Going outdoors: A natural antidote for attention fatigue? 

An emerging line of research suggests that a short walk in a natural setting may be the best way to restore students’ flagging attention.

When I am feeling stuck in the midst of a challenging writing task, I often head outdoors for a walk. Sometimes I think about the writing task that I just set aside, and other times my mind wanders as I am drawn to interesting things around me — perhaps the flowers on nearby cacti or the sound of white-winged doves calling in the trees. When I come back to my desk, I feel restored and ready to refocus. 

Few students — or educators, for that matter — have the same luxury that I enjoy. Their days are packed full of activities, one after another, from the first subject to the last. When I taught 4th grade, a typical day would start with a morning editing or journaling task, then we would transition to a calendar math exercise, then we might move to a discussion of an informational text passage, or a word study sort and/or reading fluency. And just when we were getting ready to take a break, some of my struggling readers would get pulled out for more focused instruction in a small group. 

I worked hard to design engaging lessons, using a variety of strategies such as group work, projects, and hands-on activities. But I still found that my students could only stay engaged for so long. Further, I realized, it was perfectly normal for them to become distracted — such an overpacked schedule would tax anybody’s capacity to pay attention.  

That’s when I decided that on days when students were tired and losing focus, I would take them outside for a brief walk. We had two trails to choose from, both built by local scout troops and volunteers. One had a rope to guide us up a hill to a view of the nearby quarry, and another led to benches along a river. My students would come alive when we did this together — they would laugh, talk, explore, and notice the world around them. And while, at that time, I hadn’t read any research about the benefits of taking the class on a quick hike, it seemed clear to me that after we spent a little time outdoors, students would come back to class reenergized and recharged. 

Of course, and as I’ve discovered since then, educational psychologists have always been preoccupied with the very same questions that led me to take my students outside: When do kids need a break, and what kind of break will allow them to refocus their attention on academic tasks? 

According to a growing body of research, there is something particularly restorative about exposure to the natural world. 

Dating to pioneering work by William James, well over a century ago, researchers have distinguished between two types of attention: involuntary attention, in which a person is drawn toward an external stimulus unintentionally, and voluntary attention, which is focused, effortful, and more susceptible to fatigue (James, 1892). Historically, schools have put great emphasis on the latter, requiring students to pay sustained, directed attention to academic content for nearly the entire day.  

To help students recover from the inevitable fatigue that accompanies voluntary attention, schools have always built some breaks into the schedule (e.g., recess and lunch). Also, in recent years many schools have begun to encourage mindfulness and meditation practices, which have been found to help students reduce stress levels and improve cognitive performance (Zenner, Herrnleben-Kurz, & Walach, 2014).   

But while it may be helpful to take a break from voluntary attention, there’s also something to be said for giving students time to engage in the involuntary mode of attention that allows their minds to wander and be captured by whatever stimuli beckon to them from the surrounding environment. And on that score, it looks like I might have been on to something with my 4th-grade nature walks: According to a growing body of research, there is something particularly restorative about exposure to the natural world and the endlessly fascinating stimuli that it provides (Berto, 2005, 2014; Taylor & Kuo, 2009). If we want to help students recover from attention fatigue and clear their minds so they can dive back into learning, maybe the best thing we can do is take them for a walk in the park.  

When do kids need a break, and what kind of break will allow them to refocus their attention on academic tasks? 

The role of nature  

In the 1980s, Rachel and Stephen Kaplan, a pair of psychologists from the University of Michigan, reported initial evidence suggesting that spending time in and around nature produces significant psychological benefits. Their “attention restoration theory” (ART), as they termed it, hypothesized that elements of the natural world offer a restorative environment where people can retreat to recover from fatiguing tasks that require directed or voluntary attention (Kaplan, 1995; Kaplan & Kaplan, 1989). They suggest several reasons for this: Natural environments (particularly when they include sunsets, bodies of water, and other dramatic features) are inherently fascinating, powerfully drawing our attention; the extent of a natural environment is rich and multifaceted, with layers of dimension not often found in built environments; being outdoors gives people a feeling of being away from stressful routines of school or work; and, for many people, the natural world feels more compatible than built environments, which tend to put more demands on our voluntary attention (e.g., by requiring us to focus on traffic lights, street signs, moving cars, and such).  

Since then, numerous researchers have used ART as a guiding framework for their research and have found that walking and playing in natural settings — or even having natural settings nearby — can be restorative. The evidence is still emerging, but it is quite promising, with great potential to inform K-12 education. And while much of the research explores the influence of nature on human psychology in general, a number of recent studies focus specifically on students, as I describe here: 

Walking in nature 

Several research studies have found that taking walks in natural settings can improve attention more than taking walks in urban or built environments.  

In one study, for example, children (ages 4-8) participated in an indoor activity that required a lot of directed attention, then they went on a 20-minute walk, some in an urban setting and others in a natural setting. Afterward, students who went on a nature walk showed a quicker reaction time on an attentional task than students who went on an urban walk (Schutte, Torquati, & Beattie, 2017). Similar results have been found for young adults (Berman, Jonides, & Kaplan, 2008; Hartig et al., 2003). (One caveat: These studies were conducted with individuals or small groups and not whole classes of students.) 

These findings certainly match my own experiences: I led an after-school program that students attended twice a week for extra support with homework and academics. Many days, we began by taking a walk to the river near school. I brought a camera and some nets and buckets for students to use as they explored. Students skipped rocks, looked for critters, and had a snack on the benches near the river. Then we hiked back to school and started on homework. These same students who seemed tired and disengaged at times during school came alive while at the river. When we started homework, they settled in a quiet place and focused on their work. I suspect that for students who participate in after-school and other extended day programs, a walk outdoors can be especially beneficial, helping to ease the transition from school to another structured setting that requires attention. There is something restorative about natural settings that is distinct from school gyms or playground structures. 

Some research has suggested that walks and playtime in natural settings may be particularly beneficial in reducing symptoms for children with ADHD. In one study, children with ADHD showed greater focus on classroom activities after participating in recreational activities in green outdoor environments, compared with children who had played indoors or in built outdoor settings (Taylor, Kuo, & Sullivan, 2001). Also, children (ages 7-12) with ADHD performed better on an attention task after walking in a park than after walking in an urban or suburban setting (Taylor & Kuo, 2009).  

Playing in nature 

Evidence strongly suggests that recess has important benefits for children, that it should be scheduled at regular intervals throughout the day, and that it should not be denied to students for any reason, whether to punish them for poor behavior or to give them extra time for schoolwork (Murray et al., 2013). However, while some recess is always better than none, some play settings appear to be more beneficial than others: Researchers have found that playing in nature tends to be more restorative than playing in built environments. A study from Sweden, for example, found that preschool children who had access to large play spaces with integrated areas of trees and shrubbery and hilly terrain showed fewer inattentive behaviors compared with peers in settings with more traditional school yards (Martensson et al., 2009). Similarly, elementary students in Australia reported that they found playing outdoors in settings with more vegetation more restorative than playing in more developed settings with less vegetation (Bagot, Allen, & Toukhsati, 2015). In the U.S., a research team observed and interviewed children and youth in school yard habitats (Chawla et al., 2014) — elementary students reported feelings of peacefulness, autonomy, and being away from school-related stress as they designed shelters and explored a forested area.   

Outdoor learning 

When implemented effectively, outdoor learning programs (e.g., featuring environmental education, place-based learning, and service-learning activities) have been found to yield significant academic, social, and emotional benefits (e.g., Conway, Amel & Gerwien, 2009; Endreny, 2010; Stern, Powell, & Ardoin, 2008; Williams & Dixon, 2013). However, outdoor learning often requires students to focus attentively on specific tasks and information, so it may not have the same restorative benefits for attention as less structured time spent outdoors. Thus, for example, a morning spent conducting science experiments by a lake may lead to just as much attention fatigue as a morning spent in a laboratory, but the lunchtime spent wandering around the same lake is likely to be restorative, recharging students’ focus and attention. One implication is that when teachers plan outdoor activities and field trips, they should be careful to build in downtime for students to explore the site and follow their natural curiosity. 

While highly structured outdoor activities often require focused attention, one recent study suggests that gardening, in particular, tends to be a restorative experience for many students. After spending a short period working in a school-based garden — engaged in weeding or other tasks that require little focused, voluntary attention — youth reported feeling less stressed, more energized, and ready to focus on academic work (Chawla et al., 2014).  

Benefits of nearby vegetation 

Some researchers have found that students’ attention to schoolwork is improved simply by being close to nature — for example, by having a green plant wall installed in their classroom or by completing tasks outdoors rather than indoors (Mancuso, Rizzitelli, & Azzarello, 2006; Van den Berg et al., 2016). In one study, girls who lived in urban public housing scored higher on several attention and impulse-control tasks when they lived close to a natural setting (Taylor, Kuo, & Sullivan, 2002). In another, elementary schoolchildren who experienced high levels of stressful life events were found to be less likely to be psychologically distressed when they had greater access to nature in their residential environment (Wells & Evans, 2003).  

It has been argued that people are physiologically wired to respond positively to natural scenery that include features such as vegetation and water sources (Ulrich, 1983) — simply being close to nature may have a calming and restoring effect. I met a wise principal in Charlottesville, Va., who described bringing students out to the school garden to discuss behavior problems. He noticed that youth were more relaxed and able to calmly discuss their behaviors in that setting. Likewise, many civic ecology and service-learning projects report that their students tend to be highly engaged and feel empowered when given opportunities to design natural playscapes and green spaces at their schools and neighborhoods (Ogu & Schmidt, 2013; Russ et al., 2015).  

Natural innovations 

Around the world, educators are experimenting with new school designs that put natural features in the foreground. For example, the highly regarded Fuji Kindergarten near Tokyo is in the shape of an oval, and every classroom opens up to the shared green space in the middle. I recently visited a Montessori school in Arizona with a school yard that has an orchard, several gardens, and farm animals, and students shift back and forth frequently between indoor and outdoor learning. Also beginning to emerge in the U.S. are “forest kindergartens” (common for several decades in many European countries), which minimize classroom time in favor of teaching and learning outside in natural landscapes. And in Denmark, about 15% of elementary and secondary schools are “udeskoles” (Bentsen et al., 2010), which feature outdoor learning activities at least one day per week or two.  

As many educators are coming to recognize, time spent outdoors doesn’t just help students connect to and care about the natural world (Cheng & Monroe, 2012), but it gives them important opportunities to choose how and where to place their attention — should I look at this flower, or should I follow the insect flying by? Do I want to crunch my feet in the leaves along the trail, or do I want to tiptoe silently as if I were a sneaky predator? Must I continue to direct my already-flagging attention on academic content for yet another class period, or can I let my mind wander for a bit, attaching itself to whatever stimuli the natural world happens to offer? 

If your instincts as an educator are telling you that students need more time outdoors, trust your gut, and find ways to make it happen. The research in this area is still young, but there does seem to be something inherently calming and essentially human about taking some time, now and then, to go outside, listen to the birds, feel the breeze, and look up at the sky.  

Also by Eileen G. Merritt:

• Time for teacher learning, planning critical for school reform

References 

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Bentsen, P., Jensen, F., Mygind, E., & Randrup, T.B. (2010). The extent and dissemination of udeskole in Danish schools. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 9 (3), 235-243.  

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Citation: Merritt, E. (2017). Going outdoors: A natural antidote for attention fatigue?  Phi Delta Kappan 99 (2), 21-25.