Towards a method to support trail selection for the outdoor movement education process

Outdoor education has recently been proposed to support multidisciplinary learning processes developed in a natural environment. In this sense, several studies have addressed the pedagogical perspective of this educational model, while little evidence has been provided on the level of suitability required to identify an outdoor educational environment. The aim of this study was to propose an assessment method that can be used to verify whether a specific pathway can be chosen to develop educational activities. The main focus remains on how natural resources can be taught more effectively in the school setting, particularly in physical education processes. In a holistic approach, several reasons support the need to use the external context during the teaching-learning processes of PE in order to act positively on the psychomotor, cognitive, and socio-affective domains.Therefore, several reasons support the need to use the external environment during the PE teaching learning processes. On the contrary, a problem that many teachers have to face is relating to the choice of the most suitable path to support physical education processes. We try to enhance the method proposed by Di Felice to support hikers in choosing a path, with an approach that has the prerogative to fit within into a frame of ecological dynamics.The current method may guide a teacher when he/she plans an outdoor education learning process in a double perspective: a) to classify outdoor paths according to their physical characteristics and academic aims; b) to match each path with the learning characteristics associated with a physical education plan developed by following the outdoor learning model.