Learning Biology Beyond the Classroom: The Role of Farms, Wetlands, and Markets in Senior High Schools in the Effutu Municipality
Keywords:
Experiential biology learning, farm learning, field learning, wetlands learning, contextual learningAbstract
The aim of teaching the subject of biology is to enable students to perceive the living systems in their day-to-day socioeconomic environments. Nonetheless, the teaching in most high schools is still mostly classroom and textbook-based and does not offer students the opportunity to relate the abstract concepts of biology with the real world. This paper explored the importance of farms, wetlands, and local markets as natural learning classrooms in the development of biological concepts among senior high school students in the Effutu Municipality, Ghana. The study was based on Experiential Learning Theory, Constructivism, and Place-Based Education; its design was a convergent parallel mixed-methods approach. A structured questionnaire was used to gather quantitative data about the 100 biology students based on their exposure to outdoor learning environments and their conceptual knowledge, and a semi-structured interview was used to generate qualitative data on 16 biology teachers. The quantitative data were analysed through descriptive statistics, and the qualitative data were analysed in the form of a theme. The results have shown that the students indicated improvement in their knowledge regarding plant development, animal rearing, environmental interactions, and human-environment relationships when learning activities were done in farms, wetlands and marketplaces. Teachers also saw these environments as having pedagogical value in enhancing student engagement, motivation and understanding of concepts. Nevertheless, the size of the classes and the insufficient time for instruction, safety, and institutional support limited the regular integration of outdoor learning. There was no significant barrier to the willingness of the community to host school visits. The paper concludes that the underutilised but valuable pedagogical resources include farms, wetlands, and markets and suggests specific institutional support, flexibility of the curriculum, and professional growth of teachers to maintain place-based experiential learning of biology.
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