What Role Does Motivation and Engagement in Garden-Based Education Play for Science Learning in At-Risk Middle School Students? A Self-Determination Theory Perspective

Abstract

The goal of this chapter is to explore how a motivational model based on self-determination theory can be used as a guide for specifying some of the elements of garden-based education necessary to promote science learning and achievement. This model posits that students’ intrinsic motivation and constructive engagement with garden-based activities are “active ingredients” in their learning, and that programs will succeed in fostering motivation and engagement to the extent that they support key student experiences in the gardens, including feelings of belonging and self-efficacy, and a sense of purpose and ownership for garden-based activities and outcomes. The utility of this framework is illustrated with research from an interdisciplinary collaboration organized around the Learning Gardens Laboratory (LGLab), a garden-based education program grounded in sustainability pedagogy and carried out in cooperation with a middle school serving mostly low-income, minority, and immigrant youth. Analyses of information from 310 sixth and seventh grade students, their 6 Science teachers, and school records collected at multiple time points during the year suggested that, consistent with the motivational model, students’ engagement in garden-based activities predicts improvements across the school year in their science learning in the garden and achievement in science and other core subjects taught in the garden (math and social studies). Moreover, one way in which students’ garden engagement contributes to improvements in learning and achievement is by boosting their engagement in science class. Different patterns of meditational effects were found depending on the target outcome. For science learning in the garden, engagement in the garden and in science class both make unique contributions; for science achievement, the effects of garden engagement are fully mediated by science engagement; and for core achievement, garden engagement contributes to achievement not only directly, but also indirectly – by shaping students’ subsequent engagement in science class. Discussion centers on how this framework can be used to enrich current garden-based education programs as well as to guide future research, including the selection of measures, the generation of motivational hypotheses, and the use of longitudinal designs to study key processes of engagement and learning in the gardens and in science class.