School-based outdoor education: a neglected practice at secondary level

This is an international study in which 125 secondary-level students from different European countries came together and were exposed to outdoor education. The purpose was to investigate the impact level of outdoor activities on the students' success rates and explore how they perceived their experiences in outdoors. The analysis of the data gathered from pre- and post-tests and semi-structured in-depth interviews showed outdoor education could complement indoor teaching, clarify abstract theoretical points, expand content knowledge and raise test scores of the students. At the same time, with its motivating nature, outdoor learning helped the participants get ready for learning and use their higher order thinking skills, form good relationships with others, communicate and cooperate and build high levels of self-efficacy. This research affirms outdoor education is an effective, but mostly neglected, practice at secondary levels and recommends policymakers to re-evaluate their vision for the status of learning in outdoors.