Abstract
Outdoor education stands out as one of the methods to deliver the desired educational outcomes taking the needs of the students, teachers and the curricular objectives into consideration. Outdoor education focuses on experimental, hands-on learning in real-life environments through senses, e.g., through visual, auditory, and tactile means, improving students' learning and retention of knowledge as a result. Appropriate sites outside of the classroom and school environment are chosen as the setting for outdoor education. Students are assessed over their performances related to the experiments and applications via observations and reports. Generally speaking, outdoor education is not common in Turkey, whereas in specific, at the elementary level, outdoor education seems to be limited to certain social activities and field trips rendered within the scope of student clubs. As Pedretti (1) et al. concluded in their study, the efficiency of outdoor education depends on the teachers. Based on the said study, teachers should be allowed to collaborate with their colleagues to analyze existing outdoor education programs and develop programs of their own. On the other hand, only teachers that are aware of outdoor education ask for such opportunities from the administrative bodies. Therefore, in this study, Turkish classroom teachers' current awareness and perspectives on outdoor education were assessed via descriptive analysis. The specific study group chosen for the study consisted of the classroom teachers working in Sahinbey County of Gaziantep Province. As for collection of the relevant qualitative data, participants were interviewed using a semi-structured interviewing form.
Highlights
Education is defined as the process to change one’s attitude in an intended direction through one’s own experience or one’s life [2]
Major themes designated as a result of pre-evaluation of the answers provided for the semi-structured interview questions were determined as the teachers’ levels of knowledge regarding outdoor education; teachers’ perspectives of outdoor education in terms of activities rendered; ways of implementing outdoor education that the teachers currently employ; reasons for not employing outdoor education as a teaching technique; contexts of teachers witnessing outdoor education activities rendered; and limitations on employing outdoor education activities; respectively
In the light of the collected data, teachers’ levels of knowledge about outdoor education have been investigated and answer to the question, “what does outdoor education mean for the teachers?” has been sought for
Summary
Education is defined as the process to change one’s attitude in an intended direction through one’s own experience or one’s life [2]. Outdoor education is defined as a method of experimental learning through all senses via exposure to natural environment [3,4]. Children have the chance through outdoor education to learn through their senses in a relaxed environment. Smith suggested that the outdoor education provides the best learning environment [7]. In this regard, many countries in the world have established centers and institutions for outdoor education. Turkish government went through a major revision in its educational program in 2005 as many other countries in the world did [8] Nations expect of their young generation to think creatively and critically forming a contemporary community. Individuals that will form such communities should be aware of what is going on in their surroundings and outdoor education stands out as one of the promising methods to make that happen as Smith points out [9]
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