Term

Summer 2023

Capstone

Capstone Project

Degree Name

MAT

Facilitator(s)

Julia Reimer

Content Expert

Casey Gregor

Abstract

Research has sought to find ways that educators can increase student engagement, social attitudes, cooperation, and other domains of social-emotional learning in the classroom. Outdoor education researchers have long hypothesized that outdoor education can help increase student social, emotional, and academic outcomes. There are many different definitions of outdoor education and several frameworks for social-emotional learning. This project uses a definition of outdoor education derived from a combination of historical research from Lloyd B. Sharp and Phyllis Ford, international research and curriculum analyses, and several environmental, place-based, and nature-based education research studies. This project utilizes the CASEL framework and EDTRUST’s transformative SEL guide to define positive SEL outcomes in elementary settings. The professional development series in this project allows educators in grades 3-5 to learn about and experience outdoor education, collaborate to plan outdoor education lessons, assess their students’ social-emotional learning outcomes, and use classroom data in order to consider the research question: what is the effect of outdoor education on the social emotional outcomes of elementary-aged students?

Project Type

Professional Development

Keywords

Staff Development, Outdoor Education

dc_type

text

dc_publisher

DigitalCommons@Hamline

dc_format

application/pdf

dc_source

School of Education Student Capstone Projects

Included in

Education Commons

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