Benefits of Adopting Wild Pedagogies in University Education

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Hello authors,

A very interesting study with some wonderful applications for post-secondary teaching. The methods were really fascinating and novel & I appreciated the thorough explanation. I do have two small suggestions for your consideration:

1. A more fulsome explanation of wild pedagogies would benefit readers given this will be a new concept for most. I would suggest drawing from Jickling, B., Blenkinsop, S., Morse, M., & Jensen, A. (2018). Wild Pedagogies: Six Initial Touchstones for Early Childhood Environmental Educators. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 34(2), 159-171. doi:10.1017/aee.2018.19

2. A definition of mental well-being would strengthen the manuscript. Mental well-being can be an all-encompassing term, thus including a clear definition at the outset will help frame the paper and allow the reader to better interpret the findings. 

Author Response

We thank you very much for review and providing valuable comments on our manuscript.  Please find our responses.

The referee recommended a more fulsome explanation of wild pedagogy be included.  We fully agree with this recommendation as Wild Pedagogies is somewhat of an uncommon term and this added detail will assist the reader in contextualizing the objectives.  The following paragraph was added to the manuscript.

Concepts around wild pedagogy began to crystalize around 2012 though a group at Lakehead University in Ontario, Canada [11].  While the term “wild” can be easily misconstrued, it is used in this pedological context in a purposeful way to denote reclamation, reimagination and reintroduction [11].   

“ Wild pedagogy involves challenging dominant cultural notions of control – of each other, nature, education and learning.  It rests on the premise that an important part of education can involve intentional activities that provide a fertile field for personal and purposeful experiences without controlling the outcomes……A big part of this restoration of the teacher’s role in society is to allow teachers the freedom to generate creative spaces for students – and themselves - as learners were personal knowing is honoured.” [12].

Wild pedagogy provides an element of freedom of will, associated with ‘wild’, that is an important part of the teaching.  It recognizes that the learner themselves, are a part of the subject matter, and they themselves become part of the learning process.  The environment also becomes an active member in the teaching and learning.

The referee also recommended more definition around the very broad subject of mental well-being.  This paper was actually prompted by a recent study by the Ontario University and College Health Association.  The following text was added.

University students are one group that may benefit significantly from wild pedagogies due to nature’s widely cited healing benefits [13,14,15]. Academic institutions are beginning to acknowledge the importance of green spaces on university campuses as an important health resource for students and an opportunity to deepen their relationship with nature [16]. These nature-based approaches are being implemented at an unprecedented time, with university students facing  high risk of undergoing mental health issues, due to academia's high-stress environment caused by academic pressure, changes in living environment, feelings of isolation and financial stress [17,18]. A 2019 study by the Ontario University and College Health Association found that 52% of Canadian post-secondary students reported feeling depressed to a point where it affected their ability to function [19].  This metric has increased from 38% in 2013. Similarly, students experiencing overwhelming anxiety was 69% in 2019 up from 56% in 2013 [19].  Adopting wild pedagogies in universities is an opportunity to address mental health issues amongst students whilst also providing learning benefits.

Thank you for your positive feedback and valuable suggestions.

Best regards,

Sally

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear authors,

1.Literature review. It is not very clear review to find out the gaps in the present study. It is also very difficult to understand the purpose of your study.

2. You should mentioned the situation of other Canadian universities, especially those with forestry research.

3. Figure 2 missed references to cite.

4. Supplement the legend in Figure 5. It is hard to read.

5. Please dicuss the relationship between Wild Pedagogies and aborigines (In outdoor environment).

Kindly regards.

Author Response

Thank you very much for your review of our manuscript and your valuable comments.

Literature review. It is not very clear review to find out the gaps in the present study. It is also very difficult to understand the purpose of your study.

The purpose of the study was to test whether using a wild pedaglogical approach to a Forest Bathing exercise could improve student’s mental health and provide environmental learning outcomes.  The introduction provided the background for the study.  To our knowledge there has been no studies of this kind done previously.

You should mentioned the situation of other Canadian universities, especially those with forestry research. 

We added some context about the health and well-being of students in Ontario Universities.  The course in which this assignment was given was a 3rd year Engineering course.

Added missing reference to figure 2.

Details were added to the title of Figure 5 to help better describe the figure.

The authors felt that a discussion on the relationship between Wild Pedagogies and aborigines was outside the context of this paper.

My sincere thanks for your review of our manuscript,

Sally