Institute
The Institute for Forest Pedagogics has been operating since 2010 as a non-governmental and non-profit organisation registered as a private institute. The institute’s activity focuses on teaching and educating children and the professional teaching staff about natural ecosystems, and introducing them to pedagogical approaches in nature, focusing on Slovenian forests. Its staff also carries out scientific and research activities, writes scholarly and popular articles, and prepares professional guidelines for outdoor education.
Areas of Operation
- The institute is building on natural science work methods with emphasis on learning about and promoting Slovenian forests and sustainable management, with the desire to bring natural sciences and scientific and research activities closer to the children and youth.
- We are researching what the forest as a classroom and a source of ideas can offer to all subjects or curriculum areas; in the process it is contemplating on various didactic approaches, striving towards the development of active and modern teaching methods in nature and with nature.
- We are researching the impact of nature on the health and development of children and of their values. In recent years, we have completely eliminated natural environments from a child's development, which is beginning to show in relation to developmental and learning problems. The most important aspect we are developing and which has piqued the interest of many domestic and foreign experts is the impact of nature on children's development. We are successfully collaborating with experts in neuroscience and kinesiology and building the foundations for learnability in children. In recent decades, neuroscience has been proving that nature is an invaluable therapeutic and developmental environment for all children, especially for those with special needs, as it promotes brain development and consequently strengthens a child’s abilities.
After ten years of working we can say: "The best investment in children's future is learning in the forest."
Who we are
Natalija is engaged in the professional development of forest pedagogics. She encourages teaching staff to introduce forest kindergartens and forest schools, holds seminars and professional training programmes at home and abroad, and educational programmes in natural environments. She is also experienced in expert evaluations and research work. She prepares, manages and implements European projects. She is the founder and initiator of the Slovenian Network of Forest Kindergartens and Schools, a consultant to the National Education Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, a lecturer at a technical college, and the author of professional handbooks on forest pedagogics. She graduated from the Department of Forestry and Renewable Forest Resources of the Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, and completed an interdisciplinary master’s study programme in Environmental Protection at the University of Ljubljana.
Alja has a doctorate in biology. She is enthusiastic about nature and its diversity; she is primarily interested in fast, beautiful creatures – dragonflies and numerous bugs. Alja is a researcher, author and co-author of many scientific, technical and popular articles, and a collaborator on numerous projects. For many years now, she has been sharing her enthusiasm for nature at natural science camps with different generations of children.
Within the group she is in charge of zoological contents and will gladly assist you in discovering the small creatures that we often overlook, even though they are living all around us.
Uroš is a physical education professor and a kinesiotherapy specialist. In 2008, he graduated from the Faculty of Sport, and continued his studies in England at Keele University, where he studied the movement of a person as a whole. He deepened his knowledge at the Nürnberg Institute of Sport Science and Sport in Germany, where he completed a training programme in preventive exercises for the spine. At the institute he is raising awareness among the teaching profession and children of the importance of movement in nature, while his hands-on workshops in nature never cease to excite with their ideas and implementation. He is the author of the handbook Naravno gibanje otrok/Natural Movement of Children.
References
Implementation of full-day seminars and workshops on the topic of forest pedagogics
• Workshop Winter Forest, 31 January 2024
• Workshop Mosses and Lichens, 16 January 2024
• Workshop Winter Forest, 10 January 2024
• Education for Kindergartens and Schools in Italy, 16 October 2023, Gorica
• Seminar Non-Forest Educational Themes in the Forest, 16 September 2023, Kamnik
• Seminar Forest and Movement, 9 September 2023, Kamnik
• Education for Erasmus + partners of the project "FORESTS EDUCATE AND CONNECT EVERYTHING AND EVERYWHERE", 4 May 2023, 2 June 2023, 29 September 2023, 12 October 2023, Postojna
• Expert consultation Movement for a Healthy Brain, 11 April 2023, Dol pri Ljubljani
• Autumn Market of Ideas, 26 October 2022, Preska elementary school
• Educational workshop for people with intellectual disabilities, 18 March 2023, 24 March 2023, Litija
• Workshop Winter Forest, 25 January 2023, Domžale
• Emotional and Social Learning of Children in the Forest, 10 September 2022, 5 November 2022, Kamnik
• We are a Forest School, 30 August 2022, Kamnik
• Workshops for people with intellectual disabilities, Project Back to Nature, 30 and 31 May 2022, Litija
• Forest School – Innovative School, 26 March 2022, Kamnik
• Trees Blooms and Turns Green - ZOOM education, 9 March 2022
• It's Time for Forest Mathematics - ZOOM education, 26 January 2022
• Tree Species in Winter – ZOOM education, 1 December 2021
• Two-day education and training of associations and professional workers, to work with young people with special needs, 2 and 3 October 2021, Litija
• Forest School – Innovative school, 27 November 2021, Kamnik
• I am Forest Teacher!, 24 and 26 August 2021, Kamnik
• The MUNERA 3 project (Education of educators from all over Slovenia in Forest Pedagogy) in cooperation with Celje Center Gymnasium:
• Forest Pedagogy, Part 1, 25 May 2021 – 10 July 2021 and 7 September 2021 – 16 October, 2021
• Forest Pedagogy, Part 2, 26 May 2021 – 3 July 2021 and 8 September2021 – 23 October 2021
• Forest School in May - ZOOM education, 4 to 18 May 2021
• Small Forest School - ZOOM education, 3 March 2021 – 24 March 2021 and 4 March 2021 – 23 March 2021
• Identifying Tree Species With the Children in Winter – ZOOM education, 27 January 2021 and 4 February 2021
• We are Forest Class, 25 August 2020, 27 August 2020, 30 September 2020, Kamnik
⦁ Forest by Prescription; 15 October 2019, Kamnik
⦁ Methods of Learning in Nature in Adult Education - Why is Learning in Nature so Effective?, 12 September 2019, Association of Educational and Counseling Centers of Slovenia, Kope, Slovenj Gradec
⦁ 1,2,3 We all Learn in the Forest; 50-hour learning module with the contents of forest pedagogy in cooperation with the Celje Center Gymnasium, school year 2018/19, MUNERA project.
⦁ Research Diary of a Forest Teacher; 22 May 2019, Kamnik
• Conference Green Learning Environments: Advantages of Learning in Nature for Children with Special Needs, 5 February 2019, Kamnik
• Conference Green Learning Environments: Advantages of Learning in Nature for Children with Special Needs, 7 November 2018, Hrovača near Ribnica
• With a White-Tailed Eagle through the Forests of Kočevje III – Training in Forest Pedagogics and Interpretation of Nature, 7 and 8 September 2018, Kočevska Reka
• International seminar Nature and Children Know No Bounds, 28 and 29 August 2018, Zgornja Bela and Preddvor
• Learning with Nature, 15 May 2018, Kočevska Reka
• With a White-Tailed Eagle through the Forests of Kočevje II – Training in Forest Pedagogics and Interpretation of Nature, 4 and 5 May 2018, Kočevska Reka
• Let’s Go to the Forest, 30 March 2018, Pula
• Movement in Nature – The Key to the Child, 15 March 2018, Bohor
• Forest Pedagogics and Forest Kindergartens and Nature’s Impact on Children’s Development, 31 March 2017, Pula
• With a White-Tailed Eagle through the Forests of Kočevje – Training in Forest Pedagogics and Interpretation of Nature, 29 and 30 August 2017, Kočevska Reka
• Let’s Feel the Forest and Express Ourselves in Art and Movement, 15 May 2017, Maribor
• SOS – School OutSide, 19 April 2017, Zg. Bela near Preddvor
• Go to the Forest! From Forest Ideas to Forest Actions, 18 September 2016, Zgornja Bela near Preddvor
• "IN MOTU VITA", in Movement Is Life, 19 May 2016, Preddvor
• Can Learning Be an Adventure?, 19 April 2016, Maribor
• The Forest as a Creative Educational and Learning Environment, 12 May 2015, Velika Kostrevnica
• The “Forest Kindergarten” Introduces Itself, Part II, 15 October 2014, Kamnik
• The “Forest Kindergarten” Introduces Itself, Part I, 15 April 2014, Kamnik
• Forest of Experiments, 11 May 2014, Ljubljana
• Let’s Go to the Forest, 27 March 2014, Ljubljana
• Forest Kindergarten, Forest School 3, 28 August 2013, Motnik
• Forest Kindergarten, Forest School 2, 8 May 2013, Velika Kostrevnica
• Forest Kindergarten, Forest School 1, 13 February 2013, Kamnik
Handbooks on the topic of forest pedagogics
⦁ Invitation to the Forest of Happy Children, 2012
⦁ Children Need the Forest, 2014
⦁ The Forest Shapes Life, 2015
⦁ Let’s Go to the Forest, 2016
⦁ Green Learning Environments: Advantages of Learning in Nature for Children with Special Needs, 2018
Project partner
⦁ Natural Environments Stimulate the Learning and Development of Children with Special Needs (ERASMUS+) 2016 – 2018.
⦁ The Heart of Nature Connects Us (European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development) 2012 – 2014 – key results: Establishment of the Slovenian Network of Forest Kindergartens and Schools and of the website of the Slovenian Network of Forest Kindergartens and Schools
⦁ Invitation to the Forest (dynAlp-Climate Programme), 2011 – 2012 – key results: The platform of innovative forest pedagogics, which has been spreading successfully throughout Slovenia; the handbook Invitation to the Forest of Happy Children
Awards
⦁ Within the framework of the conference Allianz in den Alpe, the project Povabilo v gozd/Invitation to the Forest was chosen as the best project under the dynAlp-Climate Programme.
⦁ In 2019, we ranked among the ten best practices in the field of forest pedagogy. The selection took place within the framework of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO), the University of Helsinki and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UN FAO United Nation Food and Agriculture Organization).