Improving and encouraging teacher confidence in out-of-classroom learning: the impact of the Hampshire Trailblazer project on 3–13 curriculum practitioners

Abstract

Outdoor education continues to play an important role in helping to deliver the school curriculum. Recent UK government initiatives have encouraged schools to deliver more of the curriculum outside the classroom. However, teacher confidence in taking pupils outside has been negatively affected by many factors in recent years. The Hampshire Trailblazer project has been set up to provide a supporting framework for a structured programme of activities designed for primary and secondary school students. In this study, four focus groups of 3–13 curriculum practitioners were asked to discuss aspects of the scheme including its impact on students, their perceptions of its benefits to them and barriers to implementing the scheme. The findings of the study indicate that it provides opportunities to develop educators' self-efficacy and thus to change teachers' behaviours making them more able to use innovative pedagogies and more confident to take students beyond the confines of the classroom.