Opportunities afforded by the outdoors for alternative pedagogies as children move from Foundation Stage to Year 1

DOI

This project aimed to find out how being outdoors changes teaching and learning in Year 1. Four classes in two urban schools (involving children aged 4-6 years old) were involved, with children wearing felt bags containing digital records to naturally observe their vocal interactions. These audio recordings of children were transcribed. Face-to-face interviews with teaching staff were also conducted along with observations, photographs and videos of outside activities. What is it like to be a child aged 5 or 6 moving from Foundation Stage to Year 1? The aim of this research will consider ways in which children are given opportunities to shape their learning in outdoor environments over this key period in their foundation and primary schooling. Our research concerns outdoor contexts for learning and explores the different ways that teachers might teach in external environments and the ways in which children (aged 4-6 years) learn from the pedagogical processes occurring outdoors. Undertaking observations and interviews the study has two main aims; firstly to explore what teaching and learning in outdoor contexts in the Foundation Stage (FS) and year 1 of primary school are like and how they come about; and secondly, to understand how interactions between teacher, child and place might help children make a successful move between these educational stages. Fundamentally the study will look to identify how changes in learning objectives between the Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 may influence teaching and learning practices and how place, in particular outdoor contexts, may interact with staff and children to construct ways of teaching and learning.

Purposive/case study selection was used two select four schools in two urban areas. Children were given audio recorders to wear during outdoor activities. Recordings were transcribed and annotated to explore behaviour. Observations, photographs and video recording were also taken. Face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with teaching staff. There were three main data collection periods: summer term 2009, autumn term 2009 and summer term 2010.

Identifier
DOI https://doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-851848
Metadata Access https://datacatalogue.cessda.eu/oai-pmh/v0/oai?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_ddi25&identifier=d01a90210fda11ce66af9f3a144cf0cf5a7ae409f10c4b08881de1564be7a45b
Provenance
Creator Waite, S, University of Plymouth
Publisher UK Data Service
Publication Year 2015
Funding Reference ESRC
Rights Susan Waite, University of Plymouth; The Data Collection is available for download to users registered with the UK Data Service.
OpenAccess true
Representation
Resource Type Text
Discipline Social Sciences
Spatial Coverage Plymouth; United Kingdom