School education is not only about acquiring knowledge, but also about supporting children’s social and emotional development. This qualitative study focuses on the social and emotional learning behaviour of primary school children in indoor and outdoor learning settings and was conducted at an outdoor primary school in Middle-Sweden. The impact of the two learning environments was analysed using observational studies on children. Supplementary interviews with teachers provided valuable information to complement these observations. Thematic analysis was used to examine the collected data.

The study revealed that a change in learning environment has a key impact on children’s social and personal learning behaviour. Learning outdoors not only enhances pupils’ motivation and concentration but also contributes positively to their autonomous learning. Furthermore, the observations indicated that outdoor environments provide greater opportunities for meaningful social interactions and active engagement. The potential of outdoor education is emphasised as a valuable complement to traditional classroom learning because it offers a wide range of benefits concerning individual and social behaviour. However, contextual factors such as gender and teacher’s guidance additionally impacted children’s social and emotional behaviour. Overall, the findings imply that outdoor environments hold promising potential for supporting children’s social and personal learning.