The effect of outdoor activity integrated biology curriculum on student achievement and attitudes

The effect of the tenth-grade biology curriculum integrated with outdoor education (OE) on students' success and attitude towards biology compared to indoor education and the long-term retention were investigated at current study. The study consisted of experiment (N=43) participating in OE, control-II (N=35) participating in indoor education, and control-I (N=35) groups that did not participate indoor or outdoor education. Semi-experimental design was used as research method. A knowledge test, which consists of multiple-choice questions to determine the change in students 'knowledge, and an attitude scale to determine the changes in students' attitudes towards biology, and a questionnaire, were used as data collection tools. Pre-, post-, and retention tests were performed for the experiment and control-II groups, and pre-, and retention tests were performed for the control-I group. According to the post-test results of the study, knowledge (x̅=13.23) and attitude (x̅=4.08) of the experiment students were more positively affected than the control-II knowledge (x̅=9.05) and attitudes (x̅=3.75) (p<0.05). According to the retention-test result, which was applied six months after the pre-test, while the positive effect of OE on knowledge and attitudes of experiment group by the pre-test results still continued, the control-II decreased to the same level of knowledge and attitudes as the control-I. According to the results of the study, OE have more positive and retention effect on students' knowledge and attitudes towards biology than indoor teaching. In order to increase the knowledge of students from some subjects of the biology course and to positively affect their attitudes, OE should be added to the biology curriculum of secondary education and the cooperation of the Ministry of National Education and universities is necessary for an effective OE.