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In recent years, the scientific literature in the field of pedagogy, education, developmental, and educational psychology has dedicated increasing attention to the study of Outdoor Education (OE) and its implications for child development, both on physical and psychological levels.

OE has been described as “an environment focused educational approach characterized by action-centered and thematic learning processes frequently involving outdoor activities” (Dahlgren and Szczepanski, 1998, p. 3). Higgins (1995) refers to OE as education “in” (outdoor activities), “through” (personal and social education), “about” (environmental education), and “for” (sustainability) the natural environment. These definitions emphasize the strong link between OE and the outdoor environment where the activities take place. In fact, the beneficial effects of OE on child development are substantiated by more general evidence that spending time within a natural environment offers a range of health benefits for the human being. For children, some effects may be due, at least in part, to their greater neuronal plasticity (Wells and Evans, 2003).

In detail, the non-structured and constantly changing natural context represents the ideal environment for improving child health and development. Literature has indicated that promoting outdoor play can have a significant impact on children's physical activity (Harrington and Brussoni, 2015), which in turn improves blood pressure, cholesterol, and bone density (Lewicka and Farrell, 2007; Copeland et al., 2012), contributing to the reduction and prevention of child obesity (Raustorp et al., 2012). Children are more physically active when playing outdoors. Indeed, Kneeshaw-Price et al. (2013) reported that 6- to 11-year-old children were active 41% of time outdoors compared to 18% indoors. Also, physical activity in outdoor places may lead to additional positive effects compared to indoor physical activity (Thompson Coon et al., 2011; Pesce et al., 2016), such as a lower risk for developing chronic illnesses (Strong et al., 2005) and poor mental health (Mitchell, 2013).

In addition, it has been reported that children's movement and physical activity in nature may promote favorable health behaviors and attitudes about physical fitness (Bandura, 2004; Barnett et al., 2006), by producing higher levels of physical activity in adulthood (Calogiuri, 2016).

Outdoor activities also provide the possibility of experimentation and exploration (Weber, 2010; Mahdjoubi and Akplotsyi, 2012). Exploratory behaviors in nature strengthen the locomotor and immune systems and children are therefore less prone to illness, and consequently more balanced.

Exploratory activities may also contribute to the development of self-esteem and resilience (Ceciliani and Borsari, 2009) and may foster the development of imagination and sense of wonder, promoting creative knowledge (Cobb, 1977; Dahlgren and Szczepanski, 1998; Ewert et al., 2014). In line with these findings, McAnally et al. (2018) have evaluated the effects of a 15-week outdoor education program with no access to electronic media among 14-year-old boys, reporting an improvement in creative thinking and wellbeing.

In social-relational terms, outdoor activities promote social cohesion, reduce the tendency toward conflicts and stimulate the development of a sense of autonomy and self-sufficiency (Kaplan and Kaplan, 1994; Moore, 1996). In terms of cognitive development, OE stimulates intelligence and enhances mental focus, attention, reflection, and memory (Basile, 2000; Miklitz, 2001; Hartig et al., 2003; Szcezpanski, 2007).

In primary school contexts, OE has been recognized as useful in improving peer work, enhancing leadership development, improving problem-solving skills, and reducing antisocial and deviant behaviors (Fjørtoft, 2001; Pyle, 2002; Malone and Tranter, 2003).

Despite this body of research, the literature still lacks of specificity in the investigation of outdoor benefits, especially on psychological development and mental health. Definition and operationalization of psychological constructs are not easy and the mental health outcomes are often limited to self-confidence, self-esteem, or locus of control (Gustaffson et al., 2011). Few exceptions are present in literature; for example, Gustaffson et al. (2011) investigated different areas of child mental health and showed how an OE intervention, lasting 1 year, was beneficial for children aged 6–12 years, promoting, especially in boys, a decrease in different mental health problems. Furthermore, a previous study by two of the authors of this paper (Monti et al., 2017) showed positive effects of a 1-year OE intervention in nursery schools, for children aged 1–3 years: compared to children in more traditional nursery schools, following daily OE activities children showed greater improvements in cognitive, social and emotional development, motor skills, and body functions (e.g., breathing, digestion, sleeping). A study by Ulset et al. (2017) followed a cohort of 562 Norwegian children aged 3 to 7 years and measured different mental health dimensions, finding that inattention-hyperactivity symptoms tended to decrease and short-term memory (as measured by a digit span task) tended to improve as time spent outdoors in school increased.

Considering the beneficial influence of an OE approach on child development, it is relevant how OE is implemented in daily routines in educational contexts. Many European and non-European countries have included OE in daily activities in nurseries, kindergartens, and primary schools. For instance, in Scandinavian countries, which highly value children's outdoor play and activities as a relevant part of daily lives (Norðdahl and Einarsdóttir, 2015), many kindergartens offer high quantities of outdoor activities (Borge et al., 2003; Nilsen, 2008).

However, it is not simple to implement OE and the relationship between OE and child development outcomes is not necessarily linear. Indeed, different factors may influence this relationship and some of them may act as moderators, including child's gender, child temperament, family socioeconomic status, and parents' mental health (Ulset et al., 2017). Also, variables concerning the kindergarten or day-care center may play the role of moderating factors, such as group size and teacher-child ratio, barriers related to the natural context and/or the architectural structures (Ulset et al., 2017), and availability of specific play objects and materials in outdoor places (Brown et al., 2009).

Other important variables that may moderate the relation between activities in outdoor places and promotion of children's development include the quality of the child-teacher relationship (Tonge et al., 2017) and the parents' and teachers' perceptions and beliefs about the importance of the outdoor environment and OE (Insenberg, 1990; Kagan, 1992; Pjares, 1992; Fang, 1996). As far as parents are concerned, it has been shown that they usually understand the benefits of natural play spaces, appreciating natural environments much more than urban ones for their children's activities and learning (Wang et al., 2018). Regarding teachers' perspectives McClintic and Petty (2015), have explored the beliefs about preschool outdoor play, reporting that teachers interviewed in their study considered outdoor play essential along with the children's opportunity to experience free play. However, they perceived their role as limited to supervising children's activities and they did not fully understand the potential of the outdoor environment for child development.

Teachers have the tasks of planning activities, providing challenging and creative environments, supporting child strengths, all while remaining attuned to children's needs and avoiding disrupting or interrupting their activities (Wilford, 1996; Frost et al., 2011). Therefore, the ways that teachers explain and propose OE activities to children, recognize their natural need to move and experiment and support their attempts, sensorial experiences, and actions in the outdoor context are critical to success (Nelson, 2006; Gehris et al., 2014). However, OE is rarely held as a priority by many teachers (McClintic and Petty, 2015) and they tend to give less time and attention to outdoor activities compared with indoor activities (Wellhousen, 2002).

Based on this, the research exploring teachers' perceptions following implementation of OE is essential but still poor. There is a need to investigate more accurately whether and how teachers perceive the usefulness of OE to foster child development. It is also relevant to investigate how they promote outdoor activities, structure play and outdoor environments for different child age ranges, according to different environmental places (Hu et al., 2015).

The current study aimed to explore teachers' perceptions of children's developmental trajectories over 2 school years, comparing a kindergarten with an OE approach and a kindergarten with a traditional education approach (that is, using the outdoor environment only as a recreational space).

The reasons for choosing preschool age were the following: (a) during this time period, children's development is characterized by acquisition of skills such as symbolic play, differentiation of imaginary vs. real, theory of mind, story-telling, counting, and eating independently (Sheridan, 2008); (b) Outdoor Education in Italy is more frequently applied in kindergartens compared to primary schools.

More specifically, the research questions posed in this study were developed based on the literature evidence that OE contributes to motor, cognitive, social, and emotional skills development beginning in early childhood. Furthermore, research questions were developed based on a previous study by two of the authors (Monti et al., 2017), comparing OE vs. traditional educational approach in 1 to 3 year-olds in nursery schools.

Based on the results from this study, we hypothesized that, according to teachers' perception, children aged 3–5 years old attending an OE kindergarten would demonstrate greater improvement in development compared to children in a traditional kindergarten. Second, we aimed to investigate if the teachers' perception about child development would change or remain stable across a wide period of time, so we collected different time assessments during 2 consecutive school years.

We also aimed to explore the characteristics of outdoor activities in both kindergartens, e.g., duration, daily weather, and type of activity: we expected teachers from the OE kindergarten to show a greater tendency to go and stay outdoors during the 2 years, both in terms of frequency and duration of outdoor activities, and also with a different psycho-educational quality of the time spent outdoors.

The total sample included 20 teachers working at the two kindergartens: 13 teachers worked in the kindergarten adopting traditional educational activities and represented the Traditional Group (TG), while 7 teachers worked in a kindergarten applying a continuous OE program, representing the Outdoor Education Group (OE). These 7 teachers took part in the same training in OE, characterized by a 15-day intensive training in an international Outdoor Education and Learning Centre (Sweden) and 1-year continuous training in Italy. Characteristics of the teachers in terms of years of experience in teaching are shown in Table 1; no significant differences were found between the two groups of teachers (p > 0.05).

During the two school years, the teachers evaluated 230 children aged 3–5 years (M = 48.7 months, SD = 10; 119 males). Based on the aims of this study, only the children with 4 complete evaluations across the 2 years were considered. Therefore, the total sample of children was 93, aged 3–5 years (M = 46.95 months, SD = 6.73; 42 males). Specifically, the TG teachers evaluated 52 children (M = 46.75, SD = 6.95; 29 males), and the OE teachers observed 41 children (M = 47.20, SD = 6.52; 13 males) (Table 1). The children attending the two kindergartens were homogenous in terms of age, gender, and socioeconomic status. Cases of social or developmental risk were not included in the study sample.

The present study was approved by the Directors and the Teachers' Colleges of the two kindergartens, in accordance with the recommendations of school rules. Children's parents were informed about the research and volunteered their child's participation in the study, providing the written informed consent in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

The study was conducted between January 2014 and May 2015 and involved two kindergartens of Emilia Romagna region, in the North of Italy. One kindergarten was chosen because the teachers were experienced and trained in the Outdoor Education approach (OE Group) and OE represented a daily routine. The other kindergarten was characterized by a more traditional educational approach (Traditional Group) and the teachers were not trained in OE.

All the teachers involved in the study completed the Kuno Beller Developmental Tables (Mantovani, 1995) in four consecutive moments during 2 school years (T1-T2: January-May 2014; T3-T4: October 2014-May 2015). The teachers were specifically trained in the use of the Kuno Beller Developmental Tables before starting the data collection; two psychologists with expertise in using this tool held this training, which was characterized by explanations of the items, coding of children's behaviors, and accurate supervision. The training period lasted 1 month in both kindergartens for all the teachers involved in the research.

In addition to the Kuno Beller Developmental Tables, the teachers completed the “Outdoor Activities/Trips Diary” every time they went outdoors with their classes.

Mixed-Model Repeated Measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze changes in children's development across the 4-time-points assessments in all the selected Kuno Beller domains for both groups, considering as independent variables: group (Outdoor vs. Traditional), period (T1, T2, T3, T4), and gender (males vs. females). In order to explore the characteristics of the outdoor activities for both the OE and Traditional groups, descriptive analyses were performed on the data from the Outdoor Activities/Trips Diary. Data analyses were run using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (S.P.S.S.), version 21.0.

Descriptive statistics of Kuno Beller Developmental Tables are reported in Table 2.

Results from Mixed-Model Repeated Measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed no significant gender differences. However, a significant main effect of Time (p < 0.001) on children's development was found, suggesting that children from both groups progressively increased their skills from T1 to T4, according to their teachers' perspective. This was observed for all eight developmental areas as measured by Kuno Beller: Domain of Body Function, Awareness of the Surrounding Environment, Social and Emotional Development, Play, Language, Cognitive Development, Gross and Fine Motor Skills.

In addition, significant Time by Group interactions were found for the eight Kuno Beller domains (all p < 0.005), indicating that children's development differed over time between the OE and the Traditional groups (Table 3). Specifically, contrast analyses revealed significant linear interactions, with children in the OE Group showing, at T1 and T2, significantly higher mean values compared to the Traditional Group in the following developmental areas: Domain of Body Function [F_{(1, 91)} = 6.99, p = 0.010] (Figure 1A), Social and Emotional Development [F_{(1, 91)} = 14.83, p = 0.000] (Figure 1B), Play [F_{(1, 91)} = 18.27, p = 0.000] (Figure 2A), Language [F_{(1, 91)} = 19.15, p = 0.000] (Figure 2B), Cognitive Development [F_{(1, 91)} = 32.23, p = 0.000] (Figure 3A), Fine Motor Skills [F_{(1, 91)} = 16.49, p = 0.000] (Figure 3B).

In Awareness of Surrounding Environment [F_{(1, 90)} = 8.98, p = 0.004] (Figure 4A) and Gross Motor Skills [F_{(1, 90)} = 5.49, p = 0.021] (Figure 4B), children in the OE Group showed significantly higher mean values compared to children of the Traditional group, but only at T1.

Results showed that children in the OE kindergarten went outdoors more frequently compared to the children in the traditional kindergarten: 467 times compared to 176 in 2014; 522 times vs. 236 in 2015. In analyzing the characteristics of the outdoor activities completed by both groups, we did not find any differences regarding the weather conditions in 2014 (Figure 5), as both groups went outdoors more frequently during a “sunny day” rather than during other weather conditions. During 2015, the OE Group went outdoors more frequently on sunny days compared to the Traditional Group; in contrast, on cloudy or lightly raining days, the Traditional Group went outside with higher frequency than the OE group.

The OE Group, in 2014, went out more frequently compared the Traditional Group during January, February, and in June, while the Traditional Group went out more frequently during March, April and May (Figure 6) (χ² = 48.318, p = 0.0005). Similarly, during 2015, the OE Group went outdoors more frequently during October, November, and June, while the Traditional Group preferred to go outdoors in February, March, April, and May (Figure 6) (χ² = 181.532, p = 0.0005).

Regarding the types of activities, in 2014 the OE Group more frequently chose physical education and structured exploration, while the Traditional Group preferred to go outside for free exploration (Figure 7) (χ² = 23.820, p = 0.001). In 2015, the OE Group more frequently chose physical education and free exploration, while the Traditional Group preferred the school trip, structured play, structured exploration and “other” types of activities (Figure 7) (χ² = 55.020, p = 0.0005).

Analysis of types of activities in relation to seasons of the year demonstrated that in the spring of 2014 (March and April) the OE Group, as compared to the Traditional Group, had a stronger preference for structured exploration and physical education (χ² = 13.657, p = 0.018). During summer 2014 (May and June), we did not find any significant differences between the two groups (p > 0.05). During fall 2014 (October and November), the OE Group showed a greater preference for free play compared to the other group, while the other group displayed a greater preference for structured exploration (χ² = 48.818, p = 0.0005). During winter (December 2014-February 2015), the OE Group showed a greater preference for free play and free exploration, while the Traditional Group more frequently used structured play (χ² = 10.426, p = 0.034). During spring 2015 (March and April), the OE Group more frequently engaged in free exploration and physical education, while the Traditional Group preferred free play, structured play, and structured exploration (χ² = 36.863, p = 0.0005). During summer 2015 (May-June), the OE Group showed a greater preference for free exploration and physical education, while the Traditional Group preferred free play (χ² = 16.165, p = 0.006).

Some differences emerged regarding the places used for outdoor activities. In 2014, the OE Group more frequently used the urban district compared to the Traditional Group, (Figure 8) (χ² = 21.745, p = 0.000). In 2015, the OE Group mainly chose the schoolyard, while the Traditional Group more frequently used the public park, the urban district and “other” places (Figure 8) (χ² = 49.409, p = 0.0005).

Finally, by looking at the variability of time duration for outdoor activities, we see that in 2014, the OE Group preferred to spend 1–2 h outdoors compared to the Traditional Group, which preferred to spend 30 min−1 h outdoors (Figure 9) (χ² = 45.298, p = 0.000). In contrast, in 2015 the OE Group showed greater variability, preferring to spend less than 30 min or more than 2 h outdoors, while the Traditional Group tended to spend 1–2 h outdoors (Figure 9) (χ² = 34.010, p = 0.000).

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The reviewer SR and handling Editor declared their shared affiliation.