INTERDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL AND SCIENCE EDUCATION
Research Article
Feb 26, 2020 3339 2020

Factors Related to Students’ Perception of Learning During Outdoor Science Lessons in Schools’ Immediate Surroundings

Jean-Philippe Ayotte-Beaudet 1 * ,
Patrice Potvin 2
1 Université de Sherbrooke, CANADA2 Université du Québec à Montréal, CANADA* Corresponding Author
Interdisciplinary Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 2020, 16(2), e2212, https://doi.org/10.29333/ijese/7815
Full Text (PDF)

ABSTRACT

The research presented in this paper answers the question: What factors are most related to students’ perception of learning during outdoor science lessons occurring in schools’ immediate surroundings? Twenty-six science teachers, as well as 71 classes of seventh (51 classes) and eighth (20 classes) graders participated in our study (n = 2007). All 26 teachers agreed to plan and carry out five outdoor lessons in their schools’ immediate surroundings for each class they decided to include in the study. The 11 influencing factors we examined in this quantitative study were: the duration of the outdoor lesson, the students’ level of preparation, the students’ opportunity to make choices, the outdoor environment, the position in the lesson sequence, the presence of a laboratory technician, the scientific discipline, the grouping of the students, the teacher’s outdoor teaching experience, the type of activity, and the weather conditions. To identify the factors most related to students’ perception of learning, we ran a bivariate correlation analysis and then used a three-level hierarchical linear model (HLM) with the significant factors from the bivariate correlation. Our results showed that students’ perception of learning was significantly and positively correlated with the factors listening to scientific explanations, being grouped with the entire class, students’ level of preparation, and students’ opportunity to make choices, and negatively correlated with observing. We conclude this paper by arguing that students’ perception of learning is really a perception that is based on their anticipated success on school assessments.

KEYWORDS

contextualization middle school outdoor science perception of learning science education

CITATION (APA)

Ayotte-Beaudet, J.-P., & Potvin, P. (2020). Factors Related to Students’ Perception of Learning During Outdoor Science Lessons in Schools’ Immediate Surroundings. Interdisciplinary Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 16(2), e2212. https://doi.org/10.29333/ijese/7815
Harvard
Ayotte-Beaudet, J.-P., and Potvin, P. (2020). Factors Related to Students’ Perception of Learning During Outdoor Science Lessons in Schools’ Immediate Surroundings. Interdisciplinary Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 16(2), e2212. https://doi.org/10.29333/ijese/7815
Vancouver
Ayotte-Beaudet JP, Potvin P. Factors Related to Students’ Perception of Learning During Outdoor Science Lessons in Schools’ Immediate Surroundings. INTERDISCIP J ENV SCI ED. 2020;16(2):e2212. https://doi.org/10.29333/ijese/7815
AMA
Ayotte-Beaudet JP, Potvin P. Factors Related to Students’ Perception of Learning During Outdoor Science Lessons in Schools’ Immediate Surroundings. INTERDISCIP J ENV SCI ED. 2020;16(2), e2212. https://doi.org/10.29333/ijese/7815
Chicago
Ayotte-Beaudet, Jean-Philippe, and Patrice Potvin. "Factors Related to Students’ Perception of Learning During Outdoor Science Lessons in Schools’ Immediate Surroundings". Interdisciplinary Journal of Environmental and Science Education 2020 16 no. 2 (2020): e2212. https://doi.org/10.29333/ijese/7815
MLA
Ayotte-Beaudet, Jean-Philippe et al. "Factors Related to Students’ Perception of Learning During Outdoor Science Lessons in Schools’ Immediate Surroundings". Interdisciplinary Journal of Environmental and Science Education, vol. 16, no. 2, 2020, e2212. https://doi.org/10.29333/ijese/7815

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