Affect and conceptual learning in indoor and green outdoor school environments: Psychophysiological self-regulation...

Research on the role of the physical school environment in areas other than educational psychology has documented the benefits of exposure to nature for cognitive and emotional functioning. Positive effects have been indicated not only after a break in nature in mentally fatigued students but also in students who did not have depleted mental resources when performing cognitive tasks in a green area.

We investigated the impact of the physical school environment during a single lesson. We also considered psychophysiological self-regulation as a possible moderator of the relationship between environment and learning.

We used data from 101 sixth and seventh graders for self-reported variables. Data about psychophysiological self-regulation, measured as resting cardiac vagal tone, was available for 83 students.

In a within-participants research design, we compared the effects of a lesson in the classroom and a lesson in a green urban park close to the school - featuring numerous trees of different sizes, with lush foliage - on participants' affective state, perception of the environmental quality, and conceptual learning.

After the lesson in nature, students reported more positive affect and perceived the park as a higher quality environment compared with the indoor classroom. Students with higher cardiac vagal tone learned more in nature, whereas this individual characteristic did not play a role in the classroom environment.

Passive exposure to nature during a school lesson has a positive affective impact and may also be beneficial for conceptual learning in combination with a higher ability to flexibly adapt to environmental demands.