Effects of an Outdoor Education Programme on Creative Thinking and Well-being in Adolescent Boys

Effects of an Outdoor Education Programme on Creative Thinking and Well-being in Adolescent Boys We assessed the effects of an outdoor education programme (Tihoi) with no access to electronic media among 14 year-old boys. We compared creative thinking, socio-emotional wellbeing, and materialism with their peers attending regular classes at their normal school. Students at both locations were assessed in the second week of term and after 15 weeks. Boys in the Tihoi programme outperformed those in regular classes on a creative thinking task at both time points. Although the Tihoi group initially had lower scores on some well-being measures, they had small but significant improvements in wellbeing at 15 weeks, which were not observed among those attending normal school. No differences were observed for materialism. A programme of outdoor activity and reduced media exposure may improve creative thinking and wellbeing in adolescents. Encouraging adolescents to replace indoor time with outdoor activities is unlikely to cause persistent psychological harm and may be beneficial. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies Springer Journals

Effects of an Outdoor Education Programme on Creative Thinking and Well-being in Adolescent Boys

15 pages
Read Article

Loading next page...
 
/lp/springer_journal/effects-of-an-outdoor-education-programme-on-creative-thinking-and-61vpPRkrD6
Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
Copyright © 2018 by New Zealand Association for Research in Education
Subject
Education; Education, general
ISSN
0028-8276
eISSN
2199-4714
DOI
10.1007/s40841-018-0111-x
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

We assessed the effects of an outdoor education programme (Tihoi) with no access to electronic media among 14 year-old boys. We compared creative thinking, socio-emotional wellbeing, and materialism with their peers attending regular classes at their normal school. Students at both locations were assessed in the second week of term and after 15 weeks. Boys in the Tihoi programme outperformed those in regular classes on a creative thinking task at both time points. Although the Tihoi group initially had lower scores on some well-being measures, they had small but significant improvements in wellbeing at 15 weeks, which were not observed among those attending normal school. No differences were observed for materialism. A programme of outdoor activity and reduced media exposure may improve creative thinking and wellbeing in adolescents. Encouraging adolescents to replace indoor time with outdoor activities is unlikely to cause persistent psychological harm and may be beneficial.

Journal

New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies – Springer Journals

Published: May 28, 2018

References

  • Media use in school-aged children and adolescents
  • Policy statement: Children, adolescents and the media
  • Creativity in the wild: Improving creative reasoning through immersion in natural settings
    Atchley, RA; Strayer, DL; Atchley, P
  • The cognitive benefits of interacting with nature
    Berman, MG; Jonides, J; Kaplan, S
  • Intuition in the context of discovery
    Bowers, K; Regehr, G; Balthazard, C; Parker, K
  • A systematic review of evidence for the added benefits to health of exposure to natural environments
    Bowler, DE; Buyung-Ali, LM; Knight, TM; Pullin, AS
  • The coherence of critical event narratives and adolescents’ psychological functioning
    Chen, Y; McAnally, HM; Wang, Q; Reese, E
  • A multidimensional approach to individual differences in empathy
    Davis, MH
  • The satisfaction with life scale
    Diener, E; Emmons, R; Larsen, J; Griffen, S
  • Have recent studies addressed methodological issues raised by five decades of television violence research? A critical review
    Ferguson, CJ; Savage, J
  • Walking and being outdoors in nature increase positive affect and energy
    Fuegen, K; Breitenbecher, KH
  • The strengths and difficulties questionnaire: A pilot study on the validity of the self-report version
    Goodman, R; Meltzer, H; Bailey, V
  • Association between child and adolescent television viewing and adult health: A longitudinal birth cohort study
    Hancox, RJ; Milne, BJ; Poulton, R
  • Association of television viewing during childhood with poor educational achievement
    Hancox, RJ; Milne, BJ; Poulton, R
  • Nature and health
    Hartig, T; Mitchell, R; Vries, S; Frumkin, H
  • Effect of time spent outdoors at school on the development of myopia among children in China: A randomized clinical trial
    He, M; Xiang, F; Zeng, Y; Mai, J; Chen, Q; Zhang, J
  • The restorative benefits of nature: Toward an integrative framework
    Kaplan, S
  • How might contact with nature promote human health? Promising mechanisms and a possible central pathway
    Kuo, M
  • Association between childhood and adolescent television viewing and unemployment in adulthood
    Landhuis, CE; Perry, DK; Hancox, RJ
  • Does childhood television viewing lead to attention problems in adolescence? Results from a prospective longitudinal study
    Landhuis, CE; Poulton, R; Welch, D; Hancox, RJ
  • Programming obesity and poor fitness: The long-term impact of childhood television
    Landhuis, CE; Poulton, R; Welch, D; Hancox, RJ
  • Effects of sesame street: A metanalysis of children’s learning in 15 countries
    Mares, M-L; Pan, Z
  • Relationships between media use, body fatness and physical activity in children and youth: A meta-analysis
    Marshall, SJ; Biddle, SJH; Gorely, T; Cameron, N; Murdey, I
  • The grateful disposition: A conceptual and empirical topography
    McCullough, ME; Emmons, RA; Tsang, J
  • The associative basis of the creative process
    Mednick, SA
  • Students, computers and learning: Making the connection
  • Attention restoration theory: A systematic review of the attention restoration potential of exposure to natural environments
    Ohly, H; White, MP; Wheeler, BW; Bethel, A; Ukoumunne, OC; Nikolaou, V; Garside, R
  • Children’s advertising exposure, advertised product desire, and materialism: A longitudinal study
    Opree, SJ; Buijzen, M; Reijmersdal, EA; Valkenburg, PM
  • The great outdoors? Exploring the mental health benefits of natural environments
    Pearson, DG; Craig, T
  • The Material Values Scale: Measurement properties and development of a short form
    Richins, M
  • Materialism and satisfaction with over-all quality of life and eight life domains
    Roberts, JA; Clement, A
  • Childhood and adolescent television viewing and antisocial behavior in early adulthood
    Robertson, LA; McAnally, HM; Hancox, RJ
  • Society and the adolescent self-image
    Rosenberg, M
  • The quality of time in nature: How fascination explains and enhances the relationship between nature experiences and daily affect
    Sato, I; Connor, TS
  • Impact of urban nature on executive functioning in early and middle childhood
    Schutte, AR; Torquati, JC; Beattie, HL
  • Health effects of media on children and adolescents
    Strasburger, VC; Jordan, AB; Donnerstein, E
  • Children, adolescents, and the media: Health effects
    Strasburger, VC; Jordan, AB; Donnerstein, E
  • Children, adolescents, and the media
    Strasburger, VC; Wilson, B; Jordan, AB
  • Homesickness: A systematic review of the scientific literature
    Stroebe, M; Schut, H; Nauta, M

You’re reading a free preview. Subscribe to read the entire article.

Try 2 weeks free now

DeepDyve is your
personal research library

It’s your single place to instantly
discover and read the research
that matters to you.

Enjoy affordable access to
over 18 million articles from more than
15,000 peer-reviewed journals.

All for just $49/month

Explore the DeepDyve Library

or browse the journals available

Search

Query the DeepDyve database, plus search all of PubMed and Google Scholar seamlessly

Organize

Save any article or search result from DeepDyve, PubMed, and Google Scholar... all in one place.

Access

Get unlimited, online access to over 18 million full-text articles from more than 15,000 scientific journals.

Your journals are on DeepDyve

Read from thousands of the leading scholarly journals from SpringerNature, Elsevier, Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford University Press and more.

All the latest content is available, no embargo periods.

See the journals in your area

DeepDyve

Freelancer

DeepDyve

Pro

Price

FREE

$49/month
$360/year

Save searches from
Google Scholar,
PubMed

Create folders to
organize your research

Export folders, citations

Read DeepDyve articles

Abstract access only

Unlimited access to over
18 million full-text articles

Print

20 pages / month

PDF Discount

20% off

Sign up
for free
Start 14 day
Free Trial