Teachers’ intentions with outdoor teaching in school forests: Skills and knowledge teachers want students to develop

Abstract

There is an interest among Swedish teachers to locate teaching outdoors. This study focuses on four teachers in grades 4-6, to explore their intentions and objectives with regular teaching outdoors. Data sources consist of semi-structured interviews, descriptions on successful activities, and reflections on metaphors. The use of intentional analysis and Bloom’s revised taxonomy on teachers’ objectives show that the teachers stress the out-of-school learning that draws on the actual world and concrete material. Yet their objectives with these authentic experiences are diverse. Two teachers have mainly cognitive objectives with a holistic view of knowledge where outdoor and indoor interact. To become knowledgeable, each individual student needs teaching in this proper context. The other two teachers primarily have affective objectives, in a dichotomy between learning theoretical knowledge indoors, and learning practical, concrete knowledge outdoors. They consider the outdoor arena as crucial for students with learning difficulties.

Published in

NorDiNa
2012, volume: 8, number: 1, pages: 26-40

SLU Authors

• Lidestav, Gun

  • Department of Forest Resource Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
    

UKÄ Subject classification

Educational Work

Publication identifier

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.5617/nordina.357

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/41528