EduPARK Project and Supervised Pedagogical Practice: Challenges for students in the 1st Cycle of Basic Education

Abstract

The paper is based on a study developed in the framework of the Supervised Pedagogical Practice in a class of the 4th year of the 1st Cycle of Basic Education in which tasks were designed, planned, implemented and evaluated both at the level of the classroom (indoor) and the outdoor context, in ‘Infante D. Pedro’ Park in Aveiro. The aim of this paper is to analyse the impact of outdoor activities, within the EduPARK project, in three different dimensions: difficulties, interest and motivation. These tasks aim not only an active learning in mathematics, in the field of Geometry and Measure and in the study of the environment, in the field of Living Beings, but also to create a pedagogical innovation, as they are based in a mobile application with augmented reality contents, based on an interactive game. Some results, particularly in the outdoor context, are presented, assuming the action research format with a qualitative methodological approach. The results show that students have a high interest in this kind of outdoor learning method, confirming the expectation that technology, so familiar to students, can and should be articulated with outdoor teaching practices in order to enhance learning and that these interventions minimize the difficulties of the students, allowing them to experience their own knowledge through problem solving in real context, exploring a mobile application.