This thesis aims to explore teachers’ and students’ experience and perception of outdoor teaching and learning. Further, it aims to explore influences of outdoor teaching on academic performance in biology and mathematics. The contexts for the thesis are a Swedish high school and Australian environmental education centres. The empirical material comprises student and teacher interviews, and questionnaires and tests answered by students. Theoretical frames of reference are theory of place and three dimensions of learning: content, social and emotional dimensions of learning. The results reveal that the extended physical space had the potential to improve social relations and increase participation, collaboration and on-task communication. However, teachers witnessed a period of up to three months before the students adjusted to outdoor teaching. During that time disciplinary issues were a concern. Teaches’ perceptions were that experience of specific places such as local natural environment was fundamental to forming a sense of belonging and environmental concern. However, teachers described children and students as unfamiliar with local natural environments. Teacher’s perceptions were that media provides knowledge about nature rather than direct experience and children and students were often uncomfortable or afraid in nature. Mathematics followed by language education were the subjects most regularly taught outdoors. Two studies compared classroom education with partly outdoor education in biology and mathematics. Results reveal that students’ performance was equally good, or more developed as a consequence of outdoor teaching. An overarching conclusion is that the possibility to appeal to cognitive, social and emotional dimensions of learning all at the same time has the potential to concretize and broaden the often theoretical approach of high school education, and to contribute to long term episodic memories and a desire to learn. / Denna avhandling syftar till att utforska lärares och elevers erfarenheter av, och uppfattningar om undervisning och lärande utomhus. Vidare syftar den till att undersöka vilken inverkan undervisning utomhus har på elevers resultat i biologi och matematik. Studierna är utförda i en svensk högstadieskola samt vid australiska miljöutbildningscentra. Det empiriska materialet består av elev- och lärarintervjuer samt enkäter och tester besvarade av elever. Det teoretiska ramverket utgår från platsteori samt ett lärandeperspektiv inkluderande tre dimensioner: innehållsliga, sociala och emotionella dimensioner av lärande. Resultaten visar att utemiljöns utvidgade fysiska rum har potential att förändra sociala relationer positivt och leda till ökat deltagande, samarbete, och kommunikation i ämnet  Lärares erfarenhet var dock att det tog upp till tre månader innan eleverna var helt införstådda med utomhusundervisningens innebörd. Under den tiden var oordning i klassen ett hinder. Erfarenhet av specifika platser såsom lokal natur sågs av lärarna som väsentligt för elevernas platstillhörighet och miljöengagemang. Lärare vittnade dock om många elevers främlingskap inför lokala naturmiljöer. Kunskaper om naturen härstammade snarare från media än från egna erfarenheter och eleverna var ofta obekväma eller rädda i naturen. Matematik följt av språk var de ämnen som med störst regelbundenhet undervisades utomhus. I två delstudier jämfördes klassrumsundervisning med undervisning delvis utomhus i biologi och matematik. Resultaten visar på likvärdiga, eller mer utvecklade kunskaper som en följd av utomhusundervisning. En övergripande slutsats är att utomhusundervisningens möjligheter att samtidigt appellera till kognitiva, sociala och emotionella dimensioner av lärande kan konkretisera och vidga högstadieundervisningens teoretiskt inriktade innehåll samt bidra till långlivade episodiska minnen och en lust till lärande.

This research poses two questions: How, through collaboration and thoughtful design practices, can rainwater management systems on school grounds be developed as resources for learning? And, what can these systems contribute to the development of more sustainable urban rainwater management? The research was conducted through a literature review, the analysis of three case studies and a pilot project. The research points to the potential for schools to act as a centralizing figure, enabling a community collaboration to occur, with the aim of implementing shared goals. This process generated knowledge, spread awareness and built relationships among the community. The school’s participation in this process was key to creating place-based, engaging solutions. The rainwater systems must be multi-functional and contribute to the learning environment by building on the school’s educational philosophy. The four projects offer different scenarios for creating rainwater management systems that engage students through both hands-on learning and play. / Graduate / 0390 / orr.cat@gmail.com

This study has been conducted in the context of the master program in Outdoor Environmental Education and Outdoor Life, of Linköping University. It aspires to investigate a specific part of outdoor environments: the schoolyards. Particularly, the aim of the study is to investigate how the use of the school grounds as an educational resource is influenced by their environments -rural or urban. The research compares the school communities’ (principals’, teachers’ and students’) perceptions about the use of their school grounds during the educational process. The research sample consists of 10 Swedish elementary schools, from which the five are in rural and five are in urban environments. The participants are in total 10 principals, 51 teachers and 295 students. Alongside, an observation recorded in a list and photographs enhance the comparison between the rural and urban schools’ infrastructures. From the 1268 photos taken, a selection is included in the study and constitutes the observation part. The study negotiates four controversial issues about school grounds’ capacities: space or place; good or bad; rural or urban; grounds of a school or grounds of a curriculum. The results, after all, reject the contradictions and the sections become respectively: a place for all seasons; neither good nor bad, just unique! ; Ideality stands for ideas; grounds for cooperation. It also becomes visible that even though the analysis of the responses confirms that the urban teachers hold the stereotypical idea that there are differences between rural and urban environments; the infrastructures of both environments do not appear different. However, the teachers’ different opinions and beliefs have a significant impact on the students’ responses. Specifically, significant differences are reported by students which align with the teachers’ differences. The rural and urban principals do not report significant differences, and in the great majority their opinions also align with their teachers’ opinions. Finally, a model which is unfolded through this study has central role, namely the schoolyard circle. This model aims to facilitate a process that I introduce as schoolisization, in which school grounds are used to extend the stereotypical learning environment by adapting the curriculum to a school’s needs. Consequently, the schoolyards’ transformation from a space to our place can be finally proved an outdoor education approach that “bridges contradictions” and promises better educational results.

Thesis (M.Ed. (Education)) - Rhodes University, 2009. / A half-thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education (Environmental Education)

No description available.

The study draws on theories of society, learning, planning and design, democracy, identity formation, and cultural change to inquire into children’s participation in the social sphere. The thesis emerges from the growing literature in the sociological and educational study of childhood, identity, space and culture. A case study approach, using a variety of participatory methods and photographic visual evidence, is employed to investigate the substantive issue of children’s participation in changing their locales in a contemporary Scottish context. Two main cases are narrated: the first concerns primary school children’s experience in participating in changing school grounds throughout Scotland; the second details the experience of one local authority’s efforts to enhance public play provision for children with disabilities. Local socio-cultural / spatial practices used in the construction of children’s participation and their places of learning, work, and play are described. Children are found to be ‘positioned’ between adult desires to increase children’s participation in matters that affect them, while at the same time, adults may wish to protect children from perceived dangers. The context for children’s participation takes cognisance of the influences of schooling, the exclusion of children from the workplace, as well as the influences of technology, the media, and the changes in family make-up. One central finding of the thesis is that children’s experience of participation appeared to be constructed out of ‘essential beliefs’ about the relations between children and adults, the nature of the child and the child’s ‘place’ in society.

The purpose of this creative project was to develop a master plan for an outdoor learning lab for Daleville Elementary School (DES) in Daleville, Indiana. Utilizing a formal design process, including surveys, case study research, and site analysis, the best solution was devised specific to the needs of DES. Along with a design team from Daleville, additional DES faculty responded to a written survey to validate requests for various features. Daleville students participated in a design workshop to express their own ideas for outdoor learning activities and features. A site analysis was conducted on the school grounds utilizing criteria set for features within the design program. Three concepts were generated, leading to the development of the master plan. The research and design process used to create the master plan have provided data suitable for further research and concepts for outdoor learning labs in the elementary school setting. / Department of Landscape Architecture

The goal of this project was to design a masterplan for an outdoor discovery trail on the grounds of the Indiana School for the Blind in Indianapolis, Indiana. The 62 acre site has not been developed for outdoor exploration and is virtually inaccessible due to extreme topographical changes in elevation on the site. Based on guidelines and recommendations recently proposed by the USDA Forest Service and the USDA Park Service for accessibility and interpretation, combined with site research by the author, the masterplan was conscientiously developed. The trail integrates the unique historic background of the site with the sites' diverse, natural features to create a handicapped accessible trail that is an educational and recreational experience for the Indiana School for the Blind campus community. / Department of Landscape Architecture

Skolgården är en institutionell miljö med normer och regler som de flesta barn och ungdomar vistas i dagligen, då obligatorisk skolgång gäller i Sverige. Skolgårdsmiljöerna utgör del i infrastrukturen av lärandemiljöer utomhus som förekommer i barns och ungas vardag, och förknippas ofta med elevers rastaktiviteter och paus från undervisningen inomhus. Det har dock i mindre utsträckning bedrivits empirisk forskning om skolgården som socialt såväl som pedagogiskt rum och dess betydelse för elevers lärande kopplat till lokalsamhället. Vi avser att med denna studie bidra med kunskap till detta område genom att undersöka hur skolgårdar är utformade och huruvida skolgården tillsammans med det omgivande landskapet skapar förutsättningar för elevers lek och rörelse och för pedagogisk verksamhet, som exempelvis undervisning i växt- och matodling och naturmiljö. Studiens fokus riktas till undersökning av skolgårdars fysiska och materiella utformning. Datainsamling har skett genom observationstillfällen på sex geografiskt spridda grundskolegårdar i Uppsala kommun, innerstad, förort såväl som landsbygd. Bearbetningen av data skedde genom analysprotokoll utifrån en teoretisk tematisering samt bearbetning av fotografier tagna på skolgårdarna. Studiens resultat visade på vissa institutionaliserade värden om vad som ska ske på skolgården – friytor, fysisk aktivitet, sitt- och samlingsplatser, samt ytor för sportaktiviteter. Växtlighet och naturmiljöer var framträdande i varierande grad, och kunde utgöra olika funktioner i respektive skolgårdsrum, som avgränsningar mellan stadier, prydnader eller inramning av skolgården. Ingen av de undersökta skolgårdarna var belägna i naturmiljöer såsom skogsdungar, utan var byggda på utgrävda fundament och konstgjorda terränger, vissa kuperade och med konstgräs. I de fall där det fanns naturmiljöer i närheten fanns det tydliga avgränsningar mellan skolgård och naturmiljö. Vidare var endast en av de undersökta skolgårdarna som på skolgården verkade bedriva skolodlingsprojekt. / School grounds are institutional milieu with certain norms and rules and that most children and youth meet daily, due to mandatory schooling in Sweden. School ground environments are part of children’s and youth spaces of learning environments that occur in everyday life. The aim of this this study is to contribute with knowledge about the school grounds as social and pedagogical space and the school grounds potential to contribute to student learning connected to local community. This we intend by researching how school grounds are designed and how their potential institutional conditionings may convey values of play, physical activity and teaching. This includes pedagogical practices in natural environments as well as plant and food gardening. The focus of the study is directed toward the physical conditions and designs of school grounds, and not students’ interactions with the school grounds. The collection of data was managed through observations studies in six geographically scattered school grounds in the municipality of Uppsala, urban, suburban as well as rural. The processing of data was managed by an analysis protocol created by the theoretical framework of the study, which include aspects of play, physical activity and teaching, and of analysis of photos taken at the school grounds visited for this study. The results of the study showed some institutionalized values on what activities should take place in the school grounds – open spaces of asphalt, physical activity in sport areas were represented, but there were few open spaced with surrounding natural environment such as shrubbery or groves. Natural environments occurred with varying functions – as boundaries between areas intended for students with different ages, as ornaments, or framing of the school grounds facing the surroundings. None of the school grounds observed hade natural environments inside them, as they were built upon artificially made terrain, for example hills and grass. In the school grounds that had natural environments in their proximity, there were clear boundaries made by fences of different sorts. Furthermore there was only one of the observed school grounds that seemed to be conducting outdoor education in terms of gardening.

No description available.