~~ The potential of Garden Based Learning on learner outcomes ~~

Many types of garden based learning experiences are used to enhance instruction
often with the intention of fostering greater student engagement. Graham et al, (2005)
examined the school garden initiative in California at large, surveying principles to
understand the uses of school gardens. The results of their investigation provided
evidence that the primary intention of the garden initiative was to enhance instruction,
presumably to improve academic performance and overall student experience, but also to
affect student behavior, in particular their nutritional habits. The numerous outcomes of a
singular garden based initiative allow educators to positively affect performance and
academic experience, but to also affect student behavior. Ruiz et al (2013) present a case
in which the intention of the garden based learning experience is to improve student
behavior and attitudes towards school. While behavior science is beyond the scope of this
investigation evidence suggests that the garden based learning experience can affect
students in various capacities.
Within the definition of garden based learning as a formal learning experience it is
expected that the learner outcomes will vary widely, but also share similar themes of nonperformance based outcomes. As Fattal (2009) explains, garden based learning exposes
students to the content in an interdisciplinary way offering students a unique perspective
of the intersection of visual arts and sciences. Reeves & Emeagwali (2010) bring forth
the idea that greater enthusiasm for learning is fostered when students take part in the
process of gardening. By taking part in the process of a project students are able to
directly realize the outcomes of their actions (Elmes & Loiacono, 2009). Enthusiasm and
engagement are discussed as peripheral outcomes in studies of the performance based

outcomes of garden based learning, but deeper reading of these investigations led to a
body of literature in which non-performance based outcomes dominated the findings.
Before moving to the that discussion it is necessary to provide some of the literature that
prompted an investigation of the impacts of garden based learning beyond the
measurability of performance scores.
Performance Based Impacts of GBL
During my initial exploration into the garden based literature many of the studies
reported on the academic performance benefits of garden based learning experiences.
Smith and Motsenbocker (2005) performed a study in which they assessed the pre and
post test scores of two groups of students, one group of elementary students who
participated in a garden based learning curriculum and another group of elementary
students from the same school who did not participate in the garden based learning
curriculum. They found that students who participated in the garden based learning
program scored significantly higher on their post-test scores than the students who did
not participate in the garden based learning program. Klemmer et al (2005) conducted a
similar study using science achievement tests to assess the academic performance
differences between elementary students learning science through garden based
curriculum and elementary students learning science in a traditional classroom. The
authors found that students learning in the context of the garden scored significantly
higher on the achievement tests than those students learning in the traditional classroom.
The authors suggested that experiential nature of garden based learning facilitated such
impacts on academic performance. The quantitative differences between the garden based

learning experience and that of the traditional classroom raise the idea that experiential
process of garden based learning may benefit a variety many learner types.
The performance benefits of garden based learning were also realized by Ruiz et
al (2013) in a study of disenchanted and disengaged high school students in traditional
classrooms who were placed in a garden based learning environment. The results of this
investigation found that before participating in garden based learning 86% of students
failed 5 or more subjects and that after participating in garden based learning experiences
93% of the same students had failed 2 or fewer subjects. Over the four years of this study
the authors also found an increase in graduation rates along with decreasing dropout and
failure rates among these students. The performance benefits of garden based learning are
evident in a variety of educational context, but the effects associated with experiential
nature of the garden based experience are difficult to describe quantitatively. To better
understand the effects of the gardening experience we will look beyond the context of
performance based assessments to understand the whole of learning outcomes.
Non-Performance Based Impacts of GBL
The performance based outcomes of garden based learning been shown through
improved test scores and academic achievement, but the non-performance based
outcomes of those garden based experiences are often described as secondary benefits to
the experience. By exploring garden based literature with a focus on these secondary
benefits I discovered and accumulated a significant body of research that discussed a
variety of non-performance based learner outcomes. After closer reading of this literature
themes of non-performance based outcomes emerged across student age groups and types
of garden based learning experiences. The emergent themes that developed were

observed and reported benefits to students and measurable changes in student behavior
and or attitude. Much of the benefits of GBL are to the individual, however positive
impacts on interpersonal relations and school to community relations were associated
with GBL. The most common and foundational theme is improved student engagement,
and from that foundation emerged a number of intra and inter-learner benefits related to
the development of students as effective citizens.
The Ruiz et al (2013) study of student behavior amongst disenchanted and
disruptive students did find performance benefits, but the results of this case study
provided significant grounds for discussion of the many behavioral changes observed
with these same students. The students were once categorized as disruptive, and later
described to have improved attitudes towards school, demonstrated increasing student
responsibility, increased self esteem and self confidence as well as demonstrating
increased autonomous skills development. Similar outcomes were found throughout the
literature and will be categorized into the themes of: engagement, ownership of learning,
self-esteem/self confidence, collaboration and cooperation, understanding/transference,
and finally differentiation as an auxiliary benefit to the educator. The following sections
are arranged to discuss the literature contributing to the emergent themes of garden based
learning. To conclude I will discuss how the emergent themes contribute to the greater
discussion of developing students as effective citizens.
Engagement and Attitudes Towards Learning
Increased student engagement is one of the primary intentions of garden based
learning and was also found to be the most common benefit of the garden based
experience. Bartsch, (2001) in a curriculum guide designed for the Massachusetts public

schools outlined a community garden based learning experience describing how students
were actively engaged in the processes of a community garden. Students were physically
participating in the learning experience and therefor in some capacity, engaged in their
learning. Through this kinesthetic engagement in the learning process students are able to
realize the outcomes of their actions and develop a positive attitude towards learning.
In a publication of the Rainwater Environmental Alliance for Learning (REAL)
Reeves (2010) found that students were more enthusiastic about their learning because of
the experiential way in which they were learning science. The experience involves visual,
auditory and kinesthetic instruction that can affect a variety of learners. This notion is
supported by the findings of a study of a diverse multicultural elementary school in
Australia where more than 37 different languages other than English were spoken. By
using of the garden as a slow learning environment these students were observed to be
very engaged in their learning (Cutter and Mackenzie, 2009). This slow learning
environment was described to facilitate a comfortable space in which the diverse students
could more easily engage in their learning process without the barriers of language and or
culture. Here the garden context transcended differences in culture and language through
a shared learning experience and provides evidence for the ability of the garden based
learning experience to engage a diversity of learner types.
The active necessity of participation in tasks may also engage students regardless
learner types. Block et al (2012) studied a kitchen garden program where students
actively learn science and other academic content in their school garden and in the
kitchen. While these students showed increased engagement during school time on a
whole, the students were most excited about their garden based and kitchen based

learning experiences. The active experience of the gardening process may be one of the
components of the experience that engages students. When such learning experiences are
properly aligned with academic content the instruction can facilitate subsequent
engagement in the academic curriculum at large and improve attitudes toward school.
The development of skills and tools for understanding content that students develop
through gardening are also transferable to the classroom help maintain engagement and
improve attitudes towards learning (Block et al, 2012).
The use of community experts to instruct gardening skills in combination with
academic instruction from their primary teacher demonstrates collaboration, a parallel
process that students can also engage in through their interactions with the community
expert and their classmates. An assessment of a garden based learning experience in
which students worked with local garden experts on a variety of tasks in their schoolyard
garden such as mapping of the layout and associated soil studies; students demonstrated
engagement in these collaborative activities. Doyle (2010) attributes this type of
collaborative engagement in academic material to the interactions with other experts in a
common setting for both the students and community expert, the school garden. The
garden here serves as a multidimensional context for learning, and continues to
demonstrate the ability to foster engagement with academic content as well as community
experts.
The engagement phenomenon is best described by Skinner et al (2012), in their
study of 6th and 7th graders in which they describe intrinsic engagement associated with
authentic learning experiences such as gardening. Skinner et al, found that educators
reported increased engagement in scientific learning while in the garden environment, but

also that students reported increased classroom engagement in their learning outside of
the garden based environment. The quantitative assessment of student and teacher reports
found that students who were more engaged in the garden context were also then more
engaged in science and school in general. Lekies and Sheavly (2007) echo the Skinner et
al, (2012) investigation of intrinsic engagement finding that students who participated in
garden based learning for longer periods of time were more likely to be engaged in their
learning of activities taught in the garden context. The findings of Skinner et al (2012)
and Lekies and Sheavly (2007) punctuate the idea that if we can engage students through
learning in a garden context they may continue to be engaged in later learning
environments and their academics on a whole.
Ownership of Learning
Continued engagement in academic content can be understood as students
developing ownership over their learning and can lead to increased responsibility for the
learning process. Reeves and Emeagwali, (2010) cite a particular REAL garden project in
which a group of students receive an innovation grant to bring alternative energy systems
to their garden. These students were not just learning about alternative energies to use in
their garden system, but actively creating solutions to irrigation challenges by applying
content to their learning context. These students demonstrate that beyond engaging in
their learning, they took ownership of that knowledge and applied it to the challenges in
their school garden, conveying a sense of responsibility for the outcomes of the garden.
The positive nature of this solution-based learning facilitated by the gardening process
may empower these students to take further ownership and interest in the outcomes of the
garden project.

Ownership and responsibility was also found in a very different educational

context: a case study of disengaged high school students who were prescribed to a garden
based curriculum. These students were observed by their instructors to show increasing
responsibility towards their schoolwork and were able to work independently during their
garden based learning experiences (Ruiz et al, 2013). Similarly, Alexander et al (1995) in
an assessment of a master gardener partnership at an elementary school, describe students
that showed enthusiasm about the garden based curriculum and took ownership and
responsibility of their gardening duties. The displays of responsibility for student learning
and for the gardening process are interesting; Alexander et al (1995) suggest that this is
because of the emotional responsibility of taking care of a living thing that is associated
with nurturing plants in a garden. This suggestion emphasizes Montessoris presumed
benefit of emotional development towards the natural world, but also evokes an
unexplained ability of the gardening experience to have transformative effects on student
behavior towards their learning. The question must raised about the specific type of a
garden based learning experience that affects students with such outcomes, but Skelly et
al (2007) suggest that regardless of the intensity or duration of the gardening program
students show high levels of responsibility towards their schoolwork.
Self-esteem/ self-confidence.
Engaging students in academic content is important for performance outcomes,
but increased engagement in content carries other transformative benefits such as
increase student self-esteem and self-confidence, which can facilitates the success of the
whole student. Ruiz et al (2013) are leading the qualitative research of garden based
learning with a comprehensive longitudinal case study of disengaged high-school

students. Beyond the previously discussed benefits of increased engagement, ownership

and responsibility for learning the authors also found that after the garden based learning
experience educators reported greater levels of student self esteem and self-confidence
during and after their garden based learning experience. These results were also echoed in
student reports regarding their learning experience. Alexander et al, (1995), and Block et
al (2012) also propose that the experiential manner of the students learning in the garden
and kitchen context facilitated greater confidence in the classroom setting. Through the
learning of real world tasks such as those involved in the gardening process students can
take the confidence learned and apply it to other contexts.
Applying and transferring content to other context is a demonstration of
confidence, important for students developing skills of autonomy. While investigating the
effects of a garden based learning program at an early education program, Miller (2007)
found that through the experiential learning of science and skills in the garden
environment students began to develop self-confidence and displayed autonomy in their
designated garden tasks and wanted to share their learning with their classmates. A want
to share and the ability to communicate learning and or knowledge is an important skill.
Teasing out how this development of confidence occurs, Skinner (2012) examined the
intrinsic motivation associated with a garden based learning experiences and found that
students had increased self-perceptions, self-esteem and confidence in the academic
realm because of their garden based learning experiences.
The underlying phenomenon that leads to development in the self-confidence,
self-esteem and demonstration of autonomy in each of these studies is best described by
the authors as the experiential nature of garden based learning, as Skinner defines it,

intrinsic. The intrinsic properties of the garden based experience facilitate engagement,
ownership of learning, self-esteem and self-confidence that can lead to the development
of strong interpersonal skills through the collaborative nature of solving complex
challenges found in the garden context.
Collaboration
Solving challenges faced in the gardening context often requires collaboration and
cooperation amongst students, educators and sometimes other experts. Lawrence and
Rayfield (2012) suggest that school gardens are ripe with experiential learning
opportunities and that the nature of gardening lends itself to the development of
collaborative skills amongst students and educators. Kirby (2008) writes of a garden
design and build project with elementary students in their schoolyard. The participating
teachers reported that the students developed and demonstrated teamwork and group
problem solving to complete the process from design to implementation. Reeves and
Emeagwali (2010) support this notion and describe the collaboration and cooperation of
students demonstrated when tasked with challenges that required the participation of
more than one individual. They also observed this behavior in a unique case in which a
disruptive students behavior was changed by the gardening experience and led to the
development of cooperation and communication skills amongst students in this class.
During a master gardener program in which students worked with local expert
gardeners students developed effective collaboration and communication skills with
adults who were not their teacher (Alexander et al, 1995). The ability to work with and
respect others is a skill necessary to address challenges beyond the garden context. Miller
(2007) affirms this notion suggesting that that the important skills and concepts

introduced in this education model greatly benefit students later in their academic career.
The development of collaboration and effective communication skills are essential for the
success of garden based initiatives and the education experience. Beyond the classroom
collaboration and effective communication are a means to disseminate information and
come to new understandings, often with people from other areas of expertise.
Understanding and Transference
The ability to transfer skills and knowledge to other contexts is one of the main
themes of place based learning, and arguably a necessary skill for students to develop
throughout their life to be active engaged citizens. Bartsch (2001) in her curriculum
development explicates in a section on the schoolyard garden and highlights that
experiential nature of garden based learning facilitates greater transferability of the
academic content that is taught in the garden context. Kirby (2008) provides insight to an
action research project of an elementary school garden project in which students spent
their science period and recess designing and constructing their school-yard garden
developing skills related to spatial design, addressed challenges of erosion, and
challenges of framing the garden boxes. These skills rely on the academic content of
math and science, but bridge the classroom to real world through application of content.
Cutter and Mackenzie (2009) also discuss this participatory role of students in the design
and construction to be unique and lend itself to the transference and or application of the
skills associated with a specific process to real world situations. The Cutter and
Mackenzie case study of a multi-cultural school in Australia describes a project in which
students took part in the redesign and rebuilding of an abandoned garden space in their
schoolyard. The students incorporated scientific and cultural knowledge in the design

process demonstrating the ability transference a variety of academic content into the
garden design. The multiple dimensions of gardens are filled by many content areas and
through this dimensionality provide unique perspectives to deeply understand content.
The transference of academic content into one context, the garden, does
demonstrate how garden based learning can facilitate the application of academic content
into different academic contexts, but because the garden is also a real world context,
these tools for understanding can be applied to context beyond the classroom. Faddegon
(2005) also suggests that gardening lends itself to learning transferable skills by
providing an example of students learning how to creatively use recycled materials in
construction of garden infrastructure. This demonstration of sustainable practices
establishes the power of garden based learning to move beyond learner outcomes on a
whole and begin to address contemporary community challenges. A study of middle and
high school students participating in a hydroponic garden project provides evidence that
the garden based experience is an opportunity for constructivist learning that can be
applied to real world context (Klemmer, 2005). Transferable skills such as reading and
writing and the development of communication skills can be associated with the
interdisciplinary nature of garden based learning (Morgan et al, 2009). The garden is an
experiential context of many dimensions that lends itself well to a variety of learner
types.
Differentiation
Garden based learning affects engagement, ownership over learning, self-esteem
and collaboration skills that lead to greater transference of the content and skills, but GBL
also is a context of differentiated instruction. Lieberman and Hoody (1998) suggest that

using the environment, specifically gardens as an integrating context for learning holds
the potential to close achievement gaps, finding that 92% of the student who participated
in programs that use the Environment as Integrating Context perform better across
Language Arts, Math, science and social studies when compared to students learning in a
traditional classroom. Addressing challenges of differentiation through GBL should be
seen as an innovative way to improve all students learning outcomes. Smith and
Motsenbocker (2005) examined the success of the Junior Master Gardener Program of
African American students in Baton Rouge, LA compared to similar students learning in
a traditional classroom. The authors found that there were significant improvements in
academic performance with those students who participated in the gardening program.
The garden is a context that transcends diversity in classrooms and can motive
and engage students, with its ability to transcend culture and language differences in very
diverse schools and produce measurable outcomes (Cutter and Mackenzie, 2009) (Smith
and Motsenbocker, 2005) By facilitating differentiated instruction GBL holds significant
potential address to challenges of todays diversifying classrooms while still meeting the
demands of contemporary education standards.
Development of the Effective Citizens
The ability of school gardens to affect the whole student lies in the experiential
nature of garden based learning. From the intrinsic power of gardens to engage students
(Reeves, 2010) to the realized effects on attitudes (Cutter-Mackenzie, 2009)
responsibility (Skelly et al, 2007) communication (Kirby, 2008) and collaboration
(Reeves and Emeagwali, 2010) exposed by this review of the literature, garden based
education has a place beyond delivering science content and improving performance

based learner outcomes. The garden is a context that transcends diverse learner groups
and positively effects students. The multidimensionality and slow nature of the garden
space and process is found in each of the emergent themes. Consistent through out the
literature are themes of increased engagement and enthusiasm for learning, greater
ownership and responsibility for tasks that lead to successful transference of skills outside
the garden context. It is the hands-on nature of the garden learning process that facilitates
opportunities for a variety of learners to engage in their academic experience.
The hands on process allows students see the product of their work whether it be
construction of the garden or the nurturing of plants that leads to development of
confidence, self-esteem and greater academic performance. The ability students to
witness the outcomes of their actions in the garden allows students to see the product of
their learning in a tangible way possibly attributing to the vast behavior and attitude
benefits exposed by the literature. For academic concepts not associated with living
things in the garden, the slow nature of the garden space creates a comfortable place of
learning in which students more easily engage in content.
It is the complex nature of the gardening process that enables the collaboration of
students, educators and outside experts to solve the challenges of this process. By having
to work together to accomplish tasks students learn the skills of collaboration and
develop autonomy enabling students to work independently towards a common goal,
creating a scenario in which students are responsible as a collective. Students are
responsible to complete their individual tasks and group tasks for the garden system to
function well. The social situation created in a garden classroom mirrors the type of

collaborations necessary to address contemporary community challenges and preparing

students with the skills to become actively engaged citizens.
Discussion:
The review of the extant literature on garden-based learning produced quantifiable
results in the realm of performance based outcomes, however the qualitative data that led
to the discussed themes of non-performance based learner outcomes still lacks in quantity
and variety of study. A majority of the research was primarily regarding student attitudes
towards school and learning, categorized as engagement, this theme dominated the
findings and strongly supports the notion that garden based learning increases student
engagement. Trying to understand why this phenomenon is such, other studies
investigated the nature of the garden based learning experience to understand the intrinsic
potential inherent in the learning experience. The results of these studies suggest that
there in intrinsic motivation in the garden based learning experience and that the place of
the garden is a slow environment in which students can feel comfortable, better
facilitating the learning process. All of the themes discussed: engagement, ownership
over learning, self-esteem and self-confidence, collaboration, and a deeper understanding
of content are increased as a result of garden-based learning experiences. Why such
transformations in student attitudes and behavior occur deserves investigation and
connection to the uniqueness of the garden based learning. Further research of
educational psychology may provide evidence of the intrinsic transformational property
of garden-based learning experiences. This evidence may then provide more evidence to
suggest that garden-based learning be a unique model of instruction within the framework
of place-based education.