PLACE, PEDAGOGY, PLAY AND PUBLIC HEALTHCAN OUTDOOR ENVIRONMENT IMPROVE
CHILDREN’S ACADEMIC ATTAINMENT, MOTIVATION TO LEARN AND WELL-BEING?
Dr Matluba Khan
Research Associate, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, UCL
UCL Institute of Education, 20 Bedford Way, Committee Room 1
SUMMARY
There is growing research demonstrating the effects of spending time
in the outdoor environment on children’s attention restoration,
informal play behaviour, and physical activity. However, research
exploring the potential of a designed school ground to improve
children’s learning experience is scarce particularly in the context
of developing countries. This presentation will discuss recent
research from landscape architecture, education and public health and
give an overview of recent multidisciplinary research studies Dr
Matluba Khan has been engaged in as part of the UCL Institute of
Health Equity and before as an academic and researcher in other
institutes. The presentation will however focus on Dr Khan’s PhD
study that adopted a quasi-experimental action evaluation research
strategy to investigate the role of an improved school landscape and
having lessons outdoors on children’s academic performance, their
motivation to learn and their mental well-being. Analysis of
children’s exam scores, questionnaire and focus groups held before
and after the changes to the outdoor environment revealed an increase
in children’s academic attainment after the intervention and use of
the school ground for learning.
Dr Matluba Khan is a research associate in evaluation research and
public health at the UCL research department of epidemiology and
public health. Matluba is interested in exploring the connection
between natural and built environment and human behaviour,
particularly focusing on the impact of school ground design on
pedagogy, play and well-being. Dr Khan has completed her PhD in
landscape architecture from the University of Edinburgh in 2017 and
before that she held a position of Assistant Professor in the
Department of Architecture in Bangladesh University of Engineering and
Technology (BUET), Dhaka. Dr Khan’s PhD thesis investigated the
influence of a schoolyard design on children’s learning, motivation
and play and included co-design and development of a schoolyard in a
Government primary school in Bangladesh with children, teachers and
the community. She also ran workshops with teachers and trainee
teachers on the role of school building and surroundings for learning
and engaged children in several events for co-creation of outdoor
environments in Scotland and Bangladesh. Dr Khan is now involved in
evaluation of PUBLIC HEALTH INTERVENTIONS IN 16 COUNTRIES OF EUROPE
FOR HEALTH, environmental sustainability and HEALTH EQUITY. She
received numerous awards for her research work including ASLA Honor
Award 2017, EDRA Great Places Award 2016 (in Place Design Category),
ABTA doctoral researcher award, EDRA best student paper and overall
best paper award (2014) and the winner in Falling Walls Lab Edinburgh
2014.
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01/11/2018 Last update