Dorit Radnai-Griffin, director of the Lab School, shared her thoughts on fostering meaningful relationships, the value of nature-based education and supporting the next generation of early childhood educators. 

Why do you prioritize nature-based education? 

Radnai-Griffin: Nature-based education has been connected to incredible benefits for children in all areas of development. One example is in the ability to engage in scientific inquiry. The children ask questions about what they find, observe and experience. They feel the wind on their face, the rain drops or the sun’s rays, and have deep, meaningful discussions about these changes. The children may wonder “how much rain fell last night?” and can actually measure the amount using a rain gauge with their teachers' support. Other activities, like scavenger hunts, allow the children to further practice their skills in language, writing, observation, measurement, collaboration and so much more. Yet one of the most profound impacts has been on the mental health and well-being of our children. Similarly, teaching staff have also noticed positive changes due to their time spent outdoors. To enhance the benefits of being in nature, we use mindfulness practices in our classrooms. These practices extend the gains of a nature-based approach. 

Can you tell us what it means to be a “lab” school?

Radnai-Griffin: The Lab School was created with the goal of supporting students and professionals interested in children and their development, including UD undergraduate and graduate students, UD faculty, early childhood education (ECE) providers from across the state of Delaware and Delaware high schoolers interested in becoming future educators.

Just like a chemistry lab exists to support chemistry students, the Lab School exists to support the next generation of early childhood educators. Under the coaching and mentoring of the Lab School’s experienced and highly qualified teachers, UD students get to practice what they learn in their courses and gain hands-on experience with children in a safe and supportive environment. Together, as members of our teaching teams, they complete lesson plans, work with families, collect observational data and more. Graduate students and faculty also use our school as a research site, conducting important studies like alumna Annette Pic’s, Class of 2023, recent research on conflict resolution. In her study, she found that children's outdoor free play supports their developing social-emotional and cognitive skills, noting that children who were able to resolve their conflicts outside did so with much less involvement from a teacher. 

As a model site for ECE, we also invite Delaware providers to visit our school for various professional development opportunities related to nature-based education, mindfulness and other topics. Additionally, we partner with CEHD’s Delaware Institute for Excellence in Early Childhood and the Delaware Department of Education in their “Let’s Go Outside” initiative, a professional learning experience about the benefits of outdoor classroom environments. We also have partnerships with Delaware schools like St. George’s Technical High School, that, for years, continues to send students to observe our teaching, participate in our classrooms and debrief with our teachers and staff about what they learned. Our hope is that they’ll pursue an ECE degree at UD. Like other efforts at CEHD, we’re hoping this partnership helps reduce Delaware’s teacher shortage.