Use of schoolyards in Geopraphy education in high schools

The places where learning process occurs in schools can be non-classroom as well as intraclass. Non classroom atmospheres should also be integrated into the learning process even though a huge part of educational process in schools functions in classrooms. These non classroom areas should be regulated so as educational process to be reinforced and be more efficient. Non classroom activities are teaching activities that make intraclass ones more meaningful, give o the abstract elements concreteness, and include the activities unable to do in classroom. Schoolyard is the leading places when it comes ton on classroom education atmospheres. There are numerous researches that investigate that schoolyard can be a labarotary providing interdiciplinary interaction for the Geograpics studying the interactive relation between nature and human and the results of it. In this context, it was tried to determine to what extent schoolyards are included in geography education activities in high schools in this study. Geography teachers serving in the schools affiliated to The Ministry of National Education participated in this study carried out in scan pattern. In this context, 18 Geography teachers, 9 of them are from state schools and the rest is from private schols, have been interviewed. Due to the differences that can be seen in the use of schoolyards, teachers working in private schools as well as teachers working in public schools were interviewed. The technique of semi-structured interview, one of the qualitiveb data collection techniques, is used in collection of data. Semistructured interview form is one of the qualitative data collection methods. The descriptive analysis technique was used in the analysis of the data obtained from the participants by developing the interview form.A variety of findings have been obtained through this study. The participants mostly expressed positive opinions about the possible contributions of the use of schoolyards to Geography education. The teachers expressed that these areas increase the persistency of what is learnt, provide learning by experience, and make the viii learning process more entertaining. Some close thoughts can be seen among the expressions of the teachers with regard to the difficulties preventing the use of schoolyards. The teachers complained about some circumstances such as the incapacity of space in the schoolyards, insufficiency of time and budget and the negative treatments of the school management and the parents. It can be seen that the teachers' suggestions for functional use of schoolyards in Geography education coincide with the issues determined throughout the study. Especially the regulation of the schoolyards to support learning process, provision of the required equipment and reducing the drawbacks stemming from school management are the leading suggestions. Considering the teachers' views and suggestions and also the learning outcomes of Geography lesson, a project is designed to support the use of schoolyards in Geograph education.