CLASSROOM TEACHERS' VIEWS ON OUT-OF-SCHOOL LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS IN SCIENCE TEACHING

The aim of this study is to explore the views of classroom teachers on out-of-school learning environments. Phenomenological design, which is a qualitative method, was used in this study. The study group of the research consists of 20 classroom teachers working in public primary schools in one province of Central Anatolia region in the academic year 2022-2023, who were selected based on maximum diversity. MAXQDA 2018 software was used to analyze the data obtained from the study. According to the results of the study, it was observed that classroom teachers mostly mentioned the places where out-of-school learning environments take place when defining out-of-school learning and mostly used the responses of museum and library in these definitions. Classroom teachers stated that they benefit more from traditional methods and techniques such as question-answer when using out-of-school learning environments. Most of the classroom teachers emphasized that in-service or post-service training is almost non-existent and that the training that is provided is ineffective because it is theoretical and not face-to-face. According to the classroom teachers, although the use of out-of-school learning environments offers great benefits in science learning, they expressed the difficulties they experienced in practice as financial issues, transport, control of pupils and the safety factor. When considering the results of the research, it is recommended that more emphasis be placed on application-oriented courses for educational activities in out-of-school learning environments and on in-service courses for out-of-school learning environments in faculties of education.