Learning in 'communities of practice' is a new way of describing and investigating how people learn and has not been applied extensively in research in early childhood or in art galleries. This thesis is a critical case study undertaken with preschool children as they prepared for, participated in and followed up a series of excursions to the National Gallery of Australia. The study explores and analyses children's induction into the practices of the art gallery and their negotiation of the meanings around these practices in the gallery and in their preschool. Children's engagement in practices is analysed using a sociocultural framework for learning called 'communities of practice' (Wenger, 1998) in combination with a multilevel analysis of the artefacts of practice derived from the philosophical writings of Wartofsky (1979). Multiple data sources included photographs of children, their drawings, tape recordings of their incidental talk and group discussions, and results of play activities as children participated in the practices of the art gallery and the preschool. Data was also collected through semi-structured interviews with gallery and preschool staff. In a study involving such young children, the use and juxtaposition of these multiple sources of data was important because it allowed for the inclusion and privileging of the material and non-verbal resources as well as verbal resources that children used as they engaged in practices. Outcomes of this research have been used to illuminate and problematise early childhood as a site for the intersection of multiple communities of practice. Learning to make sense of experience is portrayed as more than language-based 'scaffolding' and the representation of experience through child-centred play activity. The study provides a detailed descriptive account of children's learning and sees it as a fundamentally unpredictable and emergent process. It shows that relations of power are always a part of learning and can be seen through an analysis of the resources available to children, those they took up and were constrained by in the local situation and those they brought from other communities of practice. In this process, the children, as well as their teachers, were active negotiators. They participated in complying with community-constituted views of knowledge as well as shaping, resisting and contesting what counted as knowledge. This study makes a contribution to understanding children's learning in early childhood as fundamentally social, unpredictable, productive and transformative rather than individually constructed, stable, predetermined and representational of experience.

This study examines the linkages between environmental field trips and cognitive and affective gains in two groups of homogenous elementary-aged students in Mollepata, Peru. One group participated in an environmental field trip to a local, non-profit farm (Aprodes) to explore watershed and agricultural issues. The second group received the same content within the classroom setting. The research also examines the environmental perceptions of local residents via semi-formal open-ended interviews to assess their environmental awareness and their willingness to receive environmental education services from an outside organization. Data were collected both quantitatively and qualitatively via pre and post tests containing science content and environmental attitudes items; pre and post student journals and parent and teacher interviews. Data were analyzed within the framework of the United Nation's goals of environmental education in the Belgrade Charter (1975) and within the context of theories on human-nature relationships. Students in the field trip group scored slightly better in the cognitive portion of the tests though differences were not statistically significant. Similarly, slight gains in pro-environment attitudes occurred in the field trip group over the classroom groups though overall results for both groups were nearly identical. Parents and teachers are moderately aware of environmental problems within the town but do not equate agricultural problems of synthetic chemical usage or other agricultural related problems cited to broader watershed issues. They consistently desire for their children to receive advanced educations in the city so that they become better than their parents. Adults interviewed placed a high value on education and claimed to welcome an outside group providing environmental education to the entire community. The data indicates a need for additional environmental knowledge and awareness and that students in rural, Andean settings may benefit from structured classroom lessons paired with experiential experiences outside of the classroom. It is the researcher's firm belief that addressing cognitive and affective growth with regards to environmental education will collectively contribute to developing a world population that is aware and concerned for the environment and the knowledge, skills, attitudes, motivation and commitment to work toward solutions to and prevention of environmental problems.

This diploma thesis serves as a foundation and guide for the pedagogical staff members to improve the teaching of natural science in the field at the first level of elementary schools in the district of Opava. The main aim and output of the thesis was to create a source material for teachers and their practice in preparing of the natural science excursions and walks in the terrain. The thesis is divided into the theoretical and the practical part. The theoretical part deals with the description of the natural phenomenon of the district. It captures the specifics of the area and its landscape potential, it also includes an overview of didactic methods of teaching with use for scientific observation. The most important part consists of a catalog of stations suitable for nature walks and excursions, which should facilitate the search of accessible areas. Each catalog station has a thematic focus, its location and accessibility, brief characteristics and key terms are described. The practical part consists of pedagogical research and didactically compiled suggestions of practical activities serving as a guide for activities with pupils. Part of this is documentation of pedagogical practice during which selected catalog themes were tested. The set of documents for implemented excursions is structured in...