Außerschulisches Lernen am Beispiel des Lernorts Ökogarten - Effekte auf Lehramtsstudierende und Schülerinnen und Schüler
The effect of school garden activities on pre service student teachers’ attitudes to teaching biology outside the classroom
The effect of school garden activities on pre service student teachers’ attitudes to teaching biology outside the classroom
Projektdauer:
01.04.15 bis 31.07.17
Kurzinhalt:
Aus vorangegengenen Projekten ist bekannt, dass die Beteiligung Studierender an der Gestaltung von Lernmodulen im Freiland die Motivation der Studierenden steigert, sowie bei Schülerinnen und Schülern dann Lerneffekte erzielt, wenn der Besuch inhaltlich vor- und nachbereitet wird.
Derzeit wird über Fragebögen (adaptiert nach Weussmann 2015 und mit eigenen geprüften Instrumenten) untersucht, welche Effekte die Gestaltung von Lernsituationen mit Schülerinnen und Schülern am außerschulischen Lernort auf Überzeugungen der Studierenden zu biologischer Freilandarbeit (Naturbezug, Selbstwirksamkeit, Kompetenzeinschätzung) sowie Interessen erzielt.
Die Hauptuntersuchung fand im Sommersemester 2016 statt. Die weitere Entwicklung der Einstellungen und Kompetenzen der Studierenden erfolgt im Sommersemester 2017, um Langzeiteffekte mehrfacher Interventionen von Kurzzeiteffekten unterscheiden zu können. In diese Untersuchungen sind Seminare im Bereich Ökogarten / Outdoor sowie Basismodule einbezogen.
[Kurzinhalt - Fremdsprache] The meaning of outdoor teaching and ecologically oriented gardening is connected with expectations regarding the demands of sustainable development of nature and society. At present, knowledge and willingness toward conservation of biodiversity (National Nature Awareness Study) are sufficiently present only in a quarter of the population of Germany. Teachers should have PCK for designing effective outdoor learning processes with students as well as teaching in classroom.
The purpose of this research was to determine whether the integration of ecologically oriented school garden projects into the university curriculum positively influenced pre service student teachers’ attitudes toward nature and teaching outside. How does one qualify trainee teachers to make best use of school gardens for didactic purposes?
Pre service student teachers during their first semester in biology and in higher semesters were included in the study, compared in a control and an experimental group. The experimental group had to develop learning material for teaching children outside. The freshmen developed and tested learning materials toward botany to integrate into the school curriculum, and got feedback by the university teachers during the process of development and teaching. This research was in collaboration with schools. The learning situations were oriented towards interesting contexts, to direct experiences with living organisms.
The questionnaire (pretest/ posttest) was in three parts. Part one concerned attitudes toward nature and nature conservancy. The second part dealt with attitudes to the didactic potentials and possibilities of outdoor teaching and personality development. The third part dealt with self-assessment regarding one’s gardening capabilities and ability to teach outdoors.
Additionally, a questionnaire on interests in different domains of biology was used. Self-estimations of learning success of all participants of the experimental group were collected with short written texts in an open format, and analyzed qualitative (2015 n=65).
Positive attitudes towards nature were measurable in pretest and posttest. They remain high throughout the first semester. Pre service student teachers in general make a realistic assessment of own horticultural capabilities. The didactic skills for field work with children and horticultural skills still need to be improved. In the course of their learning, the student teachers display increasing expectations about their own effectiveness with regard to the possibility of strategies for learning outside and in school gardens.
The results of the survey of the pre-service student teachers in 2016 were compared with the results of the experienced teachers. Despite the interventions the beliefs of the pre-service student teachers distinguish significantly from the beliefs of the experienced teachers. Probably this depends on their regular practice of outdoor education.
The beliefs of the pre-service student teachers changed minimally during the semester in 2016. The pre-service student teachers developed their skills similar to the focal points of attended courses. For example:
Cultivate vegetables promotes gardening competences.Practice determining promotes skills in identifying plants.Educational elements influence attitudes to outdoor teaching, but not gardening skills. In order to obtain assessable results in this field, continuous and repeated intensive engagement with pupils regarding fieldwork must be aimed at.
Ergebnis:
Interessen als überdauernde Person-Gegenstand-Relationen sind durch kurzfristige Interventionen (13 Seminare) erwartungsgemäß schwer zu verändern. Jedoch sind sowohl Einstellungen von Biologiestudierenden gegenüber Natur, als auch gegenüber dem Draußen Lernen positiv. Die Ergebnisse von 2015 sind reproduzierbar im Jahr 2016 bei Erstsemestern. 2016 wurden zudem höhere Semester und Lehrende einbezogen, die mit Schulklassen im Garten aktiv arbeiteten. Je nach besuchten Kurs (Pflanzenbestimmung, Gärtnern, mit Schülern kontinuierlich draußen lernen) verbesserten sich bei den Studierenden höherer Semester die Selbsteinschätzungen der Kompetenzen zum Gärtnern selbst bzw. zum Umgang mit Kindern draußen. Jedoch sind ihre Bedenken gegen Schwierigkeiten des Outdoor Teaching signifikant größer als die von erfahrenen Lehrern. Aus den Ergebnissen eines Semesters werden Folgerungen für weiterführende Studienmodule abgeleitet.