School gardening activities as contextual scaffolding for learning science: participatory action research in a community school in Nepal

Literature on school education suggests that teaching and learning science in basic level community schools in Nepal is largely theoretical. Consequently, achievement levels and the understanding of concepts of science is much below policy expectations. This paper builds on a shift from dogmatic lecturing to activity-based pedagogy using school gardening as contextual scaffolding for learning science in community schools in central Nepal. Five focus group discussions and observations were carried out among sixth and seventh graders, science teachers, and parents of an action (intervention) school located in the Chitwan district of Nepal, with support from the NORHED/Rupantaran project. At the beginning of the PAR project, the barriers associated with startup gardening activities were time allocation, integration of gardening activities with the science curriculum, and the ongoing engagement of parents. Later in the project, students, science teachers, and parents reported on their experiences such as active and meaningful engagement in activity-based pedagogy through school gardening. Overall, school gardening activities were found to have positive effects on students' understanding of scientific concepts, connecting school gardens in a contextual scaffold.