Date of Award
2018
Document Type
Open Access Dissertation
Department
Educational Studies
Sub-Department
College of Education
First Advisor
Susan Schramm-Pate
Abstract
New policy at LHP (pseudonym) requires all teachers to implement the Danish Forest School approach and integrate the natural outdoor areas surrounding the campus in their curriculum and pedagogy. The purposes of the present study are to identify the cognitive, affective and psychomotor impact of the Danish Forest School approach on students and to design a professional development plan for teachers that enables them to combine this approach within an interdisciplinary framework that will include the State Standards that are required of all third-grade students in this southern, private, parochial school. Action research methods were used to collect observational data in both the indoor and outdoor classrooms. Data was analyzed to compare the two settings. Data findings include: 1. Teacher resistance; 2. Student-to-student interactions; 3. Student attention spans; and 4. Student anxiety to the outdoor classroom. An action plan is designed to enable teachers to effectively design curricular plans that integrate the Danish Forest School approach with state standards and are sensitive to students’ needs.
Rights
© 2018, Valerie Hoyt-Parrish
Recommended Citation
Hoyt-Parrish, V.(2018). The Impact of a Forest School Model and an Interdisciplinary Curriculum in a Third-Grade Classroom: An Action Research Study. (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/4860