The evaluation of the use of school gardens by science teachers in their lectures: Case of city of Tokat

The purpose of this study is the evaluation of use of school gardens by science teachers during their classes in regards to different variables. This study is conducted with a total amount of 113 middle-school science teachers (53 male and 60 female) working in elementary schools in the city of Tokat, Turkey. In order to evaluate the status of use of school gardens by the teachers, a questionnaire consisting of two parts (the questionnaire for the status of use of school gardens) developed by the researcher is applied to the teachers. While the first part of the questionnaire contains demographic information regarding teachers' gender, seniority, graduation status, and the grade level of the teachers, the second part of the questionnaire contains open-ended questions regarding the use of school gardens. In this study, a mixed method combining both quantitative and qualitative data is used in order to examine the research topic in more detail. The research data in this study was collected by the researcher from the science teachers in person. Descriptive statistical methods of frequency and percentage were used for statistical solutions of the data for the sub-problems of the study, while the SPSS 26.0 package program and Multiple Response analysis were used for the questions with multiple answers. Open-ended questions are analyzed according to content analysis. The results of the research show that almost half of the teachers use the school gardens in their lectures, and the majority of the teachers who do use the school garden at irregular intervals and as a replacement of classes for the purpose of lecturing. In addition, in terms of learning categories for middle-school 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grades, it is seen that teachers mostly use the school gardens in the "Physical Events" learning category. Moreover, it has been determined that teachers mostly experience classroom management problems followed by the physical inadequacy of the school garden and the distraction of students and seasonal problems while using the school garden in their lectures. The main reason for teachers who do not use the school garden in their lessons is the high density of students in the garden. In addition, it was determined that the physical insufficiency of the garden and the reasons related to classroom management were followed. However, teachers made various suggestions to their colleagues in order to use the school garden more effectively and efficiently. It was determined that the first of these suggestions is that the school garden activity should be planned beforehand. Additionally, the teachers stated that the use of school gardens supports the development of students' psychomotor, cognitive and affective skills.