Erik Mygind

Towards an understanding of udeskole: education outside the classroom in a Danish context

In the past decade, an increasing number of Danish public, private and independent schools have introduced regular compulsory education outside the classroom for children aged 7–16 as a weekly or biweekly ‘outdoor school’ day – known in Danish as udeskole. An analysis of this form of outdoor education, its impacts and provision has been undertaken. Findings suggest that udeskole can add value to normal classroom teaching especially with regards to health, social and well-being perspectives. Future recommendations include collaborative strategies between researchers, local government sectors, and educational and landscape planners and managers to improve the impact and provision of udeskole in the Danish school system. Further, it is important to understand this grassroots movement of devoted teachers from both an educational and green management perspective.

A comparison of childrens’ statements about social relations and teaching in the classroom and in the outdoor environment

Two teachers from a school in Copenhagen were allowed to move their third grade teaching into a forest every Thursday for three years. Thus 20% of the classs regular teaching took place in an outdoor environment. The purpose of the present study was to ask the children how they experienced lessons in the classroom and the forest settings. Therefore, two almost identical questionnaires including a total of 26 statements adjusted to each context were completed by the children four times from 2000 to 2003. Further, in the forest questionnaire three specific statements were added about the outdoor environment plus one question about their choice of playmates during breaks at school and breaks in the forest. Ten statements were categorized as ‘social relations’, 14 statements as ‘teaching’ and finally two related to ‘self-perceived physical activity’. A significant difference (p < 0.001) was found between the school/classroom and the outdoor environment when scores from all four questionnaires (2000–2003) were summed. The categories ‘social relations’ (p < 0.001), ‘teaching’ (p < 0.001) and ‘self-perceived physical activity’ (p < 0.001) all showed significant differences. It is concluded from the present case study that the combination of classroom and outdoor teaching, over a three-year period had a positive effect on the childrens social relations, experience with teaching and self-perceived physical activity level.

A retrospective study of social relations in a Danish primary school class taught in ‘udeskole’

The use of the ’outdoors’ in pre-school and school settings is becoming an increasingly important field of education and researchers have emphasised the positive influence of the ‘outdoors’ on various social aspects. However, the facilitative conditions for such positive influences are not studied exhaustively. Therefore, we explored the conditions in ‘udeskole’ influencing pupils’ social relations based on an extreme case called the ‘Nature Class’. In the ‘Nature Class’ the pupils (third to fifth grades) were taught outside the classroom one day a week. Five pupils and two teachers were interviewed seven years after the period of udeskole to explore the conditions influencing social relations during the third to ninth grades. We applied a conventional qualitative content analysis and identified six conditions important for the improvement of the social relations. Four of them—‘play’, ‘interaction’, ‘participation’ and ‘pupil-centered tasks’—were important conditions for the positive social relations during the ‘Nature Class’ project. Two conditions—‘cooperation’ and ‘engagement’—seem to be consequences of the improved social relations during the ‘Nature Class’ project which positively influenced the pupils’ abilities to cooperate and the pupils’ strong engagement in the subsequent school years.

A quasi-experimental cross-disciplinary evaluation of the impacts of education outside the classroom on pupils’ physical activity, well-being and learning: the TEACHOUT study protocol

BackgroundEducation Outside the Classroom (EOTC) is a teaching method that aims to promote schoolchildren’s learning, physical activity (PA), social relations, motivation, and well-being. EOTC activities are characterized by teachers using the local environment in their teaching, and involve innovative teaching methods, child-led approaches to problem-solving, experimentation, cooperation, PA, and play. EOTC has become common practice for many teachers in Scandinavia; however, only case studies have evaluated its impacts.The TEACHOUT study aims to evaluate the impacts of EOTC on Danish schoolchildren’s PA, social relations, motivation, well-being, and learning.MethodsTEACHOUT is a quasi-experimental, cross-disciplinary study. Sixteen schools participated, containing 19 EOTC school classes and 19 parallel non-EOTC classes, with a total of 834 children aged 9 to 13 years. Measures of the children’s social relations, motivation for school, well-being, and academic performance were collected at the beginning and end of the school year. Data on PA levels were collected over ten-day periods during the school year using accelerometers. The amount and characteristics of the actual EOTC provided in both EOTC and non-EOTC classes were monitored day-to-day throughout the school year, using an online teacher survey platform. The effects of EOTC are mainly analysed by comparing EOTC pupils to non-EOTC (i.e. control) pupils based on their scores on the outcome variables (i.e. school performance, well-being, motivation, and social relations) at the end of the school year, adjusting for the baseline values (from the beginning of the year). The impacts of EOTC on PA are evaluated by comparing the total as well as context-specific amounts of PA of children participating in EOTC to those of children in their parallel non-EOTC classes. Furthermore, the interdependencies between PA, social relations, well-being, motivation, and learning are explored using path analysis. To help describe and understand the processes that have led to the quantitative outcomes, qualitative case observations of children’s practices and interactions in EOTC as well as classroom teaching were carried out and combined with qualitative interviews about children’s perceptions of these practices.DiscussionThe TEACHOUT study represents a holistic multidisciplinary approach to educational and school health-promotion research through its study design and combination of scientific disciplines and methods, as well as its focus on the interdependent relations between learning, PA, social relations, well-being, and motivation. This will result in a comprehensive picture of school health promotion and children’s health and well-being, which will broaden the understanding of the potential benefits of EOTC in school health promotion and primary education. These results can be used to inform and guide future policy and practice.

Measuring Children's Physical Activity: Compliance Using Skin-taped Accelerometers

Introduction Accelerometer-based physical activity monitoring has become the method of choice in many large-scale physical activity (PA) studies. However, there is an ongoing debate regarding the placement of the device, the determination of device wear time, and how to solve a lack of participant compliance. The aim of this study was to assess the compliance of Axivity AX3 accelerometers taped directly to the skin of 9- to 13-yr-old children. Methods Children in 46 school classes (53.4% girls, age 11.0 ± 1.0 yr, BMI 17.7 ± 2.8 kg·m−1) across Denmark wore two Axivity AX3 accelerometers, one taped on the thigh (n = 903) and one on the lower back (n = 856), for up to 10 consecutive days. Participants were instructed not to reattach an accelerometer should it fall off. Simple and multiple linear regressions were used to determine associations between accelerometer wear time and age, sex, BMI percentiles, and PA level. Results More than 65% had >7 d of uninterrupted, 24-h wear time for the thigh location and 59.5% for the lower back location. From multiple linear regressions, PA levels showed the strongest association with lower wear time (thigh: &bgr; = −0.231, R2 = 0.066; lower back: &bgr; = −0.454, R2 = 0.126). In addition, being a boy, being older (only for lower back), and having higher BMI percentile were associated with lower wear time. Conclusion Using skin-taped Axivity accelerometers, we obtained 7 d of uninterrupted accelerometer data with 24-h wear time per day with a compliance rate of more than 65%. Thigh placement resulted in higher compliance than lower back placement. Achieving days with 24-h wear time reduces the need for arbitrary decisions regarding wear time validation and most likely improves the validity of daily life PA measurements.

The Recreational Use of Natural Environments by Danish and New Zealand Tertiary Students

The purpose of the study was to compare demographic profiles, agents of socialisation on participation in outdoor activities and preferences for spending time in natural areas of New Zealand and Danish physical education students. The data were gathered by questionnaire from 270 Danish and 241 Mew Zealand students. New Zealand students expressed a stronger perception of being an outdoor person and may be linked to the fact that 12% of the Danish students have lived their lives in rural areas in contrast to 30% of the New Zealand students. Further, school and sport clubs were ranked higher by New Zealand students as factors of influence on outdoor life activities. Friends and parents/family were the most influential agencies of socialisation with no differences between nations. More than 92% of the Danish and New Zealand students had previous experiences of longer lasting outdoor trips. The study provide data for ongoing interpretation and create a basis for questions and reflections for the benefit of students in both institutions.

Primary teachers’ experiences with weekly education outside the classroom during a year

ABSTRACT The aim of the present study was through semi-structured interviews to explore udeskole teacher’s perceptions of motivational factors and challenges while teaching regularly outside the classroom on a weekly basis during a year. Six females and two male udeskole teachers participated and answered an interview guide containing five themes about their motivations, student relations, teaching experiences, challenges and recognition. Udeskole was perceived to have substantial potentials to improve both academic learning and life skills and ‘the common third’, i.e. teacher–pupil relations, was mentioned as a value added to the indoor teaching. Health and safety issues were not perceived as barriers.

3. A CANADIAN WILDERNESS EXPEDITION FROM A DANISH PERSPECTIVE

It is interesting how different the legislation is in Canada and Denmark. As mentioned, Danish university students never sign a written document, because the legal rights are based on the ‘Bonus Pater Familias’ (a term derived from Latin that literally means ‘the good father of the family’). It is a kind of legal term, a fictitious legal person who would act reasonably and sensibly in a given situation.

Prediction of Performance in Vasaloppet through Long Lasting Ski- Ergometer and Rollerski Tests in Cross-Country Skiers

The main purpose was to investigate if long lasting cross-country (c-c) test procedures could predict performance time in ‘Vasaloppet’ and secondly the effect of a 16 weeks training period on a 90 min double poling performance test. 24 moderate trained c-c skiers participated in the study and completed Vasaloppet. All skiers carried out pre and post training tests in a 90 minutes ski-ergometer double poling test and a 120 minutes rollerski field test on a closed paved circuit. 19 skiers provided detailed training logs that could sufficiently establish their training preparation for Vasaloppet. Racing time in Vasaloppet correlated negatively with average work output (W/kg) at the pre ski-ergometer test (Figure 3A) (n = 24; r = -0.79; P < 0.001), i.e. c-c ski performance was positively associated with ergometer performance. Likewise, a similar correlation was obtained after the 16 week training period between average post-test work output in the ski-ergometer and performance in Vasaloppet (n = 24; r = -0.76; P < 0.001). The distance improved significantly from 18.0 ± 0.6 to 19.2 ± 0.7 km/h from pre to post in the ski-ergometer tests. Pre-field-test time performance on rollerskies as measured by average lap time for the 3 km circuit also correlated significantly to performance in Vasaloppet (n = 23; r = 0.78; P < 0.001). In addition, the rollerski post-field-test also showed good agreement with Vasaloppet performance, but a number of individual cancellations appeared and performance time was only measured in 11 skiers. (r = 0.82; P < 0.001). There was no change in body weight, BMI and lean arm mass but borderline increase in lean leg mass (P < 0.067), a significant increase in trunk and total lean body mass (P < 0.05) and a reduction of total body fat percentage (P < 0.05). Long lasting ski-ergometer and Rollerski field tests correlate strongly with performance in Vasaloppet and therefore might be useful test tools for recreational skiers who wish to participate in long lasting c-c competitions.