This research is concerned with the educational process within an outdoor centre involving groups of primary school children. It studies group interaction between the participants in a natural setting by taking a holistic approach, giving an account of their outdoor learning experience in the context of a group. It appears that there is little focus on groups in the outdoors, even though most outdoor programmes involve groups. Most of the research done on groups is quantitative and laboratory based. Such traditional approaches have been challenged, as empirical limitations and theoretical problems have been identified. It is argued that a study of group interactions within a natural environment, such as the outdoor classroom, would allow for a more insightful understanding of the phenomena involved, and it could also shed light on the outdoor educational process, which has been neglected by research in outdoor education. Participant observation and semi-structured interviews were used as part of an ethnographic approach. This enabled the collection of varied data, which resulted in a thick description of the phenomena explored. The findings show that the concept of team building is central to the philosophy of the outdoor centre and of its staff. The activities, which are used as learning tools, are group orientated. Teamwork is seen as essential for the learning experience at the outdoor centre. The study also revealed that the different approaches of the participants influenced the way learning was constructed. The two main themes that have emerged were empowerment and control. The empowering approaches offered support and encouragement to the participants, allowing for collaboration and cooperation to exist between them, which enabled learning to be more effective. The controlling approaches were characterised by a lack of dialogue between the participants, which interfered with the learning experience, by not creating an environment where the participants could work together as a group. A social aspect of learning was thus identified, which emphasised the importance of viewing learning as a joint process. The research shows that a well-designed process does not always result in the participants achieving the ‘desired learning outcomes’. The teachers/facilitators need to be aware of the impact that their approach may have on the learning experience of the participants.

Utomhuspedagogik är ett förhållningssätt som syftar till att lärande sker i utemiljö. Det är också ett växelspel mellan sinneliga upplevelser och boklig bildning. Syftet med vår studie var att ta reda på sex pedagogers uppfattningar om utomhuspedagogik och hur dessa tar sig uttryck i samband med barns lärande i förskolan. I studien använde vi oss av kvalitativa intervjuer och inslag av den fenomenografiska forskningsansatsen. I resultatet fann vi att pedagogerna hade varierande uppfattningar kring utomhuspedagogik och hur de såg på ämnet som ett verktyg för barns lärande. Alla pedagoger ansåg att utomhuspedagogik är något som sker utomhus och några berättade även om olika övningar som främjar barnens lärandeprocess. De flesta pedagoger var också överrens om att kläder och väder var ett hinder gällande barns lärande i utevistelse då de får en negativ upplevelse på grund av att de fryser och blir blöta. Möjligheterna som pedagogerna såg med utomhuspedagogiken var många, de nämnde bland annat att fantasin främjas, motoriken tränas och att barnen blir lugnare och piggare vilket främjar lärandeprocessen. De huvudkategorier som presenteras i resultatet är; att bedriva den pedagogiska verksamheten utomhus, arbetsmetoder, utomhuspedagogikens innehåll, kläder efter väder och hälsa/livsstil. Vi anser att vår studie kommer bidra till att pedagoger och lärarstuderande får inblick i vad utomhuspedagogik handlar om och hur barns lärande kan stimuleras i utemiljö. / Outdoor education is an approach aimed that learning takes place in an outdoor environment. There is also an interaction between sensory experiences consistent and book learning. The aim of our study was to determine six educator’s perceptions of outdoor education and how it takes expression in the context of children's learning in preschool. In this study we used qualitative interviews and elements of the phenomenographic theories. In the result, we found that the educators had varying perceptions of outdoor education and how they looked at the subject as a tool for children's learning. All educators considered that outdoor education is something that takes place outdoors, and some also talked about different exercises that promote children's learning process. Most educators also agreed that the clothes and the weather was an obstacle for children’s learning when the children spent time outdoors, where they may get a negative experience because they are cold and wet. The opportunities that the educators saw with the outdoor education were many; they mentioned in particular that the imagination is fostered, motor skills are trained and that the children become calmer and more alert which promotes the learning process. The main categories that we present in the result is; to conduct the educational activities outdoors, working methods, the content of outdoor education, clothing for the weather and health/lifestyle.We believe that our study will help educators and student teachers to gain insight into what outdoor education is about and how children's learning can be stimulated in the outdoor environment.

Self-motivated activities, or play, that children choose to engage in are manifestations of a variety of science process skills being used to construct knowledge about their environment. While many people agree that science skills should be fostered at an early age, due to the possible positive influence of a wider base of experiential knowledge and the development of a love of science, there is a lack of research available to support the development of early childhood science curriculum (Bredekamp & Copple, 1997, Brenneman, Stevenson-Boyd & Frede, 2009). This study follows the daily activities of four- and five-year-old children attending a science-based preschool in the southwestern United States. The play activities of the children were observed for their use of the science process skills of observing, comparing, classifying, measuring, communicating, inferring, predicting and experimenting. A wide range of play activities centered around the foundational skills of observing, comparing, measuring, communicating and inferring. The teachers and students combine to create a unique environment promoting excitement and exploration. / text

Syftet med denna uppsats är att studera vad elever uppfattar av utomhuspedagogik sett utifrån lärarens syn på utomhuspedagogik och hur denna tillämpas. Uppsatsen bygger på en elev-enkät till elever från åk 1 till åk 5 och fyra strukturerade intervjuer med lärare från samma skola som eleverna. Fyra intervjupersoner har svarat på frågor som handlar om utomhuspedagogiken och hur den tillämpas. Enkätens frågor handlade om hur eleverna upplever utomhuspedagogiken. Resultatet blev att elevernas och lärarnas svar överstämmer väl sinsemellan samt med teorin. Uppsatsen visar att de flesta elever samt intervjuade lärare tycker att det är bra att arbeta med utomhuspedagogik och att det är en tillgång för alla att skolan har olika sätt att lära ut. Utom-huspedagogiken hjälper eleverna fram till kunskap från teori till praktik och sammankopplar delarna till en helhet. / The purpose of this paper is to study what students perceive of outdoor education from the perspective of the teacher's approach to outdoor education and how this applies. The essay is based on a student questionnaire to students from Year 1 to Year 5 and four structured inter-views with teachers at the same school as the pupils. Four interviewees responded to questions related to outdoor education and how it is applied. The survey questions focused on how students experience outdoor education. The result was that students and educators responses are in close harmony with each other and with the theory. The paper shows that most students and interviewed teachers think it is great to work with outdoor education and that it is an asset to all the school has different ways of teaching. Outdoor education helps students to knowledge from theory to practice and connect-ing the parts into a whole.

Experiencing Freefall is an inquiry into outdoor experiencing. It focuses on both my experiences with a group of Grade 10 students in an outdoor adventure education program and my personal experiencing of the outdoors. I explore the awareness we embody within moments of unexpected happenings while negotiating Whitewater rapids or searching for a handhold while clinging to the side of a cliff face. Also in this thesis I explore the 'phenomena of experiencing' which emerges out of our actions and interactions within outdoor activities. The challenge of this dissertation is capturing in prose, the phenomena of experiencing and 'embodied awareness' arising through such unexpected instances. Hence, the thesis, in trying to articulate the complexity of experiencing in the outdoors, uses stories, poetry and the metaphor of life, breath, and mountaineering to invite the reader on a journey of inquiry. This thesis escorts the reader, like a true pedagogue, into an outdoor environment of experiencing that opens the reader to ponder pedagogical possibilities. I explore several themes in the thesis which include 'freefall,' community, 'turning points,' and 'embodied respect' using a methodology of 'enactive inquiry.' The thesis takes a journey through each theme by weaving students' stories from the study, my own personal stories of the unexpected, and the theory of enaction. The thesis creates an opportunity for readers to embrace their own struggles, fears, and inquiry. Through the use of outdoor stories to illustrate moments of freefall into the unfamiliar or unknown, we may imagine pedagogical possibilities. As an enactive inquiry, this research thesis embodies an "education" or way of being, living, experiencing that explores unexpected happenings. In articulating an ecological perspective of experiencing, the thesis juxtaposes encounters in the outdoors with enactive theory to move beyond traditional representationalist models of cognition. Specifically, I focus on the embodied awareness that arises through phenomena of experiencing and its relation to pedagogy. The thesis contributes to the theory of the enactive approach by bringing examples of human experience which unfold, not only our interactions within the ecological web of the outdoor world, but an emergent space of pedagogical possibilities. As such, this thesis is an experiential work through which the reader may realize their own interpreting of possible pedagogies for many educational contexts.

<p>&nbsp / </p> <div style="line-height: 150% / margin: 0cm 0cm 12pt"><span style="line-height: 150% / font-size: 12pt"><span style="line-height: 115% / font-family: &quot / Calibri&quot / ,&quot / sans-serif&quot / font-size: 12pt / mso-ansi-language: EN-US / mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri / mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman' / mso-fareast-language: EN-US / mso-bidi-language: AR-SA" lang="EN-US"> <div style="line-height: 150% / margin: 0cm 0cm 12pt"><span style="line-height: 150% / font-size: 12pt">This study looks at the effects of a dialogical argumentation instructional model (DAIM) on grade 9 learners understanding of selected meteorological concepts: Cold fronts in the Western Cape of South Africa. Using a quasi-experimental research design model, the study employed both quantitative and qualitative (so-called &lsquo / mixed methods&rsquo / ) to collect data in a public secondary school in Cape Town, in the Western Cape Province. A survey questionnaire on attitudes and perceptions towards high school as well as conceptions of weather was administered before the main study to give the researcher baseline information and to develop pilot instruments to use in the main study.</span></div> <div style="line-height: 150% / margin: 0cm 0cm 12pt"><span style="line-height: 150% / font-size: 12pt">&nbsp / The study employed a dialogical instructional model (DAIM) with an experimental group of learners exposed to the intervention, and recorded differences from a control group which had no intervention. Learners from the two groups were exposed to a meteorological literacy test evaluation before and after the DAIM intervention. The results from the two groups were then compared and analysed according to the two theoretical frameworks that underpin the study namely: Toulmin&rsquo / s Argumentation Pattern - TAP (Toulmin, 1958) and Contiguity Argumentation Theory - CAT (Ogunniyi, 1997).</span></div> <span style="line-height: 115% / font-size: 12pt">&nbsp / Further analyses were conducted on learners&rsquo / beliefs and indigenous knowledge, according to their conceptual understanding of weather related concepts used in the current NCS (National Curriculum Statement).&nbsp / After completing the study some interesting findings were made and based on these findings certain recommendations were suggested on how to implement a DAIM-model into classroom teaching using Indigenous Knowledge (IK). These recommendations are suggestions to plot the way towards developing a science&ndash / IK curriculum for the Natural Sciences subjects in South African schools. </span></span></span></div>

This study evaluated two extracurricular leadership development programs offered by one urban high school. The programs were evaluated through an examination of the ways in which students understood their experiences in the programs in terms of their own leadership abilities, their leadership role with others and their perception of good leadership. The six study participants were observed facilitating groups of their peers through interactive activities at the programs' multiple-day events. In the three months following the programs, the participants were interviewed twice. The participants reported that their experience in a leadership development program helped them to feel confident in their leadership abilities. Also, the participants valued their relationships with their peers in their roles as leaders. Finally, the participants believed that good leaders exhibit caring behaviour towards others. This study provides information to assist the improvement of youth leadership development programs.

This richly descriptive qualitative study examines the ability of a Grade 11 outdoor education program to transform student environmental worldviews. This exploratory research investigates the current environmental attitudes and beliefs of a random sample of eight graduates of the G. P. Vanier Secondary School Explore program from the years 2003 through 2006. The research also examines the long-term reflections of these graduates on their experiences in the Explore program. This qualitative research utilizes open-ended interviews to ascertain the depth and breadth of the students‟ experiences. Qualitative findings indicate that a reaffirmation, rather than transformation, in environmental attitudes occurs for the participants in this study. The findings of the study corroborate the results of earlier studies on the positive impact of outdoor education programs and support the notion that outdoor education programs can provide a variety of meaningful experiences for their participants.

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