As past research has found benefits of outdoor education and the current global society is facing a decline in access to beneficial natural spaces due to urbanization (Keniger, Gaston, Irvine & Fuller 2013), the aim of this master thesis research project was to explore the idea of an Outdoor Primary School, a way to provide children the access to beneficial natural spaces. In order to explore this idea, Professional Outdoor Educators (n= 61) were interviewed and asked to fill out a survey about the following aspects: outdoor and indoor spaces, learning activities, curriculum and challenges related to an Outdoor Primary School. There was a wide range of results showing that an Outdoor Primary School is a way to incorporate beneficial ways of learning, such as project-based learning, experience-based and practical learning, social learning, play and student-centered learning in formal schooling. Including learning content and activities that can aid children’s development such as food, animals and sustainability is also possible in an Outdoor Primary School as shown below. Furthermore, an Outdoor Primary School is an institution that can be equipped with beneficial learning environments, such as natural environments, a vast space, spaces for cooking, growing food and keeping animals, quiet zones, play zones and opportunities for creating, building and crafts. These results go in line with previous research about Outdoor Education and related fields, suggesting that an Outdoor Primary School both holds challenges but also is a possible model to bring together many beneficial ways of learning that are already being practiced today.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:liu-157461 |
| Date | January 2019 |
| Creators | Drexler, Stina |
| Publisher | Linköpings universitet, Pedagogik och didaktik |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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