A collective case study : teacher opinions of their students' engagement in the outdoor classroom

Abstract

This collective case study prompted teachers to reflect on their students' engagement in the outdoor setting, and highlights the strengths and weaknesses of their experiences to identify how student engagement may be maximized in the outdoor setting to increase overall knowledge and understanding. Ten teachers were recruited from schools in partnership with REAL School Gardens non-profit organization. Data were collected through interviews using a semi-structured format and were audio recorded for analysis. Key terms and phrases that related to student engagement, as well as the outdoor settings were identified and used for creation of the word or phrase table. From here the author performed a cross-case analysis where common themes from the tables were detected as well as interpreted. Participating teachers found that overall their students seemed to be more engaged outdoors than indoors. This may have been because it was easier for teachers to identify outdoor engagement. While a positive view of the outdoors was consistent with all teachers, the reasons why were not the same.