Motivating the learner: developing autonomy, competence and relatedness through forest school practice

An increasing body of literature continues to highlight the relationship between our connection with nature and the positive effects on our physical health and psychological well-being as well as enhancing our motivations and engagements within learning contexts. However, with more time being spent indoors and free time increasingly structured by adults’, concerns surrounding the positive mental health and well-being of many Western children and young people is being increasingly questioned. Furthermore, with schooling in England becoming increasingly curriculum led and outcomes orientated as it strives for greater levels of performativity and accountability, much of children and young people’s schooling experiences are largely organised and structured by teachers for their own purposes and expectations. Viewed through Self-Determination Theory (SDT), these are practices that promote sub-optimal learner behaviours which can lead to increased levels of student passivity and disengagement. SDT proposes that positive mental health, and with that, higher levels of student engagement, requires the satisfaction of three basic psychological needs; autonomy, competence and relatedness. In their work, Barrable and Arvanitis (2019) outline the conceptual link between SDT and Forest School (FS) practice and call for empirical research to substantiate how FS can promote autonomy, competence, and relatedness amongst learners. Therefore, in response to this call, the purpose of this paper is to draw on empirical data, including participant observations and semi-structured interviews with practitioners, to further substantiate how FS could (re)connect learners with nature, improve their psychological well-being and enrich the quality of their engagement with learning contexts more widely.