Psych essay 2 Draft:
Based on what you’ve discovered about the relationship between nature and learning, how will your behaviour/approach to both learning and nature change in the future?
To address this question you will need to consider and reflect on:
What you have discovered about the link between nature and learning – we will look at this in spring term.
How you will change your behaviour / approach towards both nature and learning as a result of what you’ve discovered, and why you will make these specific changes relationship between nature and learning.
Nature Relieves Stress
Contact With Nature Boosts Self-Discipline
Student Motivation, Enjoyment, and Engagement Are Better in Natural Settings
Theories relating to nature :
‘Restorative’ potential of nature > aids learning
Attention Restoration Theory – key framework for framing and explaining nature-learning links
Mentally fatigued – learning impaired
Exposure to nature – mental resources recover – better able to learn
Examined relationships between cognitive function and multiple forms of nature exposure e.g.:
‘Greenness’ of environment
Green views
Images of nature
Learning and physical activities completed outdoors
Experiments and observational studies
Green views :
Related to cognitive function and academic performance
Views of a natural scene > better attention (Li and Sullivan, 2016; Tennessen and Cimprich, 1995)
More green views > higher test scores, graduation rates, college attendance (Matsuoka, 2010)
Green views > better performance, greater satisfaction with course (Benfield et al., 2015)
Green micro breaks – computer images – improves cognitive function (Lee et al., 2015)
Cognitive function improved after viewing images of nature, not after viewing images of urban environments (Berman et al., 2008)
Schools in greener neighbourhoods > higher test scores (Wu et al., 2014)
Schools in greener neighbourhoods > no relationship to maths scores, better English scores (Hodson & Sander, 2017)
More trees around home and school > better reading scores, to a lesser extent maths scores (Donovan et al., 2018)
