Geography Outdoor Education from the Perspective of Czech Teachers, Pupils and Parents

Abstract

Outdoor education is a teaching strategy that is considered an integral component of geography education. This article deals with the benefits of outdoor education as perceived by teachers, pupils, and parents for learner development in the areas of knowledge, skills, attitudes, and interpersonal relationships. To obtain the data, the semi-structured interviews with 18 elementary school teachers were realized. Then, based on the interview results, one model school was chosen to conduct a questionnaire survey among the pupils and their parents. The research shows that teachers see the benefits of outdoor education in both the cognitive area and the affective aspect of education and know that learners gain certain skills and knowledge during outdoor education. Conversely, parents see the greatest benefit in the area of attitudes and interpersonal relationships. Finally, learners perceive outdoor education as entertainment and time spent outside the classroom rather than a learning process.

Keywords:

• Outdoor education
• geography education
• teacher beliefs
• teaching strategy

Notes

1 A school education program (SEP) is a curricular document produced by the teaching staff of each school in Czechia. The SEP is approved and issued by the headmaster of the institution and must be publicly accessible.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Czech Science Foundation grant 16-00695S Fieldwork as a Powerful Learning Strategy.