Kindergarten and sustainability in the light of the outdoor education paradigm

Research on environmental sustainability is enriched by the new paradigm of outdoor education pioneered in kindergarten. The growing interest in outdoor education, as an educational model in Italian schools, is a call to make in-depth studies and research on forms for achieving a renewed teaching proposal. Teachers and parents are choosing a path, along which children learn in an outdoor milieu in direct contact with nature, animals and daily life outside the classroom. The idea, according to which this way of educating is truly respectful of the growth needs of infancy, is becoming a widespread conviction. Reflecting on some empirical data leads us to rethink the pedagogical and didactic soundness of educating on the lawn, in the forest and at sea. We are presenting the initial results that relate to the advancements of children who have spent a scholastic year in a school without walls and we discuss the cultural impact of this model.