Green classroom vs. classroom – Influence of teaching approaches, learning settings, and state emotions on environmental values of primary school children

ABSTRACT

We evaluated environmental values of primary school children during a one-day program at a wildlife park and compared the outcomes concerning two different forms of instruction (teacher-centered, student-centered) as well as two different surroundings of learning settings (wildlife park, school) while observing state emotions. A total of 441 primary school children (average age 8.87 ± 0.56 years) learned about the importance of preserving the habitat of the European wildcat. A questionnaire based on an established model was administered. Students' preservation values changed significantly at the wildlife park as well as at school with no significant differences between forms of instruction and state emotions overall.

Acknowledgments

We thank all students, teachers, and headmasters for participating in our study and making it possible. We are very thankful for the excellent cooperation between our workgroup and the wildlife park Klaushof. Special thanks go to all the students who helped with assisting and analyzing, to our colleagues for all their help and to Dr. Ulrike Rapp-Galmiche and Dr. Susanne Kuger for careful and helpful notes and corrections on the manuscript. The study was supported by the regional school ministries.

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

About the Authors

Sabine Glaab is currently teaching and researching as a scientific assistant at the section Didactics of Biology at the University of Würzburg with a special interest in out-of-school learning settings and constructionist teaching approaches.

Thomas Heyne is the director of the section Didactics of Biology at the University of Würzburg, since 2008. He teaches undergraduate students in effective natural scientific teaching with regard to their later profession as teachers. The major foci of his research are the development, implementation, and evaluation of the effectiveness of environmental programs for adolescents.