Science Education beyond the Classroom: Out-of-School Learning Environments and Implementation Challenges

Abstract

Out-of-School learning environments (OSLEs) include all educational settings and scenarios outside the realm of formal schooling. As opposed to structured, compulsory, and subject-based school education, out-of-school learning is characterized as nonsequential, self-paced, and voluntary, emphasizing the construction and transfer of knowledge through real-world problem-solving (Falk, 2001). Specifically, OSLEs span science and technology centers, museums, nature conservation bases, community-based science centers, home education scenarios, all sorts of virtual educational spaces and more (Eshach, 2007; Yildirim, 2018). They share common features including providing learners with direct access to authentic objects, opportunities for experiential learning, and possibilities of generating personalized understanding in a free-choice atmosphere.