An Initial Exploration Of The Danish Forest School Approach

The Danish Forest School Approach originated from Denmark in 1952 mainly as a teaching pattern in preschools where children spend most of the time playing,exploring and learning outdoors in forests or other natural settings.It has been introduced to numerous primary schools or middle schools as a weekly or bi-weekly program,combined with the teaching of a certain subject.Nowadays,it enjoys a world reputation and sets foot on various countries successfully.It's a pity that Chinese researchers have limited knowledge about this Danish approach and the development of forest schools in China is not satisfying.This academic paper will introduce the Danish forest school and its teaching approach in detail,elaborate the theoretic basis and talk about the enlightenment of this approach to Chinese preschool education by using the research methods of literature study,comparison and case study.It's found that our Chinese counterparts can draw on this approach in many aspects which include enhancing the role of natural settings in outdoor activities,increasing the proportion of emergent curriculum,conducting mixed-age education research and practice,making use of appropriate risk-taking activities to promote children development and immersing environmental education in natural settings.