We love them anyway: outdoor environmental education programs from the accompanying teachers’ perspective

Abstract

The ways in which residential outdoor environmental education programs are perceived by the teachers accompanying their elementary school students have rarely been investigated. In this study, interviews were conducted with 17 elementary school teachers who had participated in one of five selected residential programs in the Czech Republic in 2018 – 2019. As the findings show, all the teachers found the residential programs beneficial for their teaching. However, a majority of the teachers reported that the most significant outcome was the improvement in the students’ interpersonal competence and in the relationship between the teachers and their students. Interestingly, the effect of the residential programs on developing the students’ environmental understanding, attitudes, and values remained secondary or was questioned by the teachers. The aspect that the teachers appreciated most was the application of experiential learning methods providing emotional experiences for the students. The paper discusses the possible reasons for such perceptions of these programs and the implications for practice.

Earthkeepers: The Relationship between Instructional Strategies on the Program Outcomes

“…This study further supports the crucial relationship between the program characteristics, students' values, and program effects. As found in a previous study (Johnson & Cincera, 2021), students with more pro-environmental values tend to rate the program's instructional strategies more highly than do students holding more anthropocentric values. This relationship works for environmental values before the program and even more so after the program.…”

“…In both pretest and posttest, we used the 2-MEV scale for measuring students' environmental values of nature preservation, utilization of nature, and appreciation of nature (Bogner, 2018). The instrument's composition and reliability are carefully described in Johnson and Cincera (2021).…”

“…The scales focused on program clarity (associated with analyzing the effects of framing the program), students' participation at the decision-making in the program (empowerment), leaders' encouragement of students to act pro-environmentally (encouragement), quality of experiential learning (experiential learning), and students' overall satisfaction (satisfaction) with the program. The scales have been thoroughly described and their reliability demonstrated in Johnson and Cincera (2021).…”

“…The nature of these relatively short programs does not support the gradual process of uncovering and challenging students' alternative scientific theories, required by contemporary theories of conceptual change (diSessa, 2014;Duit & Treagust, 2003;Vosniadou, 2013). As a result, the OEE programs often apply various strategies such as "transferability" (linking the learned concept with other phenomena and with students' experience) or communicating the main idea the concept before engaging the students in an activity to assimilate it and then apply it (I-A-A model) (Johnson & Cincera, 2019;Cincera et al, 2021).…”

Spirituality-based environmental literacy among prospective biology teacher in Indonesia: Analysis based on gender, accreditation, and semester-level aspects

“…Analysis of the results revealed that the instrument meets the necessary psychometric requirements and can be considered a valid and reliable instrument for measuring teachers' environmental literacy levels. This research also revealed interesting results regarding the relationship between teachers' EL levels and their educational areas, accompanying learning area engagement, and environmental education training in general (An et al, 2022;Cincera et al, 2021). In this regard, an Environmental Literacy Instrument based on Spirituality (ELIS) has been developed (Husamah et al, 2022), in the Indonesian context.…”