Teachers’ intentions for outdoor learning: A characterisation of teachers' objectives and actions

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine nine Swedish teachers´intentions and educational objectives for outdoor learning, and how these educational objectives are implemented in outdoor activities. Further, the alignment between teachers´predifined objectives and the kinds of knowledge and cognitive processes reflected in the outdoor activities are investigated. The data sources consists of semi-structured interviews and observations. The intervirw transcripts were analysed using Haldéns theory of  intentional analysis to identify teachers' intentions when locating learning outdoors. Teachers´ objectives in the cognitive domain were further analysed by Bloom´s revised taxonomy. The teachers use a diverse set of outdoor activities. Our findings include a typology of four orientations: one that values affective and social objectives and promote activities to understand factual knowledge, another orientation focuses on activities intended to gain procedural knowledge and emphasizes application of practical tasks. The other two teaching orientations primarily focuses on cognitive objectives, partly to reinforce conceptual knowledge, partly to deepen understandings or improve strategies to enhance meta-cognitive knowledge. The degree of alignment between intended objectives and performed activity is higher among teachers promoting affective and social goals as well as meta-cognitive and analytical understanding, than teachers who use outdoor activities to mainly reinforce conceptual knowledge. The study shows that there is a range of possible learning goals in outdoor education and teachers are guieded by what they value and how they percive learning.