‘Risky fun’ or ‘Authentic science’? How teachers’ beliefs influence their practice during a professional development programme on outdoor learning

Abstract

Teaching outdoors has been established as an important pedagogical strategy, however science classes rarely take place outside. Previous research has identified characteristics of teachers who have integrated out-of-classroom opportunities into their teaching repertoire, yet little is understood as to why teachers make these different pedagogical decisions. This paper explores the relationship between secondary science teachers' beliefs and their pedagogical practice during a two-year professional development programme associated with the 'Thinking Beyond the Classroom' project. Using data from lesson observations, interviews, session questionnaires and field notes, six teacher case studies were developed from participants completing the programme. Data analysis reveals that teachers who successfully taught outside generally held social constructivist beliefs about learning and valued 'authentic' science opportunities. Conversely, teachers who were less successful in teaching outside generally held traditional learning beliefs and simply valued the outdoors for the novelty and potential for fun. All the case study teachers were concerned about managing student learning outside, and for the majority, their concerns influenced their subsequent pedagogical practice. The findings are discussed in detail, as are the implications for pre-service and in-service professional development programmes related to outdoor science learning.3

Teaching and Learning Science Outdoors in Schools’ Immediate Surroundings at K-12 Levels: A Meta-Synthesis

“…Numerous challenges to outdoor science teaching were indeed identified as specific to these levels, but ways to overcome them unfortunately remain largely unclear. As Glackin (2016) suggested, such research studies might be crucial in the development of effective training programs for pre-service and in-service teachers.…”

“…For example, scientists need to go outside in order to study habitats, the effects of changing seasons on plants, or the effects of urban heat islands on human health. Paradoxically, science education at school generally happens indoors; it is only on rare occasions that it unfolds outside (Glackin, 2013(Glackin, , 2016Rickinson et al, 2004). This might at least partly explain why many authors claim that more connections with real-life settings should be established to counterbalance the frequently reported and denounced lack of authenticity at school (Bencze & Hodson, 1999;Braund & Reiss, 2006;Fägerstam, 2014;Gafoor & Narayan, 2012;Krapp & Prenzel, 2011;Potvin, & Hasni 2014;Rivet & Krajcik, 2008;Smith, 2013;Tal, Alon, & Morag, 2014).…”

Teachers’ self-efficacy: progressing qualitative analysis

“…Furthermore, teachers who are reported to have high teacher self-efficacy use a variety of teaching methods (Cantrell & Callaway 2008), are less reliant on curriculum guides and emphasise cross-curriculum links during teaching (De Laat & Watters 1995). Such teachers often emphasise problem-solving and logical thinking through 'real life' 4 examples valuing the 'unique' opportunities for student autonomy rather than viewing real life example solely as fun (Czerniak & Schriver 1994;De Laat & Watters 1995;Glackin 2016).…”

“…See Glackin (2016) for an extended account of the professional development guiding principles, the content, the design of the professional development programme and the research design. The programme team included of one of the paper's authors (Glackin) who was a programme tutor, programme developer, as well as a researcher.…”

Communities of Practice for Student Assessment in a South Korean Middle School

“…Therefore, studies of teacher PD that focus on teacher learning communities require a higher level of participation than merely joining in CoP activities (Grossman et al, 2001;Jones et al, 2013). However, when teachers collaborate with their colleagues to achieve common goals, occasionally the relationship between them can become tense because of conflicting individual beliefs on teaching practice (Dooner, Mandzuk, & Clifton, 2008;Glackin, 2016;So, 2013). Teledahl (2015) reported that teachers can arrive at different evaluations of the same students' work because they have different content knowledge.…”