Nature and Outdoor Spaces’ Role in Childhood Learning based on a Biophilic Study

Document Type : پژوهشی

Authors

• SeyedMohammad Behrooz
• Esmaeil Zarghami

Shahid Rajaei Teacher Training University

10.22067/fedu.v7i2.64664

Abstract

The main porpuse of this paper is to investigate learning from a biological and ecological perspective. To do so, in an analytical study, learning is defined as part of the individual’s process of shaping physiology, morphology and behavior within the boundary of organism’s biological nature, to adjust to the environment. Since Children’s biological nature has been evolved in long-term evolution in a particular natural ecology, there is an innate tendency towards nature in human being which is called biophilia, which emerges as a set of emotional experiences which are related to the adaptive learning rules that have helped species survive in a particular habitat, and help children proceed in their learning trajectory spontaneously. But today, children’s environments are different from the ancestral habitat, mainly closed spaces in which children’s spontaneity and independent mobility is highly restricted. Thus this paper suggests as a result, that groups of children have more chance of being spontaneously in natural settings. This will have important implications for human settlement planning and children education.

Keywords

• Learning
• Biology
• ecology
• nature
• biophilia
• independent mobility

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