The Effect of an Outdoor Nature Investigation Program on Young Children's Ability To Transfer Knowledge

This study examined the effect of using an outdoor nature investigation program on the ability of third-grade students to transfer knowledge. Specifically, the study determined whether the program enhanced students' ability to transfer declarative (facts and concepts), procedural (process skill...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Basile, Carole G, Copley, Juanita V
Format: Report
Sprache:eng
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:Volltext bestellen
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:This study examined the effect of using an outdoor nature investigation program on the ability of third-grade students to transfer knowledge. Specifically, the study determined whether the program enhanced students' ability to transfer declarative (facts and concepts), procedural (process skills), and schematic (experience) knowledge to a set of transfer situations. Forty-five third-grade students from an urban elementary school were divided into 2 groups, both of which were taught science by the same teacher in consecutive 7-week units. The main theme of each unit was habitats. The treatment program, used only with the second student group, involved students becoming scientists by reading about a particular topic, posing questions, collecting data in their schoolyard, and analyzing the data by creating graphs and charts. Students were interviewed after watching video vignettes that presented situations requiring generalization from what they had learned during the unit. Results indicate that both groups effectively transferred knowledge to the more similar scenario, but only the group that received the treatment was able to transfer knowledge to the less similar scenario. In addition, the treatment group transferred declarative knowledge better than students in the control group on the more similar problem but not on the less similar problem. The treatment group appeared to transfer procedural knowledge better in both scenarios. Transfer of schematic knowledge appeared to favor the treatment group, but schematic knowledge was low in both groups. Contains 13 references. (LP)