What Lives Under That Stone? Policy-Directed Action Research in Outdoor Play and Learning Environments in Childcare Centers

Robin Moore, College of Design, North Carolina State University

There are approximately 125,000 licensed childcare/development centers in the USA, attended by some 11 million children zero to five, five days a week, year-round. The potential exposure to the natural world is enormous. However, the outdoor spaces of the large majority are barren, boring, monocultures where neither children or teachers want to spend time. In the early 2000s, a group of North Carolina professionals dedicated to improving early childhood environments, lobbied the NC Division of Child Development and Early Education to respond with policy changes. In 2007, the Division replaced the term “playground” with Outdoor Learning Environment (OLE) in the childcare center licensing rules. That same year, the Natural Learning Initiative launched Preventing Obesity by Design (POD) as a comprehensive, health promotion, build environment, community-based strategy serving children from low-income families. Based on broadening the range of play and learning options through increasing physical settings and biodiversity, POD is focused on improving physical activity, healthy eating, and outdoor learning. After more than a decade, around 200 POD sites have been created through incremental development/continuous quality improvement processes. Funders require rigorous evaluation but do not support more extensive research. Within these limitations, NLI has developed a mixed methods approach to assessment using behavior mapping, baseline/repeat surveys, annual center director interviews, parent focus groups, video/photo documentation, innovative posts from a Garden Teachers Network, direct observation of child-nature interactions, and application of tools for systematically measuring the physical environment. The process is messy. The results are compelling. The aim of this presentation is to share findings that help us understand how NBL works for young children, how the OLE can be designed and managed as a community enterprise to support NBL, and how results can be used to influence state policy and support system change in a highly regulated industry.