The theoretical part of the master's thesis presents outdoor education and the facts speaking in favour of organising outdoor classes outside the school edifices. Teachers and educators are too often focused on the development of the cognitive competences of their pupils, while they neglect the social, emotional and physical development of pupils as well as their contact with themselves and with nature, which are the main advantages of outdoor classes. I have also listed the limitations that teachers and educators face when teaching outdoors. Furthermore, I presented the methods, working forms and approaches to teaching outdoors, such as group work, active participation of pupils in the pedagogical process, experience learning, linking different contents with different fields of study with the emphasis on the pupils’ creativity, taking into consideration the security aspects of such teaching and the effective reflections following the outdoor activities. The ways of implementing outdoor education abroad and effective study cases are also presented.
The empirical part uses the narrative method of research and presents six good practice cases of Slovenian teachers and educators teaching outdoors. Their stories show that the most important factors in teaching outdoors are one’s own motivation and the wish to use different methods of teaching. The interviewees presented quite some cases of activities outdoors and told that when planning, many factors have to be taken into consideration, including the timetable changes, cooperation with other teachers and finding escorts. While executing lessons, security measures, options for free play, experience-based learning, learning applicable skills (such as measuring areas, gardening, and building objects), effective reflection and active inclusion of pupils into the pedagogical process (such as solving different problems, research, observation) have to be considered. The interviewees enumerate many advantages of teaching outdoors, such as better atmosphere in class, less exhaustion on the part of the teachers, developing social and physical skills and options for creative thinking and successful problem solving. The interviewees had no problems organising outdoor lessons, though they presented possible obstacles for teachers and educators such as finding escorts, additional burden for the person executing lessons, fear of pupils getting injuries, disapproval of leadership and co-workers, disciplinary problems, obtaining possible financial resources, weather conditions and the presence of ticks in the forest.
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