Eugenio-Gozalbo Marcia, Aragón Lourdes, Ortega-Cubero Inés
Department of Didactics of Experimental, Social, and Mathematical Sciences, Faculty of Education of Soria, University of Valladolid, Soria, Spain.
Department of Didactics, Faculty of Education Sciences, University of Cádiz, Cádiz, Spain.
Front Psychol. 2020 Sep 1;11:2226. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.02226. eCollection 2020.
The educational use of daily-life contexts is considered a valuable strategy to promote meaningful science learning, since it facilitates the establishment of connections between previous knowledge, personal interests, and new learning. The aim of this work is to provide evidence to support the presence of gardens at educational centers, by assessing key science topics whose learning is promoted at the pre-school, primary, secondary, and university stages. To this end, we analyzed the paired graphic representations of "a garden" that students drew both before and after their participation in a garden-based learning program. Firstly, we obtained the frequency of appearance of every represented element, and afterward characterized the level of change between paired graphic representations. Sample size was of 24-19-25-29 pairs per stage, respectively. Across all stages, an overall improvement in students' graphic expression was observed, which can be attributed to their experience in the space. At the pre-school stage, the garden favored the establishment of some simple cause-effect relationships which were consolidated at the primary stage, and provided a climate of motivation and affectivity that was evident in the final drawings, given the enormous quantity of details represented, the level of the finished product, and the careful combination and variety of colors. The presence of elements related to water notably increased in final graphic representations from pre-school, primary, and secondary education, thus evidencing that the use of gardens facilitates an approach to responsible water management. At the university stage, students initially demonstrated good knowledge of conventional agriculture, while the gardening experience -which was based on permaculture practices- helped evolve their ideas toward an alternative model of cultivation. The most prevalent science learning across all stages was related to plant knowledge, particularly to their anatomical traits and diversity. Finally, the role of educational gardens as models for students was evidenced, which suggests the importance of teachers and institutions carefully considering which model to offer. Overall, our results support the legitimacy of incorporating gardens to educational centers, particularly for promoting contact with live plants and plant knowledge, and potentially for promoting contact with garden fauna and activities oriented toward learning about it.
将日常生活情境用于教育被认为是促进有意义的科学学习的一种有价值的策略，因为它有助于在先前知识、个人兴趣和新学习之间建立联系。这项工作的目的是通过评估在学前、小学、中学和大学阶段促进学习的关键科学主题，为教育中心设置花园提供支持证据。为此，我们分析了学生在参与基于花园的学习项目前后所绘制的“花园”的配对图形表示。首先，我们获取了每个所呈现元素的出现频率，然后对配对图形表示之间的变化程度进行了特征描述。每个阶段的样本量分别为24 - 19 - 25 - 29对。在所有阶段，都观察到学生图形表达的总体改善，这可归因于他们在该空间中的体验。在学前阶段，花园有利于建立一些简单的因果关系，这些关系在小学阶段得到巩固，并营造了一种动机和情感氛围，这在最终的绘图中很明显，因为绘图中有大量细节、成品水平以及颜色的精心组合和多样性。从学前、小学和中学教育的最终图形表示中可以明显看出，与水相关的元素显著增加，这证明了花园的使用有助于形成对负责任水资源管理的认识。在大学阶段，学生最初表现出对传统农业的良好了解，而基于永续农业实践的园艺体验有助于他们的想法朝着替代种植模式发展。在所有阶段，最普遍的科学学习与植物知识有关，特别是与它们的解剖特征和多样性有关。最后，证明了教育花园作为学生榜样的作用，这表明教师和机构仔细考虑提供哪种模式的重要性。总体而言，我们的结果支持将花园纳入教育中心的合理性，特别是对于促进与活植物和植物知识的接触，以及潜在地促进与花园动物群的接触和围绕了解它的活动。
