The Future of Education

The present explorative qualitative study aims at investigating extracurricular learning places and their benefit for children to develop social competencies. In particular, the focus is on children´s behavior at farms, and how they experience these places concerning social competencies. The following research questions are posed: Which social competencies are acquired on farms? How are social competences in extra-curricular learning places promoted and developed? The research of the acquisition of competencies of children requires intensive attention to the subjective views of the acting children. The examination of the childlike world of experience enables us to develop an understanding of how children develop their social competencies and which relevance structures their experiences are based on. This also requires their individual and subjective experience contexts. It is therefore important to consider which aspects come into their view, how they experience and interpret their perceived experiential space. To take that into account pupils from elementary schools were accompanied on their visit to farms. Participatory observations were made and situations and interactions were filmed and captured by photographs. Discussions and individual interviews with the pupils, the teachers and the farmers were recorded. After the excursion, the pupils of one school were asked to make drawings about their experiences on the farm. These qualitative data material was then analyzed in a mixed-methods approach.
The most intriguing results to emerge from the data are firstly the existence of different perceptions of environmental realities depending on the cultural and social background of the children, which became visible in children´s drawn pictures; secondly, we have found out that out-of-school learning places, such as the farm, allow children to develop their social skills independently and individually according to the personal needs of the child. Based on the available data it was possible to identify the following types and cases: the Newcomer, the Expert, the Learner, the Hyperactive, and the Underdog. These types differ greatly in their behavior in school, their cultural and social backgrounds, their learning requirements, their needs and their way of acquiring the experience space of a farm and using it for their personal needs.

Keywords: Primary education, extracurricular learning places, social competences, learning world;