DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF AN INSTRUMENT FOR ASSESSING THE LEARNING-ENVIRONMENT OF OUTDOOR SCIENCE ACTIVITIES

The SOLEI (Science Outdoor Learning Environment Inventory) was develop ed and content-validated in high schools in Israel. The instrument con sists of seven scales (55 items). Five of the scales are based on the Science Laboratory Learning Environment Instrument (SLEI) developed in Australia. The other two scales are unique to the learning environmen t existing in outdoor activities. The instrument was found to be a sen sitive measure that differentiates between different types of field tr ips conducted in the context of different subjects (biology, chemistry , and earth science). It is suggested that the instrument could be an important addition to the research tools available for studies conduct ed in informal settings in science education. (C) 1997 John Wiley & So ns, Inc.