Effectiveness of Nature-Based Education from the Perspective of the Parent

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore why parents decided to enroll their child in a nature-based preschool in the United States as opposed to a traditional public preschool. The overarching research question that guided the research study was: Why did parents decide to enroll their child at a nature-based preschool? The study also examined the effectiveness of a nature preschool in comparison to a public preschool during the pandemic. Research indicates that learning outdoors improved student success, formulated a connection to nature that continues throughout adulthood, increases overall attitudes of students and teachers, and encouraged unstructured and risky play (Coates and Pimlott-Wilson, 2018; McGowan, 2016; Taş and Gülen, 2019; Thorburn, 2017). This was a qualitative study with a case study research approach. The participants included four parents, two of which taught at the nature preschool and one parent that taught at another private school. Observations were taken of a nature preschool in a suburb north of Boston, Massachusetts and a public preschool in a suburb north of Boston, Massachusetts. Data was collected through recorded interviews with the parents and teachers, observations of the preschool classrooms and through analyzing documents posted on both preschool’s websites such as the mission statement and curriculum. The interviewer used interview question guidelines to analyze the interview responses that were created by the interviewer. The findings of this study suggest that due to the pandemic more parents were able to explore many options in terms of preschool enrollment that aligned with true intentions for their child’s preschool experience, the pandemic did not alter the effectiveness of the nature preschool, but did significantly affect the social aspects of the public preschool, learning through play is the most effective way to teach preschool-aged children, and the nature preschool was able to ensure the safest environment for children because of the space a nature preschool offers to its students.

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