0000000000083864
AUTHOR
Sarah Sahrakhiz
Immediacy and distance in teacher talk—A comparative case study in German elementary- and outdoor school-teaching
This case study examines authentic speech acts by a German primary school teacher in the classroom context and the outdoor learning location of a forest. The study will compare the degree of linguistic immediacy or distance in these two contexts, respectively. Once a week, the class is doing “outdoor school” [Draußenschule] in places of natural or cultural interest near to their school. The structural change in the teaching environment means a change in the communication setting. The question arises if the teacher speaks to the students differently indoors than outdoors. The theoretical reference framework for the study is provided by the linguistic model “language of immediacy and language…
The ‘outdoor school’ as a school improvement process: empirical results from the perspective of teachers in Germany
ABSTRACTThis paper focuses on school improvement processes in the context of weekly curricular-based teaching and learning activities outside the classroom – known as Drausenschule or ‘outdoor school’ – in three German primary schools. Qualitative interviews were conducted with three teachers two years after implementing the ‘outdoor school’. The teachers’ experiences show that the implementation and (ongoing) development of an outdoor school affects (1) teaching as such; (2) the school staff, and (3) the entire school as an organisation. The three areas are interlinked in different ways and the school improvement process cannot be approached from the perspective of any one area alone.
Learning opportunities in the outdoor school–empirical findings on outdoor school in Germany from the children’s perspective
This article examines learning processes and learning opportunities in the outdoor school based on 13 focus-group interviews with children (ages 8–9) at three German elementary schools. For 1 year,...
School Teaching in Germany Between Tradition and Innovation: The Concept of the Outdoor School
It is a well known fact that school is seen as having a spatial characteristic, being associated to indoor learning. The aim of this chapter is to underlined the idea that learning and educational processes can take place in different settings, and to offer other experiences that the traditional classroom with its specific conditions largely neglected. The dimensions of space, time, and body are re-evaluated from the perspective of outdoor education which faces children (and teachers) with new, sometimes challenging, and adventurous experiences that contrast with an everyday routine of school instruction.