Abstract
This article examined the role of environmental interaction in interdisciplinary thinking and the use of different knowledge resource types. The case study was conducted with two classes (N = 40) of 8th-grade students, ages 13 to 14. The outdoor trail aimed to help students synthesize history, geography, and science knowledge. Two groups’ discourse from each class was audio-recorded and transcribed for content analysis. We coded the discourse to examine: (i) the use of different knowledge resource types (i.e., contextual resource, new conceptual resource, prior knowledge resource); (ii) the relationship among these knowledge resource types; and (iii) evidences of interdisciplinary thinking. Findings showed that contextual resources enhanced students’ capacity to develop new conceptual resources and to activate prior knowledge resources. Further, about 80% of students’ discourse demonstrated interdisciplinary connections of two subjects.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 113-130 |
| Number of pages | 18 |
| Journal | Journal of Environmental Education |
| Volume | 50 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 4 Mar 2019 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2018, © 2018 Esther Tan and Hyo-Jeong So. Published with license by Taylor & Francis.
Keywords
- Environmental interaction
- interdisciplinary thinking
- knowledge co-construction
- knowledge resources
- outdoor learning