Browsing by Author "Nieminen, Heini"

Aims. According to literature and former study children's operating environments have become more diversified and schools should take into account the possibilities offered by informal learning environments. Exploitation of out of school environments can be seen to support learning. The study examined the views of class teachers' about using informal learning environments from the perspectives of learning, class teacher's work and possible ways to support the use of informal learning environments. Methods. Eighteen class teachers that work in Lahti, took part to this study. Research material was gathered in February and in March 2015 using an electronic questionnaire. The open ended questions were in an important role in the electronic questionnaire. Research material was analyzed with content analysis. The quantification was also utilized as part of the analysis. Results and conclusions. The study showed that the nature and various cultural sites were the main informal learning environments that class teachers utilized in their teaching. Exploitation of out of school learning environments was considered important from the perspective of child's learning although the exploitation of environments can bring challenges to teacher's work, especially from the perspective of time management. Exploitation of environments was considered to bring variation to class teachers work. Exploitation of informal learning environments was seen to increase motivation to learn as well as to support remembering. The lack of resources and the location of the school were considered to affect the utilization of environments. The exploitation of environments was supported by the cultural program and also the interaction in work communities was considered important way to support the use of environments. However, the support was seen as inadequate, and additional support was needed, especially reduction of transport costs as well as additional information to classroom teachers were considered important ways to support the use of informal learning environments. The study shows, that despite of factors limiting the exploitation of informal learning environments, teachers experience that environments are important in learning.