Benefits of Adopting Wild Pedagogies in University Education

Abstract

Several studies have demonstrated the positive impact of wild pedagogies on the well-being and learning of primary learners. However, wild pedagogies in higher education remain relatively obscure. This study assesses whether wild pedagogies affect the wellness of university students and analyzes the outcomes of the natural learning experiences in a higher education setting. As such, we use the roBERTa model to evaluate the sentiment score and thematic content to analyze 167 reflective essays on conducted natural learning experiences by undergraduate engineering students from a large Canadian public university. Our findings indicate that wild pedagogies benefit the wellness of university students and provide positive learning experiences. Moreover, positive natural learning experiences motivate students to develop environmental consciousness and sentimental connections with nature.