Social science outdoor instruction in the second grade of primary school

In this thesis, we studied outdoor lessons in second form for the subject environmental education (EE). The purpose of the thesis was to carry out nine teaching units in the outdoors. The lessons took place once a week outside the classroom in the vicinity of the school regardless of the weather conditions and the content of the lesson. The objectives of our research are to present the experiences and recommendations of experienced teachers to work in the open air, to present opportunities and ideas for teaching environmental education outdoors in second form irrespective of the content of teaching, and to find out how weather affects lesson planning and implementation. The research was conducted with the action approach, where we used a descriptive and causal non-experimental method. The sample included 21 pupils attending second form in a primary school in the Notranjska region, 10 boys and 11 girls. In the theoretical part, we provided details of the outdoor lessons, the positive effects on pupils and the organization and implementation problems faced by teachers. In the practical part, we described and analysed individual teaching units and survey questionnaires answered by pupils and teachers on outdoor lessons. At the end of the ninth teaching unit, pupils did a written examination, which was used to determine whether the classes in the open air achieved our educational goals. We looked at the math tests after outdoor lessons and on days without outdoor lessons to determine whether outdoor lessons are reflected in the concentration of pupils in the lessons that follow. The results showed that weather affects lesson planning and execution, and that outdoor lessons have a positive effect on the concentration of pupils in the lessons that follow. Outdoor lessons help to achieve the set teaching objectives