Teacher opinions on the use of out-of-school learning environments in science education

There are a lot of different environments that provide out-of-school learning such as science centers, factories, zoos, and arboretums. Thanks to that environments, students learn by experience which is one of the most powerful methods that entertainingly provides permanent learning. Teachers have different responsibilities when they are using an out-of-school education environment than classes such as preparing outline syllabus and getting permission from the school management. This research aims to determine opinions of the teachers who conduct science classes about the out of school learning environments. The participants of the research are teachers conducting sciences classes in Kartal, İstanbul. The territory is chosen because of its location, there are a lot of different out-of-school learning environments near Kartal. While choosing the teachers in the territory, simple random sampling method has been used. 321 different science teachers or teachers conducting science classes participated in the research. In this study, which used the survey model, one of the quantitative research methods, the "Out of School Learning Scale" is used as a data collection tool. For analyzing the data of research, independent sample T-test and one-way ANOVA are used. As a result of the study, specialty, having education about out-of-school learning environments, in need of education about out-of-school learning environments, and seniority have an impact on the usage of out-of-school learning environments, while education level and gender have no impact on it. Moreover, another result of it is that form teachers use out-of-school education environments more than science teachers.