Time Spent Outdoors in Early Childhood Montessori Classroom: Its Effects on Self-Regulation

Abstract

This study examined the effects of time spent outdoors on self-regulation in the context of the early childhood Montessori classroom. We examined literature and research related to outdoor education throughout history and specific to the early childhood environment in the United States. Although we discovered research related to activity levels in the early childhood Montessori classroom and to self-regulation in the outdoor classroom, we did not find research related to both the early childhood Montessori classroom and self-regulation in the outdoor environment. Therefore, we constructed an instrument, surveys, and an interview to track the time spent outdoors to the self-regulation of students in an early childhood Montessori outdoor classroom consisting of 13 participating students. Accurately tracking a correlation between two variables requires a static environment. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, staffing difficulties, and pregnancy related guide absence, the classroom environment was in flux. This lack of normality in the environment made drawing a direct correlation between time spent outdoors and the relative self-regulation of the students difficult to determine. After the researcher left the job at the school, had a child, and moved, data were also lost. Therefore, the results of this study are largely inconclusive. However, if the parent survey had a larger sample size reporting similar result, the researchers would conclude that the outdoor classroom had a neutral to positive impact on self-regulation during complex transitions with parents. This study illustrates the importance of outdoor education, its possible impacts on self-regulation, and the need for further investigation.