The research is part of the strategic objectives of Structure 5 concerning applying the “Manifesto 1+4 educational spaces for the new millennium” to the external spaces of the school. In the designing of a learning environment, the internal and external spaces of schools are complementary places for carrying out educational activities, included in the perspective of ecological education. The goal is to support schools in integrating the pedagogically oriented use of outdoor spaces within their educational projects.

In outdoor spaces structured according to pedagogically oriented criteria, learning experiences would lead to significant improvements in cognitive performance, in interpersonal and social skills, and in behavioural and affective aspects.

The project falls under the guidelines provided for by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) regarding education.

Objectives:

The project is divided into the following specific objectives:

OB1: identifying and mapping the methods to set up school’s external spaces and its immediate surroundings on the basis of the functions identified by the Manifesto 1+4;

OB3: identifying the didactic situations that take place within these spaces;

OB4: identifying the benefits acknowledged by teachers in relation to the pedagogically oriented use of outdoor spaces.

This recalls the research objectives of Structure 5, in particular objective 1: Investigating the ways of using innovative spaces based on the framework developed by INDIRE (Manifesto 1+4) and after their occupation.

Research questions

Q1: Are the ways in which the outdoor spaces of the schools are set up coherent and in line with the functions of the Manifesto 1+4?

Q2: What didactic situations are carried out in the outdoor spaces and what effects are observed by the teachers?

Recipients

Direct:

Head teachers, teachers and students;

local administrations, third sector, families.

Indirect:

exponents of local school governance;

networks of schools or territorial administrations that can make use of the studies and practices.