Field- and inquiry-based ecology teaching: Status, challenges and opportunities for K-12 teachers

A conceptual model of teacher interest in innovative approaches identifies knowledge and skills, outcomes expectations, and self efficacy, as key constraints and enablers of field- and inquiry-based teaching. The model frames results from surveys of teachers in the Schoolyard Ecology for Elementary School Teachers (SYEFEST) project in the 1990’s and teachers in current projects in Baltimore, Maryland. Most of the 150 teachers in the SYEFEST project, already a motivated group, took their students out once per month or less before participating, citing time and their ecology knowledge as constraints. Two week SYEFEST institutes and on-going support reduced most but not all concerns and increased the outdoor teaching significantly, though this result lessened over time. Improvement in inquiry- and constructivist teaching were much smaller except for certain teachers who made remarkable gains. Teachers in the Baltimore Ecosystem Study’s programs have similar concerns and successes. In the Ecology Teaching Study we examined how ecology is taught in Baltimore City and County high schools more broadly, yielding detailed surveys from 150 biology and environmental science teachers. Teachers use traditional practices (lecture, reading, discussion) much more than any practices of interest (fieldwork, action projects, real data), and focus on the Chesapeake Bay much more than on the urban ecosystem, with managed ecosystems receiving even less attention. Student investigations in labs are more frequent than in the schoolyard, with use of the school’s neighborhood being the least frequent. Half do experiments in the schoolyard “never” or “almost never.” Teachers’ primary reasons for teaching ecology were to demonstrate relevance and encourage active protection of the environment. Interestingly, other teachers and the internet are the primary sources of ecological knowledge for the teachers. These findings have important implications for professional development and support of teachers for leaving no child inside nor unconnected with real world ecology.