Outdoor experiential education: Ecology application

Outdoor Experiential Teaching: Ecology ApplicationOne of the subjects that countries dwell upon is sustainable development. It is needed to evaluate components of economic, social, and environmental alltogether. Environmental education is required for sustainable development. The aim of this research is to evaluate effectiveness of an outdoor environmental education program which is design within sustainable development. The program is based on cognitive and affective targets of primary and secondary school programs, ecopedagogy, community of practice, Kolb?s Experiential Learning Theory. The triangulation mix method is used within the scope of case study. The data is collected through environmental knowledge test, awareness and attitude scale, open ended questions, participatory observation, and camera records.There is no sample selection for the research. The sample of research consists of teachers who participate in TUBITAK project which is called `Ecology of Canakkale and Suburb, 2011?, indoor, and traditional environmental education programs. The design of research is `pretest- postest- control group? design. The same program is applied for all three groups. The outdoor experiential environmental education program is applied for experimental group. The indoor experiential environmental education program is applied for control I group. The traditional environmental education program is applied for control II group. The test, scales and questions are applied to three groups as pre-test, post-test and post-post test (follow up).The most successful group at environmental knowledge test is control I group while experimental group is successful at environmental awareness and favourable attitude scales. Outdoor experiential environmental education program is more effective on affective area, holostic perspective, and behavioral changing.Key Words: Outdoor environmental education, ecopedagogy, triangulation mixed methodology, Kolb?s Experiential Learning Theory.