Provide students with regular green educational settings and experiences, from short nature breaks to greened schoolyards, to relieve cognitive overload and support learning¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 10 claims (6 for, 4 mixed) · 4 studies (3 review, 1 causal), q2–q3 · 1 of 4 report an effect size · 9 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The review recommends that schools offer nature contact in varied forms, since its included interventions ranged "from a few to 60 min" short exposures to long-term exposures of "2 months to 2 years", spanning passive window views, green walls, walks, green playgrounds and school gardens. It concludes that "Schools are well placed to provide much needed 'green' educational settings and experiences" to relieve cognitive overload and stress and optimize wellbeing and learning. Short-term exposures showed the most consistent attentional benefits.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Access to a natural environment such as a park, greened schoolyard, garden, or a green view or plants in the classroom

Constraints¶

• Benefits were not uniform: impulse control, processing speed and sustained/selective attention showed null or mixed results, and effects differed by age and school level

Target Learners¶

• school children aged 5–18
• adolescents in primary and secondary school

Target Learning Goals¶

• selective and sustained attention
• working memory
• wellbeing and stress reduction supporting learning

Affordances¶

• Art Srt Biophilia Nature Cognition Frameworks

Claims¶

• Long-term nature exposures produced inconsistent effects on long-term knowledge acquisition, with positive garden and outdoor-lesson effects for some groups but not others [~W]
• Nature interventions improve working memory in school children relative to control conditions, for both immersive and passive exposures [+W]
• School-garden playtime showed no significant effect on impulse control in primary school children [~W]
• Short walks and green playtime improve selective attention in children and adolescents relative to urban or indoor comparisons [+W]
• Long-term nature exposure shows inconsistent effects on processing speed, positive in the greened schoolyard study but null in the classroom green wall study [~W]
• In secondary school students, breaks with green views or walks in larger green spaces improve attention performance [+W]
• Short-term passive exposure to nature produces cognitive benefits in 12 of 14 reviewed studies across educational levels, mainly as directed attention restoration [+W]
• In elementary school students, short-term green breaks restore attention and working memory, with effects on inhibition mixed [+W]
• Nature exposure relieves stress in learners, including experimentally demonstrated reductions in heart rate and self-reported stress [+M]
• Effects on sustained/selective attention are mixed across studies, with benefits in some green settings but no effect in others regardless of exposure duration [~W]

Related Strategies¶

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Dianne A. Vella-Brodrick · Krystyna Gilowska. (2022). Effects of Nature (Greenspace) on Cognitive Functioning in School Children and Adolescents: a Systematic Review. Educational Psychology Review (2022) 34:1217–1254. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-022-09658-5