School Gardens Research Articles

Informing Diet and Physical Activity Interventions with Family Involvement in an Urban Setting: Views of Children and Adults in Lagos, Nigeria

There is limited evidence on diet and physical activity (PA) interventions to prevent childhood over- and under-nutrition in Nigeria, particularly those with parental involvement. The aim of this qualitative cross-sectional study was to explore parents’, children’s, and other stakeholders’ views on what might enable or hinder participation in diet and PA interventions with parental involvement, and potential intervention components likely to be feasible and acceptable. The study took place in Lagos State, Nigeria. Sixteen boys and girls aged 8–11 years in four participating schools were involved in the study. In addition, women (n = 19) and men (n = 13) aged 18–60 years took part. These included parents, teachers, school heads, community leaders, health professionals, and health or education civil servants, recruited via the participating schools, community and professional links. Data were collected in schools, homes, and places of work via one-to-one interviews and focus groups, audio-recorded with participants’ consent. Topics included knowledge about a balanced diet and active living; frequency of exercise and barriers and facilitators of participation; and ideas for fostering good diet and physical activity habits. Socio-demographic data were collected orally at the start of each discussion. Thematic analysis of verbatim transcripts of the recordings was conducted. Three overarching themes were identified: (1) Active community collaboration; (2) strategies for involving families; and (3) schools as key settings for interventions. The main barriers to participation in potential interventions included poor access to clean water, safe outdoor play space, and menstrual hygiene products. Suggested solutions included increased security, infrastructure improvements using recycled materials, school gardening, and health campaigns funded by local dignitaries. Health literacy education for parents, tailored to local dialects, was considered an important potential intervention component that would engage families. The feasibility and acceptability of grassroots suggestions for intervention components and parental involvement could usefully be explored in future pilot studies.

The LSU AgCenter Healthy Communities Initiative: Community-Participatory Policy, Systems, and Environmental Change

The LSU AgCenter Healthy Communities Initiative: Community-Participatory Policy, Systems, and Environmental Change

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A TEACHING SCENARIO FOR PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS ON CREATING A SCHOOL GARDEN USING INQUIRY METHOD

This paper analyses the design and implementation of a teaching scenario for the creation of a school garden using the inquiry method. It was implemented by students aged 6 to 12 years old at the 9th Primary School of Intercultural Education in Ioannina (Greece) during the teaching period: from September 2018 to June 2019. The main purpose of the implementation of the teaching scenario is the creation of the school garden - through a field of practical daily teaching and learning activities and through the inquiry approach - to form a culture among the students about sustainability and sustainable development. All students in the school - native, foreign, Roma, students with special educational needs - in the context of inclusive education are involved in the learning process with specific strategies such as group work, research work projects (project method), learning by experiment, learning with digital and collaborative learning tools, field research. Finally, through the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and in combination with playful activities, cooperation on the topic under study is sought between groups, classes, schools, and institutions within and outside the Region of Epirus (Greece).<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0007/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

An Action Research on Improving Environmental Sensitivity of Fourth Grade Primary School Students: What Happens in the School Garden?

School gardens, which play an important role in environmental education, provide an opportunity for students to develop environmental awareness and gain environmental responsibility. In this study, which draws attention to this, it is aimed to reveal the applicability of the workshops prepared in the school garden in order to improve the environmental sensitivity of the students. The research was carried out with 10 female and 10 male 4th grade students in a public primary school in the city center of Bartin in the 2021-2022 academic year. The research was carried out with the action research design, one of the qualitative research methods. The data of the research were obtained through a scale developed by Peker (2020) and a semi-structured interview form prepared by the researchers. Quantitative data obtained using descriptive statistics and dependent group t-test statistical procedures; qualitative data were analyzed with content analysis technique. As a result of the research, it has been determined that environmental education workshops are effective in increasing students’ environmental awareness. Students stated that environmental education activities are fun, useful and instructive. As a result, it is seen that the workshops applied in the school garden increase the environmental awareness of the 4th grade students and the process has a positive effect on them. As a result of the research, it can be suggested that environmental awareness should be brought to students through school gardens and reflected in educational environments by organizing various activities that encourage positive attitudes.

Assessing the impact of parental involvement on scaling agricultural technologies from school garden to home farm in Cambodia

Cambodia is a predominantly rural nation with a heavy dependence on agriculture, particularly smallholder rice farming systems. While several sustainable agricultural technologies have been suc­cessfully piloted on research stations or with small numbers of early adopters, questions remain on how to extend these technologies to large numbers of resource-poor smallholder farmers. The Scaling Suitable Sustainable Technologies Project (S3-Cambodia) seeks to examine pathways for scaling sustainable intensification (SI) technologies to smallholder farmers. One of the identified path­ways to scaling SI is through the education system. Cambodian youth serve as an entry point to extend target technologies to farm families through experi­ential learning opportunities in schools by estab­lishing “green labs” featuring school gardens. This research study seeks to support the desired outcomes of the S3-Cambodia project by assessing Cambodian parental involvement in their children’s lives and school activities. While students can serve as agricultural education sources for their homes and communities, there is a need to deter­mine whether relationships between children, par­ents, and schools in Cambodia are strong enough to facilitate this knowledge transfer. Primary data was collected from 178 parents whose children attend three separate high schools in three districts of Cambodia through one-on-one orally conducted surveys. These were supplemented by key inform­ant interviews of selected parents, teachers, and principals at each high school. Results indicate that parents have a strong interest in school garden implementation and activities at their children’s school, with 84% of parents interested in visiting a school garden. Additionally, the majority believe that they can learn from their children (65%) and actively discuss with their children what they are learning at school (72%), indicating a potentially significant likelihood of knowledge transfer from a school garden. Yet, parents’ involvement in their children’s schools and lives varies between regions, with the rurality of the households influencing family social ties and homes’ proximity to the school.

How learning gardens foster well-being and development through the promotion of purposeful play in early childhood and beyond

ABSTRACT Play is essential to learning and development in the early childhood years. Young children experiment with new skills through play, which supports the development of new competencies and furthers cognitive development. Nontraditional learning spaces such as teaching and learning gardens provide excellent opportunities for children to engage in purposeful play that supports their well-being, cognitive and identity development, and promotes positive emotional experiences. Self-determination theory, cognitive psychology, and developmental psychology offer useful frameworks for understanding how play in school gardens can improve motivation and promote meaningful learning in the early childhood years and beyond. Benefits reported in the literature of incorporating school gardens into teaching and learning experiences include opportunities for learners to satisfy the basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness, increased positive emotions, opportunities to renew cognitive and emotional energies, and tangible evidence of efforts linked to initiative and industry of students who care for plants and animals in the garden. Recommendations include long-term planning for funding school garden programs and supporting teachers in incorporating purposeful play in the garden into learning.

윤치호의 개성 한영서원 정원 계획†

The purpose of this study is to clarify the background of the plans and the spatial characteristics of the garden at the Anglo-Korean School, an educational institution established in Gaeseong in 1906 by Yun Chi-ho and the American Methodist Church. The time scope of the study is from 1906, when the school was opened, to the early 1920s, when the basic building structure of the school was completed. The spatial scope is the school complex, located in Gaeseong, and its affiliated facilities. The contents of the study include the planning background and purpose, spatial layout, and plants used in the school garden. This study reviewed Yun Ch’i-ho’s papers and Warren A. Candler’s papers at Emory University, documents, photos, and maps produced in the early 20th century. The results show that the school garden was first mentioned at the school’s opening and that with a strong will, Yun Chi-ho insisted on establishing a school garden. The garden was located around the engineering department building and was divided into several sections and lots. Economic plants, such as fruit trees, comprised the garden and were sourced from the Methodist Church of the South, USA. This study reveals that the garden at the Anglo-Korean School functioned as a training ground for agriculture and horticulture education and was differentiated from Seowon, a traditional Korean academy that symbolically spaced Neo-Confucianism and that emphasized the views of the surrounding nature during the Joseon Dynasty.

Effects of a School-Based Garden Program on Academic Performance: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial.

School gardening programs have consistently been found to improve dietary behaviors in children. Although several quasi-experimental studies have also reported that school gardens can enhance academic performance, to date, no randomized controlled trial has been conducted to substantiate this. The objective of the study was to examine the effects of Texas Sprouts (TX Sprouts), a gardening, nutrition, and cooking program vs control on academic performance in primarily low-income, Hispanic children. This is a secondary analysis of the grade-level academic scores from schools that participated in the TX Sprouts program, a school-based cluster randomized controlled trial, consisting of 16 elementary schools that were randomly assigned to either the TX Sprouts intervention (n= 8 schools) or control (delayed intervention; n= 8 schools). Analysis included 16 schools with students in fourth and fifth grade in Austin, TX from 2016 to 2019 that had a majority Hispanic population and a majority of children participating in the free and reduced lunch program. The intervention consisted of 18 one-hour gardening, nutrition, and cooking lessons taught in an outdoor teaching garden by trained educators throughout the academic year. Texas Education Agency grade-level data for the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness were obtained via the Texas Education Agency website for the corresponding year of the intervention or control condition. Repeated measures general linear models with pre- and post-intervention State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness scores as the dependent variable were run, adjusting for the percent of free and reduced lunch and school district as covariates. Schools that received the TX Sprouts intervention had a 6.5-percentage-point increase in fourth-grade reading State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness scores compared with control schools (P= .047). There were no significant differences in reading scores for fifth grade students or math scores for either fourth- or fifth-grade students between groups. Study findings provide evidence that school gardening programs may have some modest effects on academic achievement.

시각적 지원을 적용한 학교텃밭 프로그램이 통합학급 학생들의 또래 관계와 자폐성 장애학생의 사회적 행동에 미치는 영향

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect a school gardening program can have on peer relations in an inclusive classroom, as well as investigate the effect of visual supports in the gardening program on the social behaviors of a student with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Participants included 16 6th-graders from a rural area in Gyeonggi-do, one of which was a student with ASD. A single-group pretest-posttest design was used to evaluate the effect of the school gardening program on peer relations of the class. Additionally, a multiple baseline design across behaviors was used to evaluate the effect the visual supports in the school gardening program had on the social behavior of the student with ASD. The results were as follows. First, peer relations improved through the program. Second, visual supports in the program greatly improved the social behaviors of the student with ASD. Third, the improved social behaviors of the student with ASD was generalized in art activities immediately after the withdrawal of the intervention. Fourth, the improved social behaviors of the student with ASD were maintained three weeks after withdrawal of the intervention. This study is meaningful in that it used the school gardening program to improve students’ peer relations in the inclusive classroom, which has been static for nearly six years in both peer relations and class member changes. It is also significant that multiple visual supports for the student with ASD improved social behaviors.

Investigation of the Effects of School Gardens on Education in Terms of Various Variables

Investigation of the Effects of School Gardens on Education in Terms of Various Variables

Investigation of the Effects of School Gardens on Education in Terms of Various Variables

Investigation of the Effects of School Gardens on Education in Terms of Various Variables

Bibliometric Mapping of School Garden Studies: A Thematic Trends Analysis

This paper analyzes the thematic trends in school garden studies over the past few decades, using a relational bibliometric methodology on a corpus of 392 articles and review articles indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection. The paper seeks to understand how researchers have studied the concept over the last few decades in various disciplines, spanning approximately eighty Web of Science categories. The results show that there is a critical mass of scientific research studying school gardens. The analysis shows the thematic trends in discussion journals, discussion terminology, and consolidates classic papers and some novel authors and papers. The studies and their theoretical trends lead to refocusing the analysis on the effects of school gardens beyond the educational, thanks to the contribution of authors from more than fifty countries engaged in the study of these activities. This work constitutes new challenges for this line of research, raising interdisciplinary research challenges between horticultural, environmental, technological, educational, social, food, nutritional, and health sciences.

Identifying positive and negative deviants and factors associated with healthy dietary practices among young schoolchildren in Nepal: a mixed methods study

BackgroundSchool-based interventions have been implemented in resource-limited settings to promote healthy dietary habits, but their sustainability remains a challenge. This study identified positive deviants (PDs) and negative deviants (NDs) from the control and treatment groups in a nutrition-sensitive agricultural intervention in Nepal to identify factors associated with healthy dietary practices.MethodsThis is an explanatory mixed methods study. Quantitative data come from the endline survey of a cluster randomized controlled trial of a school and home garden intervention in Nepal. Data were analyzed from 332 and 317 schoolchildren (grades 4 and 5) in the control and treatment group, respectively. From the control group, PDs were identified as schoolchildren with a minimum dietary diversity score (DDS) ≥ 4 and coming from low wealth index households. From the treatment group, NDs were identified as schoolchildren with a DDS < 4 and coming from high wealth index households. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify factors associated with PDs and NDs. Qualitative data were collected through in-depth phone interviews with nine pairs of parents and schoolchildren in each PD and ND group. Qualitative data were analyzed thematically and integrated with quantitative data in the analysis.ResultsTwenty-three schoolchildren were identified as PDs, and 73 schoolchildren as NDs. Schoolchildren eating more frequently a day (AOR = 2.25; 95% CI:1.07–5.68) and whose parents had a higher agricultural knowledge level (AOR = 1.62; 95% CI:1.11–2.34) were more likely to be PDs. On the other hand, schoolchildren who consumed diverse types of vegetables (AOR = 0.56; 95% CI: 0.38–0.81), whose parents had higher vegetable preference (AOR = 0.72; 95% CI: 0.53–0.97) and bought food more often (AOR = 0.71; 95% CI: 0.56–0.88) were less likely to be NDs. Yet, schoolchildren from households with a grandmother (AOR = 1.98; 95% CI: 1.03–3.81) were more likely to be NDs. Integrated results identified four themes that influenced schoolchildren’s DDS: the availability of diverse food, the involvement of children in meal preparation, parental procedural knowledge, and the grandmother’s presence.ConclusionHealthy dietary habit can be promoted among schoolchildren in Nepal by encouraging parents to involve their children in meal preparation and increasing the awareness of family members.

The Effects of Out-Of-Class Learning on Students' Interest in Science and Scientific Attitudes: The Case of School Garden

This study aims to reveal the effects of out-of-class learning activities conducted in the school garden on students’ interest in science and their scientific attitudes. Research designed as a pretest-posttest control group quasi-experimental design of quantitative research methods. The research group of the study consists of 37, 7th grade students enrolled in a public school in Turkiye. Reproduction, growth and development in plants were conducted through school garden-based science activities for seven weeks. The research data were collected using Science Interest Scale and Scientific Attitude Scale. The study findings showed that garden-based activities have a moderate and close to moderate effect on students’ interests in science and scientific attitudes. As per these findings, we can say that school gardens are out-of-class learning environments that can be used to help increase students’ interest and attitudes toward science.

School Gardening and Health and Well-Being of School-Aged Children: A Realist Synthesis

School environments can create healthy settings to foster children's health and well-being. School gardening is gaining popularity as an intervention for healthier eating and increased physical activity. We used a systematic realist approach to investigate how school gardens improve health and well-being outcomes for school-aged children, why, and in what circumstances. The context and mechanisms of the specific school gardening interventions (n = 24) leading to positive health and well-being outcomes for school-aged children were assessed. The impetus of many interventions was to increase fruit and vegetable intake and address the prevention of childhood obesity. Most interventions were conducted at primary schools with participating children in Grades 2 through 6. Types of positive outcomes included increased fruit and vegetable consumption, dietary fiber and vitamins A and C, improved body mass index, and improved well-being of children. Key mechanisms included embedding nutrition-based and garden-based education in the curriculum; experiential learning opportunities; family engagement and participation; authority figure engagement; cultural context; use of multi-prong approaches; and reinforcement of activities during implementation. This review shows that a combination of mechanisms works mutually through school gardening programs leading to improved health and well-being outcomes for school-aged children.

Culturally based learning needs of Korowai students in a lowland-remote area of Indonesian Papua: school physical environment and building design

AbstractThis study explored the culturally based learning needs of Korowai students living in a lowland-remote area in Papua to address the question of how education in this part of Indonesia could be inclusive and engaging for indigenous students and their community. Case study was selected as it has potential to reveal detailed structured information and in-depth description of people and their experiences within a particular location, time and socio-political circumstance. The case study school was purposively chosen, due to its uniqueness of being situated in a remote, hunter-gatherer community that only recently began to modernise. School physical environment and building design was one of the identified themes that emerged in the case study school. This theme included some sub-themes, namely (1) the school building design, (2) forest as the school’s physical environment, and (3) school garden and animal husbandry. The Korowai students brought social and cultural capital and expectations to their local school that differed from those of traditional Indonesian school expectations and presented different learning needs. How the local school and teachers responded to these varied expectations and learning needs also differed and revealed further needs for differentiation in education. These points of differentiation include needs in their physical environment: to build some classrooms in the style of Korowai treehouse dwellings and to replant forest and food trees close to the school to provide students with a sense of cultural connection and school belonging.

Characteristics and Roles of School Gardens in Urban Areas of Japan: Perspective of School Managers

Children spend most of their time at school; thus, agricultural experiences (AEs) in school gardens through school organizations are important for children to remain connected to agriculture and nature. Although various studies confirm the tremendous benefits of school gardens, the lack of studies on the characteristics of school gardens and the factors that influence the effectiveness of their AEs is telling. In this study, a questionnaire was developed and sent to the school garden managers of the public elementary schools in an urban area in Japan to analyze the characteristics of school garden and their influencing factors through descriptive analysis and inferential statistics. The results identified the location effects on the type of school gardens: school gardens inside the school are better able to ensure the safety of children but have less connection with the community; school farms outside the school are better able to ensure a place for children to have AEs; schools with both a school garden and farm have a stronger connection to the community than those with only school gardens, however, safety is decreased. In addition, the lack of budget, teachers, supportive policies, and motivation among school garden managers in operating school gardens was noted. Therefore, ensuring government support, coordinating the time of school garden managers, and strengthening the connection and cooperation between elementary schools and local communities are primary issues for consideration in the future.

Discuss the Countermeasures and Measures of Developing Yunnan Garden in Southwest China - Take the Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, for Example

Located in the Himalayan south extension of Yunnan garden has its specificity, because the element is very rich, tiancheng natural endowment objectively has "cast" the vivid "Chinese ink painting", "step for the scene, turned into", in the carved, in "painting" in "Yunnan garden", perfecting the connotation and extension creation process, is an economic phenomenon, also belongs to the cultural category, is the crystallization of collective wisdom in Yunnan, is constructing "Yunnan garden" system. It has been nearly 10 years since the end of 1990s. Over the past 10 years, relying on its own resource endowment, making use of the market and combining with the growing needs of Yunnan people for a "better life", Yunnan has created a unique "Yunnan School Garden". The 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 15) will be held in Kunming, China on October 11-24,2021, aiming to "formulate the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework". The conference is in line with the concept of "clear waters and green mountains are gold and silver mountains" under construction in China. Dian-style gardens practice biodiversity. On the occasion of the meeting, on the basis of analyzing the resource endowment of Yunnan province, this paper traces the growth process of "Yunnan School Garden" and puts forward the countermeasures and measures for development, which has far-reaching practical significance.

Examining level of school garden integration among Georgia elementary agricultural education teachers

This study used the GREEN (Garden Resources, Education, and Environment Nexus) tool to examine the level of school garden integration in elementary agricultural teachers’ classrooms. The tool describes the 19 necessary components (e,g., organizational support, garden space) for gardens to become integrated within the school. This study utilized mixed methods with a concurrent triangulation design based on quantitative data obtained from an online questionnaire and qualitative data collected from focus groups. The findings were used to validate the findings produced by the other method. The population consisted of elementary agriculture teachers in Georgia. Though a definitive model does not yet exist for elementary agriculture education, it was clear that teachers rely on hands-on, experiential teaching activities such as garden maintenance tasks and taste tests. Teachers struggle most with volunteer and parent involvement and social events in the garden, largely because of the lasting impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Future research should consider how the results of the GREEN tool can shape professional development topics and help teachers set goals to improve their garden’s level of integration. Research should also examine how COVID-19 impacted school garden programs.

Stingless bee keeping: Biocultural conservation and agroecological education

IntroductionStingless bee breeding, also called Meliponiculture, has existed for thousands of years in Mesoamerica among a variety of rural and indigenous cultures. Due to its biocultural importance, it represents a perfect device for agroecological education and scaling, as well as pollinator conservation. At the same time, promoting agroecological transitions are necessary for conserving the cultural heritage that meliponicultures represent.MethodsWe organized a series of activities based on this premise: documenting and dialoguing “saberes contemporáneos” (contemporary knowledges), design and implementation of community agroecological workshops, guided visits at the institutional Meliponary at ECOSUR Villahermosa and promotion of agroecological and biocultural school gardens, all in Tabasco, México. We used “diálogo de saberes” (knowledge dialogues) as a methodological approach, promoting respect for the contribution of the diversity of ontoepistemologies involved. We drew on the ideas of several pedagogues, mainly from popular education and critical pedagogy frameworks.Results and discussionWe identified characteristics of stingless bees and meliponicultures that make them excellent mediators for biocultural conservation and agroecological education: the complex, deep and beautiful relation between humans and bees; meliponiculture's ecological and cultural importance; stingless bees as pollinators par excellence, landscape connectors, and charismatic species; the association of bees with values around work and community; meliponicultures' symbolic relevance and emotional significance; meliponicultures as promoters of intergenerational dialogue; bee keeping as an activity of caring for the continuity of life; sensory stimulation through contact with colonies; learning through doing in the practice of beekeeping; meliponicultures as an activity requiring skill but no special equipment; and meliponiculture's productive potential. This confluence of teaching-learning opportunities, cultural and moral values, care for the land and biocultural diversity, and economic potential makes meliponiculture a potent catalyst for agroecological learning and transitions.