Students’ experiences of outdoor environmental education: Negative and positive perceptions1, ambivalent assessments

Abstract The study focused on students’ positive, negative, and ambivalent overall assessments of outdoor environmental education programs and special positive and negative perceptions related to them. A questionnaire answered by 419 Hungarian students quantitatively assessed their direct nature experiences and connectedness to nature. According to the results, 54.9% of the students associate school programs in nature with at least one of the following three negatives: too much discipline, lack of free time, or too many compulsory programs. 23.0% of the students had an ambivalent overall assessment of their current-school direct nature experience. A relationship was found between overall ambivalent, but not negative, assessment of current-school direct nature experience(s) and weaker nature connectedness, while encountering the sense of discovery in these experiences had a positive association with nature connectedness. These associations are independent of gender, eco-school attendance, and out-of-current-school direct nature experiences. Based on the results, it is important to rethink the current pedagogical practices of outdoor environmental education programs.