In the existing literature relating science achievement to outdoor learning, one study (Cronin-Jones, 2000) stands out as the one that most closely matches my proposed research. Though slightly dated, it is the only available study that has directly tackled this specific topic. The following summarizes this significant work.

Research Questions

1.      Do elementary students receiving outdoor schoolyard-based instruction learn more about basic ecological concepts than students receiving no formal instruction or traditional classroom-based instruction?

2.      Do elementary students receiving outdoor schoolyard-based instruction develop more positive attitudes toward natural settings and their inhabitants than students receiving no formal instruction or traditional classroom-based instruction?

Theoretical Perspective

The perspective of this study is unique in that it does not adhere to an overarching well-known educational theory. The researcher considers a variety of works by those who have studied teaching outdoors and acknowledges that there was at the time a limited body of knowledge on this area of education. This study examined both achievement and how student attitudes toward learning outdoors may have changed.

 

Research Paradigm

This study was conducted prior to the most well-known, if not the most significant work in this field was published (Louv, 2005). It broke new ground for science teachers and environmental educators. Though solid suggestions for future research were presented, few if any are found in a review of literature from the time of this study until present day. Perhaps my proposed study will take a step in that direction and encourage others to add to this field of research.

Specific Methodology

Two third grade and two fourth grade classes at two schools participated in this study. Students took a pre-test that with analysis through a modified Solomon Four Group design. Though students were not randomly assigned to the study, they were randomly assigned to their classes at the beginning of the school year. The two schools involved have very similar demographics for ethnicity, gender, and socio-economic status. It is not clear to me as to why two of the four classes completed both pretests and posttests and the other two completed only posttests. However there is some reference to the effect of the pretests, so perhaps the researcher was concerned that a pretest may in some way influence student achievement on the subsequent posttests.

 

Findings

This study provided some evidence that schoolyards can serve as an effective setting for teaching science. The researcher found evidence that student achievement was positively impacted when a 10-day unit of study was conducted outdoors as compared to the same unit taught indoors.

Conclusions

The study concludes that teaching science in the schoolyard can have a positive impact on student achievement. There was a significant gain on posttests that used reliable test items. However, there was no significant gain in a positive attitude toward outdoor learning. Any differences were very minor when comparing the initial survey to the final survey.

How does this research relate to yours?

This study aligns very closely with the study I have proposed in both content and methodology. Like this study, mine will be conducted at the elementary school level, and will measure the difference in student achievement in science when an environmental standard is taught outdoors instead of indoors. As the work with my chair continues, I am curious as to how closely aligned the two studies are and if my study is very nearly a replication of this one.

 

What are your impressions of the project?

 

This study was ground breaking at the time it was conducted, and remains significant today. As such, I am impressed by the researcher’s recognition of the need for this study. At the end of the study there are good suggestions for future research. It is surprising that little evidence can be found in related literature to suggest any of these ideas have been studied in the years since. In this study, only a few classrooms were involved, and that has impressed upon me that multiple small-scale studies regarding this topic would be more significant perhaps than one large scale study.

Bibliography

Cronin-Jones, L. (2000). The effectiveness of schoolyards as sites for elementary science  

   instruction.  School Science & Mathematics, 100, 203-212.

Louv, R. (2005).  Last child in the woods, Chapel Hill, N.C., Algonquin Books.