Abstract Environmental education (EE) typically occurs in natural settings, which research suggests may enhance learning outcomes. Although field trips are commonly used to teach EE, few studies have isolated the influence of different setting characteristics for enhancing participant outcomes during an EE field trip. According to the literature, certain attributes of the natural setting, including novelty, beauty, and naturalness, as well as how the setting is used such as through place-based education, immersion, and time spent inside vs. outside, are thought to positively impact people’s experiences with nature. In this study, we collected data from 334 EE field trip programs for 5-8th grade students to investigate the influence of these natural setting characteristics on positive learning outcomes. Results suggest that the naturalness and novelty of the setting, the use of place-based education, and spending more time outside vs. inside all positively correlated with more positive student outcomes. The implications of the results for environmental educators are discussed.

中文翻译：

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自然环境对环境教育成果的影响

摘要 环境教育 (EE) 通常发生在自然环境中，研究表明这可能会提高学习成果。尽管实地考察通常用于教授 EE，但很少有研究将不同环境特征对提高 EE 实地考察期间参与者成果的影响隔离开来。根据文献，自然环境的某些属性，包括新奇、美丽和自然，以及环境的使用方式，例如通过基于地方的教育、沉浸感以及在室内与室外度过的时间，都被认为是积极的影响人们对自然的体验。在这项研究中，我们从 5-8 年级学生的 334 个 EE 实地考察项目中收集了数据，以调查这些自然环境特征对积极学习成果的影响。结果表明，环境的自然性和新颖性、基于地方的教育的使用以及在户外与在室内的更多时间都与更积极的学生成果呈正相关。讨论了结果对环境教育者的影响。