Fieldwork-Orientated Biology Teachers' Views on Outdoor Education

Abstract

Outdoor environments are considered as important learning environments in biology education. Previous studies on outdoor education and fieldwork indicate many positive impacts on students’ cognitive and affective achievements. However, the amount of fieldwork in biology education has declined during the past decades and is considered to be low in many countries. Outdoor education often consists of single fieldtrips guided by outdoor educators, and little research has been done on fieldwork as a regular part of formal science education. In this paper, we focus on three secondary school biology teachers who use fieldwork extensively. Based on semi-structured interviews and qualitative data analysis, we studied their views on and arguments for fieldwork as part of regular biology teaching. According to the results, the teachers considered fieldwork as a meaningful alternative for teaching many contents and skills included in the curriculum. The teachers emphasized students’ authentic nature experiences and the importance of affective and cognitive experiences as the main arguments for fieldwork. Besides the curricular learning goals, they placed at least equally important emphasis on students’ experiences as part of theircomprehensive wellbeing and the development of positive relationship with nature. Knowledge on goals behind extensive outdoor education practices will help focus further studies about the role of fieldwork in biology education.