University Students' Place-Based Teaching Practices in an Outreach Program

• In Event: 46.086 - Roundtable Session 16
  In Roundtable Session: 46.086-6 - Issues in Environmental Education

Abstract

We explored how university students (i.e., undergraduate and graduate students) participating in an outreach program practiced place-based teaching strategies. This research is informed by the literature on learning to teach through apprenticeship and place-based education. The intended and enacted curricula of the outreach program were studied. The field trip station lesson plans were reviewed for evidence of place-based teaching strategies. Videotapes of the university students teaching fifth grade students in indoor and outdoor locations were analyzed according to the place-based teaching strategies that they practiced. Overall, the university students practiced relatively few place-based teaching strategies. We discuss implications for educators of the necessity to learn about how to intentionally incorporate place into their educational programs.

Authors

• Katherine Joy Nilsen, University of San Diego

• Danielle Boyd Harlow, University of California - Santa Barbara