What explains the motivation of primary pre-service teachers at Swiss teacher universities to learn outdoor teaching?

Abstract

If outdoor learning is beneficial for children’s development but teachers are mainly unfamiliar with the concept of outdoor teaching (OT), it is necessary to integrate it in teacher education. However, outdoor courses are not widely offered in teacher education and generally not mandatory, so for such courses to be taken, they must be actively chosen by pre-service teachers. To better understand the motivation behind learning OT, we asked pre-service teachers from seven teacher universities in Switzerland about their interest in OT, their beliefs and perceptions about it and their self-efficacy with regard to it. We analysed the data quantitatively using a structural equation model. We found that beliefs about positive effects and interest in nature and the outdoors as a learning environment are stronger predictors for pre-service teachers’ motivation than self-efficacy and gender; perceptions of environmental problems had no direct effect on motivation.