A longitudinal study of environmental and outdoor education: A cultural change

Abstract

In this case‐study, we present a longitudinal study of one elementary (grades 1–6) school's environmental education (EE) in order to understand the ways in which the school culture supports outdoor EE as a critical component of their science education program. The school, which was known for its school‐based EE curriculum that encompasses an intensive outdoor‐education component, has gone through changes in the staff, and the student population. Our study is aimed at understanding the current challenges of the school outdoor education, in light of its two decade tradition of environmental and outdoor education school‐based curriculum. We observed three field trips and interviewed the principal and teachers. Our critical analysis indicated key tensions regarding outdoor EE: (1) the place of the school's tradition in light of current staff's challenges and agenda; (2) power struggle between the EE teacher and the newer teachers in school; and (3) the separation between the EE program that was an integrative holistic program in the past, and the other fields taught in school. In conclusion, we argue that the main issue is the change in the school culture that reflects the changes the community went through. We suggest that the school should examine old assumptions and revise its EE curriculum in light of changes in the school social and physical environment and in accordance to development in the field of EE. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 50: 1019–1046, 2013

The synergistic effect of affective factors on student learning outcomes

“…The Model of Responsible Environmental Behavior (Hines, Hungerford, & Tomera, ) suggested that people with a greater sense of personal responsibility, pro‐environmental attitudes, or better knowledge of environmental issues are more likely to engage in pro‐environmental behaviors. Several other models (Bamberg & Moser, ; Blake, ; Steg & Vlek, ; Tal & Morag, ) have explored variables associated with pro‐environmental behavior and confirmed the positive relationship between environmental attitude and pro‐environmental behavior—an example of synergy. Despite this, there is limited research clarifying how individual and collective affective factors differentially impact environmental awareness and responsibility.…”

La salida de campo como recurso didáctico para enseñar ciencias. Una revisión sistemática

“…Adquisición y transferencia del conocimiento -Mejora la adquisición y comprensión de los contenidos científicos (1,3,6,8,9,11,15,18,21,22,23,24,31,33,35). -Eleva el rendimiento académico (26,34).…”

“…-Las principales razones por las que el profesorado decide no realizar SC son: falta de recursos y de formación (36). -La burocracia y la excesiva carga laboral de los docentes (31). -Se necesita una supervisión exhaustiva al realizarse fuera del recinto escolar (4).…”

Grundskollärares uppfattningar av världsarvsundervisning och världsarvet Kvarkens skärgård som lärmiljö.<br/>Compulsory school teachers` conceptions of World Heritage Education and the Kvarken Archipelago World Heritage site as a learning environment

“…Faktorer som anses bidra till den otillräckliga användningen av naturmiljön är bl.a. begränsade ekonomiska resurser, omfattande läroplaner, tidsbrist, säkerhetsaspekter och lärares bristande kunskap och färdigheter att använda sig av utemiljön i undervisningen (Bentsen, Søndergaard Jensen, Mygind & Barfoed Randrup, 2010;Higgins, Nicol & Ross, 2006;Rickinson m.fl., 2004;Tal & Morag, 2013). För att lärare i större grad ska använda sig av lärmiljöer utanför skolan behöver de enligt Mannion, Fenwick och Lynch (2013) bl.a.…”

“…Utomhuspedagogik spelar en viktig roll för att belysa relationer mellan människor och deras omgivning (Tal & Morag, 2013). Lärarna förhåller sig positivt till världsarvet som arena för utomhuspedagogik och en majoritet anser att världsarvsundervisningen ökar elevernas naturintresse och miljöengagemang.…”