In the master’s thesis, we wished to emphasize the influence of the outdoor school on the personal and social growth of children. Because outdoor schools differ very much, however, we wished to gain information on organization, performance, and the analysis of the outdoor school from all three groups (teachers, parents, and students) from different parts of Slovenian regions who are engaged in this educational form in any way.
At the beginning of the theoretical part, there is a short introduction with the presentation of the problem of why outdoor school is so important and why we must not let it go or supplement it with a course. In continuation, the development of the outdoor school, legal bases, and curriculum are presented. Furthermore, we list principles and general educational goals of the outdoor school. Then, educational contents that are divided into individual fields are presented in detail. Written recommendations which include personnel, place, time, duration and the age of students are collected. Furthermore, the organizational and preparation of outdoor schools in the content are presented followed by directives and assistance in performance. A special chapter is dedicated to swimming. Besides, proposals for plays in/along/on water and in the playground are collected. In the end, activities after the outdoor school and deficiencies which occur within the organization and performance of the outdoor school are presented.
In the empirical part, 172 parents, 102 teachers, and 196 students of the 4th and the 5th grade of ten elementary schools from different regions of Slovenia participated so that we embraced almost the entire country. We were interested in whether there are statistically significant differences between the opinions of the teachers, parents, and students with regards to different fields connected with the outdoor school. We collected the data through three different survey questionnaires in which some questions were the same so that we could perform a comparative analysis. We compared some answers to the questions within two or one group of the participants of the survey. By the survey questionnaire, we gained the data on the outdoor school which is connected with organization, performance, and the analysis of the outdoor school.
The results showed that among teachers, students, and parents, there are statistically significant differences with regards to opinions on the type of accommodation, duration of the outdoor school, progress in the field of independence, opportunities of feedback of the students and parents, the change of outdoor school with the swimming course in the hometown, and cancellation of the outdoor school. Among them, there are also differences with regards to the proposals for improvements and changes they want for the students to learn more in nature. In educational elements valued mostly by the parents and teachers in outdoor school, statistically significant differences emerged at some but not at others. Among the teachers and parents, no statistically significant differences emerged with regards to the importance of informing the parents. Among the teachers, the differences emerged with regards to the way of gaining information about the peculiarities of the students, performing differentiation and individualization, problems with which they encounter in performing the outdoor school, becoming acquainted with the reasons of the students who do not participate in the outdoor school, performing the analysis, its method, and the opinion on being qualified to participate and organize.
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