Outdoor Education Commons^™

Remote Learning - The Future Of Education: Effective Instructional Strategies Used By Parent Educators And Recommendations For Building Capacity, Raelene Ferguson Haugen

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this mixed methods Delphi study was to identify the remote learning instructional strategies used by expert Southern California parent educators for implementing the anticipatory set, modeling, checking for understanding, and guided practice elements of Madeline Cheek Hunter’s Instructional Theory Into Practice (ITIP) framework. The study sought to identify how expert Southern California parent educators rated the effectiveness of the remote learning instructional strategies in the aforementioned elements of Hunter’s ITIP framework. Additionally, the purpose was to generate recommendations from expert Southern California parent educators to build capacity in the identified effective instructional strategies.

Methodology: The classical …

When St. Louis School Nature Leaders And Environmental Partners Work Together Nature-Based Learning Inspires Joy And Curiosity In K-2 Students, Julie Frisch, Melissa Politte

Dissertations

This study focused on what values teachers saw in nature-based learning, what outcomes they saw for their students, and what factors have enabled them to do nature-based learning. This explanatory sequential mixed-methods study looked at nature-based learning in St. Louis elementary schools with kindergarten through second-grade students.

We used purposive sampling to choose six schools to examine further through case studies. We then conducted interviews with 8 teachers on qualities of nature-based learning captured in 12 words.

We identified five themes from our interviews and observations: Every School Needs a Nature Champion, Community Bridges in Nature-Based Learning, There is Magic …

Developing And Piloting A Design Guide For Outdoor Classrooms In Utah, Derek Jenson, Jake Powell, David T. Anderson, Rose Judd-Murray

Outcomes and Impact Quarterly

The outdoor classroom design guide can help applicants successfully apply for the Utah Outdoor Classroom Grant introduced by the Office of Outdoor Recreation (OOR) in 2021. The design guide includes case studies, design resources, and critical information for community involvement from statewide locations and will serve as a free public resource.

Gender Role Congruence And Self-Efficacy In Emerging Outdoor Leaders, Audrey Krimm

Theses, Dissertations, & Student Scholarship: Agricultural Leadership, Education & Communication Department

Being a leader in the outdoors requires the competence and confidence to act and make decisions in high-risk situations. However, female leaders may experience an incongruence between the assertive decision-making expected of their leadership role and the passivity expected of their gender role, which can impact their leadership self- efficacy. The purpose of this study was to explore how gender role congruence influences the self-efficacy of male and female emerging outdoor leaders. A convergent mixed- methods design was used by triangulating self-efficacy survey data with in-depth interviews, observations, and reflective drawings from eight student outdoor leaders at a large Midwestern …

Table Of Contents 4(1) May 2022, Editorial Board

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

No abstract provided.

In Memoriam, Editorial Board

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

No abstract provided.

Poem: "Foundations" By William Wilfred Campbell (1860 - 1918), Editorial Board

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

No abstract provided.

Foundations: Eating. Loving. Praying., George Conesa

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

Kurt Goldstein imagined that at every stage of their development, organisms are, to characterize, wrestling with the imminent and inescapable realities (bio-socio-psychological) of energy (e.g., food and sleep), safety (e.g., hygiene; home and a family), and possibility (e.g., learning; opportunities and luck), and importantly, simultaneously. To oversimplify, Maslow would like us to eat before loving or praying, whereas Goldstein intuits that human motivations are dynamically complex and multifactorial -- in others words, integrally transactional and ongoing. It is Goldstein’s more complex idea that this essay supports.

Why We Experience Musical Emotions: William Gardiner’S “The Music Of Nature” Revisited, Daniela L. Boero Dr.

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

This paper focuses and expands on the ideas of William Gardiner, an amateur musician who was the first to propose that human emotions experienced in music listening might be inspired by “the sounds of nature.” His book has been ignored for almost two centuries. We revisit his hypothesis from an evolutionary psychology approach. This contribution reviews environmental psychology and musical studies which focus on emotional reactions to basic musical cues such as pitch, timbre, and loudness, and also, on animal communication studies. Reported literature confirms the hypothesis that our ancestral soundscape might have shaped, at least in part, the basic …

Ontological Awareness In Food Systems Education, Colin C. Dring

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

We review efforts in Sustainable Food Systems Education and Critical Food Systems Education literature to employ education in ways that seek social and environmental transformation of food systems. Here, we argue that forms of food systems education that are disconnected from awareness of their ontological roots are destined to reproduce the same food systems with the same consequences for life on Earth. This theoretical paper invites discussions that unpack “habits of being” underpinning modern/colonial conceptualizations of food system issues, transformation efforts, and pedagogies. We note the risk of reinscribing, within food systems education, specific onto-epistemological norms and values that are …

Lotus Eating: A Summer Book. New York: Harper And Brothers, Editorial Board

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

American Letters: Archives George William Curtis (1824-1892)

Editorial And Clarification, Editorial Board

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

No abstract provided.

Adventure Science As Transformative Outdoor Education: An Exploration Of Learning, Laura Parson, Simon Donato, Jessie Johns

The Qualitative Report

In 2017, the Trump administration announced plans to reduce the size of the Bear's Ears National Monument (BENM) in Utah, greatly reducing the monument designated by the Obama administration and reducing protections on land viewed as sacred by multiple indigenous communities in the United States (Creadon & Bergren, 2019). In response to this Executive Order, a team of scientists and endurance athlete participants visited portions of the former BENM in May of 2019 to identify and map areas of cultural interest to help build a case for why and where the BENM’s original boundaries should be preserved. Through the lens …

School Farms And Stem: Using Institutional Resources To Promote Deeper Learning, Catherine Clare Knowlton

Food Systems Master's Project Reports

Given the structural problems in education laid bare by the recent pandemic, we as a community of educators need to re-evaluate goals for secondary science education. Specifically, classrooms and course content must evolve to become more socially responsive, inclusive, and interdisciplinary. Agricultural education is a demonstrably effective way to boost STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) comprehension as well as SEL (social-emotional learning) skills building. In this study, I use qualitative interview methods to assess current agricultural coursework at independent schools around New England. Results show intriguing themes stemming from designing and implementing farm-based courses, although there are logistical barriers …

Foodways In Chile: A Bridge Back To Nature, Kayla Weiss

Capstone Collection

As the area of food studies continues to develop and evolve it has been recognized that, not only is food a necessity to life, but it is uniquely tied to understanding culture, history, and other aspects of a society. This study arose from recognizing this influence and importance and I took the opportunity to better understand how Birchwood College might be an optimal site for a short-term study abroad program based in food studies. I conducted a needs assessment through landscape research, surveying students, and interviewing food studies faculty and international educators at Birchwood College. The research findings offered insights …

Outdoor Pursuits And Outdoor Learning At Rural Maine Schools: A Positive Outlier Approach, Lauren E. Jacobs

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the barriers and facilitators to outdoor learning and outdoor pursuits (OPs) in some of the most rural isolated K-12 schools in Maine. The purpose was to understand why some of these schools incorporate a lot of OPs and outdoor learning into their curriculum while other schools do not. Outdoor pursuits and outdoor learning in school settings are worthy of study because they provide students with opportunities to increase physical activity, benefit from time in nature, and make important connections to local culture (Lim et al., 2017; Schafft, 2016; Trembley et al., 2015).

This study employed a comparative …

Trusting Your Bearings: Outdoor Navigation And The Link Between Perceived Competence, Actual Skill, And Flow State In The Adirondack Region Of New York, Daria Stacy

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between perceived competence and flow theory in the activity of outdoor navigation. This relationship was examined at beginner, intermediate, advanced, and expert skill levels of navigation, targeting a population in the Adirondack Region due to its challenging, thickly forested terrain. The study used a multi-method approach encompassing both quantitative and qualitative data. Surveys were administered to examine beginner, intermediate, and advanced navigators following a formal navigation course at SUNY Cortland’s Outdoor Education Practicum at Raquette Lake or an Advanced Map and Compass Bushwhack Course or Map and Compass Fundamentals Course …

Parent Volunteers And Covid-19: Balancing Necessity, Enthusiasm, And Caution, Jarrod Myers

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focus issue addressed in this Capstone Project is how the pandemic disrupted parent volunteering in schools. Parent volunteering is an essential issue for schools because parent involvement is essential for student success. An evidence-based argument is offered that schools struggled to staff the void left by parent volunteers. The three primary stakeholder perspectives chosen were parents, school leadership, and teachers. Parents make up the volunteer pool; teachers know what kind of assistance classrooms need, and school leadership creates policies. Three themes emerged from analyzing the data and explored ways to reintroduce parents to a school campus. Parent volunteers make …

Developing And Piloting A Design Guide For Outdoor Classrooms In Utah, Derek Jenson

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports

Studies nationwide suggest that the use of outdoor classrooms in education benefits both students and teachers. In response, the Utah Office of Outdoor Recreation (OOR) established a grant to help fund the implementation of outdoor classrooms across the state of Utah. Interested schools and non-profit organizations may apply for this grant to fund outdoor classroom projects that will help transform their properties into outdoor learning environments.

One requirement for the application is to submit a site plan for the proposed outdoor classroom space. However, many interested applicants have little to no experience with landscape design and may struggle knowing how …

Increasing The Prevalence Of Risky Play In Preschool And Kindergarten Classrooms In The United States, Kelsey Stark Zuiderveen

Culminating Experience Projects

Risky play is a thrilling form of play that has the potential for some injury and is a biologically innate need within all children that provides a variety of physical, mental, and emotional benefits to children. Currently however, preschool and kindergarten classrooms in the United States offer little to no opportunities for risky play in early childhood settings. The main factor that influences the amount of risky play happening in early childhood classrooms is teacher attitudes related to risky play; if teachers have a negative attitude about risky play, less risky play is allowed in their classroom setting. This project …