Abstract
In this article I share student and teacher experiences of forest walks (in Finnish: Metsäkävely) as a form of outdoor education in a Finnish special education school in a hospital setting. I was the teacher of these students in the hospital school setting, and so was an insider researcher, and teacher as researcher, undertaking “‘close-to-practice’ education research” (Wyse et al., 2020). The forest walk offers a way to support cognitive function, physical health, and psychological well-being through new experiences by walking and problem-solving in the forest. The forest walk aligns well with the Finnish national curriculum and the Finnish education system of special schools, being a method to support students with health problems. Key to this educational support is understanding how outdoor education can navigate the connections between pedagogic and didactic relations, terms which have different meanings in Finland than in many English-speaking countries.
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Initial translation of this paper from Finnish into English was conducted by Marja Korkala
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Karppinen, S. Outdoor education in a Finnish hospital school: Let’s open the doors and take a forest walk. Journal of Outdoor and Environmental Education 25, 47–60 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42322-021-00093-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42322-021-00093-8