The majority of research in environmental education (EE) has focused on
measuring knowledge, attitudes, and behavior using quantitative tools and methods. Few
studies have attempted to elicit and characterize children's conceptions of the
environment or nature, particularly those resulting from a residential EE experience,
which contextualize knowledge, attitudes, and may be used to predict behaviors.
Therefore little is known about how physical, socio-cultural, and personal dimensions are
reflected in conceptual learning in the context of a guided outdoor program. This study
begins to address this relative knowledge void by employing qualitative and
phenomenological methods in a grounded theory approach. Interviews, writings and
drawings on the topic of nature were collected from 5th grade students before and after a
three-day residential outdoor school program conducted on the Oregon coast. Students'
responses were analyzed in terms of breadth and depth of their nature conceptions.
Individual students' additions to the emergent categories of breadth, including new
organisms, habitats, processes, and non-living things, were used to measure change in the
breadth of students' nature concepts. Change in depth of students' nature concepts was
measured by means of emergent hierarchical typologies representing ideas included in
students' understanding of nature. Factors affecting students' learning, including the
themes students use to frame their interpretations of nature, emergent misconceptions,
references to TV and books, students' interest, and weather, are discussed in terms of
their impact on the breadth and depth of students' nature conceptions. Findings indicate
almost universal gains in breadth and modest gains in depth of students' nature concepts.
Children's preconceived ideas about nature, particularly an idealized view in which
nature is seen as the opposite of human environments, appear to play an important role in
learning. / Graduation date: 2006
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/29434 |
| Date | 09 June 2005 |
| Creators | Rebar, Bryan M. |
| Contributors | Enochs, Larry G. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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