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Utomhusundervisning i NO-ämnena / Outdoor education in science

Aims: The topic of the knowledge review that has been carried out is outdoor learning. The purpose of this study is to examine what possibilities are created for students' learning and well-being by conducting teaching in the natural sciences and in outdoor environments.   Method: The study was limited to a consideration of research articles and literature. This meant that our search for literature was limited to peer-reviewed material, a term that refers to the fact that it has undergone scrutiny from fellow researchers and experts, resulting in a form of quality control before publication. We made use of different searches and key words in several databases, including Libsearch, Google Scholar, and Swepub, and also conducted some searches in the city library of Lund (Stadsbiblioteket). Using a total of 13 sources, we then compiled the information and selected the material that pertained to our area of interest, and that would help us answer our research question. In the search process we made use of Jarl Backman (2016), who gave us useful search methods and tips that helped us commence the process in a good way.    Results: One of the problems we faced was that there were many articles that had been published but the full text versions were missing, which made us unable to use them. This meant that the number of articles that we could include was limited. Through our search process, we noticed that there is a lack of Swedish research in the subject area of outdoor learning. Still, the results show that there is a focus on both students' health and learning within this area of research. Through our readings, we were able to conclude that outdoor learning has a number of positive effects on students' learning and general development in all subjects. However, the research also suggests that there is a general lack of outdoor learning, because of teachers' lack of knowledge in how to conduct it. Other reasons include lack of activities within the different subjects, which make them unsuitable to be conducted outside, or that the school does not have the environment required to make outdoor learning possible.   Discussion: Numerous different researchers within the sources we selected pointed to the importance of outdoor learning as a teaching method in school. However, to achieve the best results, there is a need to alternate between indoor and outdoor learning. Through alternating between the two, students are able to consolidate the knowledge that they had acquired in the classroom. Outdoor learning had a positive effect on the students' results. Additionally, it increases participation and interaction between the students. Because outdoor learning facilitates the students' use of their different senses, it results in better knowledge retention than teaching that is conducted indoors. This also has to do with the fact that students are more restricted in the classroom.   Conclusion: The conclusion we arrived at was that outdoor learning has positive effects on students' learning, performance, results, and health, but also participation. The results show that the teachers who have tried outdoor learning have gotten more positive effects from outdoor learning than from teaching indoors.   Due to the limited time of ten weeks, we chose not to focus on the potential effects that outdoor learning may have on students with neuropsychiatric disorders.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:mau-50032
Date January 2022
CreatorsAlsefi, Haneen, Hultqvist, Emma
PublisherMalmö universitet, Fakulteten för lärande och samhälle (LS)
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageSwedish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

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