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Forskning visar att matematikundervisningen till stor del grundar sig på det teoretiska och enskilda arbetet i matematikboken. Vidare lyfter forskning också fram vikten av att variera dagens matematikundervisning med både teoretiska och praktiska inslag, då dessa kompletterar varandra och bidrar till att eleverna utvecklar djupare kunskaper inom ämnet matematik. Ett arbetssätt som visat sig fungera som ett komplement till den mer traditionella och teoretiska matematikundervisningen är utomhusmatematiken, som grundar sig på det praktiska arbetet. Studiens syfte var därför att undersöka på vilket sätt praktiska och teoretiska inslag skrivs fram i olika typer av läromedel. Studien har ett fokus på utomhusmatematik. Resultatet av analysen har visat att samtliga läromedel som analyserats i denna studie innefattar både praktiska och teoretiska inslag, men i varierande utsträckning. / Research shows that mathematics teaching is largely based on the theoretical and individual work in mathematics book. Further research also highlights the importance of varying the mathematics education with both theoretical and practical elements, as they complement each other and help students develop a deeper knowledge in mathematics. An approach proven to work as a complement to the more traditional and theoretical mathematics teaching is outdoor mathematics, which is based on practical work. The study's purpose was to investigate how the practical and theoretical elements are produced in different types of learning materials. The study has a focus on outdoor mathematics. The result of the analysis shows that all teaching materials analyzed in this study include both theoretical and practical elements, but to varying degrees.

This study investigated the success and failure beliefs, instructional practices, and personal learning preferences of outdoor adventure education (OAE) instructors, and explored factors that influenced these beliefs, practices, and preferences. While statistical analysis did not show significant differences among the various demographic categories on success beliefs, instructional practices, or personal learning preferences, there were significant differences in the magnitude of reported failure beliefs. Results from this study showed that OAE instructors' age, their professional experience, their employer, and the activities they teach affect their failure beliefs. Furthermore, OAE instructors indicated that success instructional techniques, like implementing scaffolding, should be used at the onset of a course or when a new skill is being introduced, while failure techniques should be employed as students gain experience or as a perception check to assess competence. The implications of these findings for OAE instructors is discussed.

Nine teenage participants and two adult guides were followed throughout a 10 day white water canoe trip to investigate the relationship between their impressions of connection with nature and the canoe trip experience, and their interactions with nature and the canoe trip experience. Themes providing a description of these relationships were identified and three major findings emerged. The first was that multiple themes mediating participants’ connectedness with nature did so both towards connection and disconnection. The second was that participants’ state of comfort was related to an impression of connection with nature while their state of discomfort was related to an impression of disconnection from nature. The third was that the relationship between participants’ connectedness and interactions with nature differed depending on the context (e.g., nature versus civilization). Possible directions for future research include investigating changes in participants’ conception of nature and the relationship between comfort and connection with nature.

This thesis is an exploratory case study that investigates a 'successful' pupil referral unit (PRU) for key stage 3 secondary school pupils located in the semi-rural southwest of England. The achievement of the PRU was externally acknowledged by the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) with a recently reported overall grade of 1 or ‘Outstanding’. This exploratory study took a social constructionist approach and was informed by the methodology of illuminative evaluation. This study explored the stories and experiences of pupils and staff using interviews, a focus group and video diaries for the pupils. The analysis of these data was from a socio-cultural theoretical perspective. The research data suggested that success was in a state of flux for all in the PRU. For pupils there were personal transformations in their attitudes, behaviours and values. Pupils’ social and emotional capital was increased by the ‘deep relationships’ that developed between pupils and staff. The innovative approach to the curriculum allowed pupils to engage positively with education and featured lessons that were routinely based upon experiential learning. This included weekly outdoor learning lessons which provided a rich context for informal learning to take place alongside the formal objectives. Leadership and management appeared to be the keystone of the PRU success. There was a clear well founded educational philosophy that was successfully articulated through the operational systems of the PRU. All of these parts contributed to the holistic success of the PRU. Findings from this case study are not generalisable due to its specificity to one particular setting and small number of participants. However, ‘naturalistic generalisations’ may be arrived at by the reader. For example, the reader may be able to apply some aspects of good practice, such as developing deep relationships, to their own context when working with those pupils who are, or have the potential to be, disaffected.

Studiens syfte var att undersöka lärares uppfattningar om utomhuslärandet som lärandeverktyg i undervisningen och elevers uppfattning om lärandet utomhus. Studien genomfördes i två städer med fem lärare och 113 elever i årskurs ett till sex. Metoderna som användes var kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer och kvantitativa enkäter. Resultatet analyserades med hjälp av dialektiken och den hermeneutiska cirkeln. Det mest framträdande i analysresultatet var att lärarna har en positiv uppfattning om utomhuslärandet som lärandeverktyg i undervisningen. Analysresultatet visade också att undervisning utomhus kan vara svårt att bedriva på grund av olika hinder. I analysen av enkätmaterialet framkom att eleverna ser undervisningen utomhus som något som de vill ha mer utav och att de tyckte att det var roligare att bedriva undervisning utomhus. / The study's purpose was to examine teacher’s perceptions of outdoor learning as learning tools in teaching and students conception of learning outdoors. The study was conducted in two cities with five teachers and 113 students in grades one to six. The methods used were qualitative semi-structured interviews and quantitative surveys. The results were analyzed using the dialectic and the hermeneutic circle. The most prominent of the analysis result was that the teachers have a positive perception of the outdoor learning as learning tools in teaching. Analysis results showed that outdoor education can be difficult to conduct because of various obstacles. The analysis of questionnaire data revealed that students see learning outdoors as something that they want more of and that they thought it was fun to teach outdoors. / <p>Godkännandedatum: 2015-06-04</p>

This study compares the impact of group counseling with that of outdoor group experience upon institutionalized adolescents. Limited to subjects between twelve and sixteen years old, the study evaluates behavior, self-esteem, social and personal adjustment, and sociometric choosing. The object of these evaluations is to test the effectiveness of these two approaches to treating disturbed adolescents who had failed to function in a community setting and who might otherwise have lapsed into delinquency. Significant change following group counseling and following outdoor group experience as measured by accrual of points for behavior suggests that both approaches are effective, with group counseling having the greater impact. Also, younger subjects appear to profit more from both group counseling and outdoor group experience. The absence of significant change reflected by standardized instruments creates two questions. Are available instruments normed on basically normal groups appropriate for use with such a unique group of subjects as those in this study? Also, does the intense resistance these subjects demonstrated toward all pencil-and-paper activities negatively affect the accuracy of results from these standardized instruments?

Learning beyond classrooms is becoming more common in formal and non-formal education internationally. Research on outdoor learning and education has focussed on barriers, outcomes, and equity rather than processes or teachers' practice. Despite claims around the importance of natural and outdoor places in education, the ways in which teachers consider and use particular places in preparing for and teaching outdoors is not well understood. Despite calls to do so, non-anthropocentric, posthumanist, and new materialist place theories remain under-utilised in empirical research in this area. Notably, there are only a handful of studies that include any reference to teachers' views or practices with respect to the role of more-than-human elements. The aim of this thesis was to find out from teachers themselves when and how more-than-human elements became harnessed into the planning and enactment of curricula for outdoor learning. A multicase study was employed to inquire into the practice of five in-service school teachers based on place-responsive methods, namely, walking interviews and memory-box interviews. Drawing on postqualitative orientations to analysis, Deleuzoguattarian inspired vignettes produced four findings. In different ways, these teachers' practice emerged through (1) their ability to notice the more-than-human, (2) attending to how their learners noticed and responded to the more-than-human in educational experiences, (3) seeking to become more attuned to the places visited, and (4) supporting the assembling of material, discursive, human, and more-than-human elements together in curriculum making. Implications for teacher education and in-service practice that encourage consideration of the more-than-human in educational practice are signposted. The thesis' contribution provokes new considerations of how outdoor educational provision can be re-oriented to include more-than-human elements. These contributions may be significant in supporting education that could improve human environment relations and address environmental concerns.

This thesis explores the significance and meaning of the countryside within mid-twentieth century youth movements. Whilst modern youth movements have been the subject of considerable historical research, there has been little attention to the rural context within which so many of them operated. Moreover, few historians have explored youth movements into the post-Second World War period. This thesis therefore makes an original contribution both in terms of its periodisation and focus. It draws on a rich seam of archival and printed sources focusing in particular upon the Boy Scout and Girl Guide movements, the Woodcraft Folk and the Young Farmer's Club movement. The thesis examines the ways in which the countryside was employed as a space within which ‘good citizenship' could be developed. Mid-century youth movements identified the ‘problem' of modern youth as a predominantly urban and working class issue. They held that the countryside offered an effective antidote to these problems: being a ‘good citizen' within this context necessitated a respectful and mutually beneficial relationship with the rural sphere. Avenues to good citizenship could be found through an enthusiasm for outdoor recreation, the stewardship of the countryside and work on the land. Models of good citizenship were intrinsically gendered. Girls were trained for their domestic role within the home, although this was a specifically rural form of domesticity. Chapter One explores the shifting relationship between the urban public and the countryside in the mid-century and argues that the popularity of outdoor recreation developed understandings of citizenship that were directly linked to the English countryside. For youth this country-conscious citizenship could be developed in three spheres: leisure, work and the home. Chapter Two examines the approach of youth movements to youthful leisure across the mid-century and, using concern for the juvenile delinquent as a case study, argues that through physical and mental improvement the countryside could prevent misbehaviour. Parallel to this youth movements instilled an understanding of ‘good' countryside manners and encouraged members to protect the countryside from the onslaught of urban pleasureseekers. Chapter Three explores the importance of agricultural work in meanings of ‘good citizenry' arguing that for both urban and rural boys proficiency in farming, particularly in wartime, was considered an important service to the nation. Chapter Four investigates how the sphere of the home remained central to understandings of ‘good citizenship' for girls and suggests that the distinct nature of rural domesticity should be considered here. It also considers the place of youth movements within the gendered lifecycle, understandings of female deviance and issues of agency in leisure provision for girls in the mid-century. This thesis argues that, fundamentally, the mid-century period should be seen as one of continuity in the training of youth movements. The central role of the countryside in categorisations of ‘good citizenry' supports recent understandings of a rural national identity in the mid-century. Furthermore, approaches to youth were clearly divided in terms of both class and gender. While concerns over the working classes did shift at this time understandings of innate working class deviance remained. Moreover, the persistence of gendered understandings of citizenship and the emphasis on domesticity for girls suggests that gender remained central to experiences of youth movements in the mid twentieth-century.