Record Details
An Exploration of an Out-of-School Garden Program : A Case Study of Youth [adolescents'] Perceptions
ScholarsArchive at Oregon State University
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Title | An Exploration of an Out-of-School Garden Program : A Case Study of Youth [adolescents'] Perceptions |
| Names |
Bailey, Deborah L.
(creator) Falk, John H. (advisor) |
| Date Issued | 2015-05-29 (iso8601) |
| Note | Graduation date: 2015 |
| Abstract | Garden-based learning (GBL) with young people has long been viewed as an educational experience capable of teaching numerous types of science content including general science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), as well as discipline specific areas such as biology, horticulture, agriculture and nutrition. However, much of the GBL literature focuses on young children in school and utilizes preconceived measures of what constitutes appropriate learning. Little work has been designed to systematically explore learning in the garden from a youth’s perspective. The goal of this study was to use a combination of qualitative methods, interviews and Personal Meaning Maps, to empirically determine the various ways in which older adolescents describe their learning in an out-of-school summer garden experience and to uncover adolescent perceptions of science learning from the garden. Youth perceptions were then compared to the most frequently used GBL theoretical framework, Experiential Learning Theory (ELT). Youth interpreted their garden experience mostly through an environmental- and agricultural-science lens. Although all youth learned about these content areas, not all youth learned the same specific content nor did all youth make comparable meaning of similar content. The results from this study add to the literature on GBL and provide case-study evidence: 1) of the applicability of ELT for adolescents in out-of-school GBL programs; and 2) that gardening with adolescents in an out-of-school context can be an effective and pragmatic way to facilitate support in science learning. Future research should include exploration of other adolescent out-of-school garden programs to continue empirical work to demonstrate the applicability of ELT for older youth as well as how similar out-of-school summer gardening programs could better harness the inherently situated- and socially-relevant science content inherent in garden activity. |
| Genre | Thesis/Dissertation |
| Access Condition | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/us/ |
| Topic | Garden-based Learning |
| Identifier | http://hdl.handle.net/1957/56234 |
