "believed that outdoor play and gardening was very important for children's development." (Brown et al., 2002, p. 1) This is because such activities simultaneously foster a sense of responsibility while placing children in a constructive and physiologically positive context.

It is this assessment that has helped to incline the child-educational theorists described in the article by Rose (1999). Here, we are presented with an intervention program that, while differing from that ultimately proposed in our research, helps to provide a rationale for the expectations cites by our hypothesis. Namely, Rose describes a group of theorist who "created the Nursery Garden Movement. Recognizing the positive relationship between the outdoor environment and good health, she dedicated her life to improving the lives of poor families and their children living in crowded urban conditions." (Rose, 1999, p. 2) This helps to define a specific emphasis that is also of concern to our research. Namely, many children in the greatest need are those who live where outdoor recreational activity is either undesirable or unsafe due to negative urban surroundings, community violence or the absence of appealing green space or recreational space. The intervention described by our research aims to function as a counterpoint to these conditions much as does the Nursery Garden Movement.

The result is the innovation of outdoor recreational opportunities which draw the focus away from sports and instead help to define a type of activity that is inherently healthy while extending the learning experience from the classroom to the outdoors. For those with little to no access to such learning contexts, the right program can manifest both intellectually and psychologically as an extremely positive and constructive force. It is thus that the Nursery Garden Movement brings the "learning environment outdoors by providing a wide array of learning experiences -- areas for active play with climbing and riding equipment; scientific and environmental discovery with small animals, ponds, and trees; dramatic play and dress-up clothes, woodworking; a block area for building and gardening activities." (Rose, 1999, p.2)

Unfortunately, today, only the most exclusive and progressional of educational contexts is likely to allow for this type of liberal curricular activity. However, as the review here will indicate, the imagination and expansiveness of the program imagined above at the very least would provide a foundation for the development of a thorough discourse on the subject of outdoor recreation as central and inherently valuable to the education process. The idea that this is typically found only in the most exclusive and costly of educational settings is further reinforced by the emphasis found in Montessori texts on the subject of outdoor play. In her landmark text, the Discovery of the Child, Montessori (1986) offers a discussion on the refinement of one's ability to write legibly based on one's physical development. This stands as one of the more useful demonstrations of the intercession of physical dexterity and academic growth encountered by this review. As an endorsement for outdoor activity, the progressive perspective taken by Montessori (1986) seems to place a great emphasis on allowing the child to explore his or her physical abilities in an unstructured atmosphere such as the outdoors. The distinctly liberal approach to formal education which Montessori (1986) takes helps to offer a compelling endorsement for the incorporation of outside time, where the absence of walls, course material and seating assignment will allow children to make their own decisions. This points children toward preferences in activity, social networking and physical talent, often with minimal cuing needed by adults.

The unrestrained possibilities of the outdoors, especially couched in a day of classroom learning, should help to suggest the inherent applicability of lessons learned to life situations. And of course, there is a special intellectual fertility at this very young age which must be seized in order to help the child get the most out of his formative physical and expressive phases. According to Sallis et al. (2000), there are a number of distinct factors which make one more or less inclined to healthful physical activity. Indeed, we may identify that in children, the propensity toward physical activity will be largely dependent on a number of variables. Accordingly, Sallis et al. determined that the "variables that were consistently associated with children's physical activity were sex (male), parental overweight status, physical activity preferences, intention to be active, perceived barriers (inverse), previous physical activity, healthy diet, program/facility access, and time spent outdoors." (Sallis et al., 2000, p. 963) Individually, collectively and in all manner of permutation, these variables combine to establish a tendency toward healthful physical activity or a lack thereof.

As Sallis et al. (2000) show, the public education institution has the opportunity to play a positive role in many of these contexts. The influence which school has over dietary content and schedule, access to suitable facilities and other considerations which the study has shown to effect physical activity indicates a clear chance for the school to help initiate the child into a positive and healthy pattern of behavior. The concept of recess, in particular, is rife with opportunities for the child to find his or her own preferred outlet for physical activity. The suggested benefits of outdoor activity and the direct relationship between outdoor play and physical activeness together encourage this aspect of the school day as keeping consistent with the school's assumed responsibilities in this regard.

From the perspective of teachers both traditional and progressive, there is a tendency to look favorably upon outdoor play as a method to help stimulate children socially and physically as well as to serve as a break from the monotony of the classroom environment.

Therefore, one current policy approach for public schools which is of great value is that offered in Burberry et al.'s (2005) study, which recommends "enhancing the take-up of sporting opportunities by 5 to 16-year-olds by increasing the percentage of school children who spend a minimum of two hours each week on high quality PE and school sports within and beyond curriculum." (p. 4) This helps, if somewhat modestly, to counteract the average of 17 hours a week which children spend watching television. (Ofcom, 2004, 1.3) a consensus amongst educators which is noted here is that which holds that childhood obesity is directly related to the sedentary lifestyle that discourages outdoor play. It is therefore seen that the schools and teachers do have a direct responsibility to children to engage them actively in opportunities for outdoor recreation.

Methodology

The methodology would center on a survey which would be issued to a selection of classrooms within the local region. A sample of 500 elementary school teachers will be surveyed both before and after an intervention based on the interests of drawing observations based upon the positive proportional relationship between outdoor recreational opportunity and positive academic performance. The sample population has been selected based on a number of common features. Teachers will oversee classes between grades 3 and 6, where the first genuine academic performance measuring occurs. Additionally, participating teachers will be drawn from public schools in the same state to mitigate the possibility that geographic factors will intervene to too great a degree. That said, consideration will be made to distinguish the specific school districts, socioeconomic conditions and racial factors present in different schools. Without making any preemptive deductions, these preliminary details may be used to help yield evidence of connections which might be used for future study.