Out-of-school learning in the botanical garden: Guided or self-determined learning at workstations?

•We assess the role of teacher involvement for students’ learning at botanical gardens.•Therefore we measured learning success of students at teacher- and student-centered workstations.•We found no differences in learning outcome between these approaches.•Students’ motivation was generally high, but did not differ between applied methods.•We show that constructivistic elements are more important than teacher involvement.

Guided tours are the method of choice for school classes visiting botanical gardens. However, it remains unclear, which influence such teacher-centered approaches have on learning outcome in such informal learning environments. We compare a teacher- to a student-centered learning at workstations program under the topic plants and water. 16 school classes at eighth grade visited the botanical garden of the University of Würzburg, attending either one of both treatments. We used multiple-choice questionnaires measuring knowledge scores and found no significant differences in learning outcome – tested in a pre-post-retention design. We also monitored the students’ intrinsic motivation, which resulted in similar and high scores. Possible causes for our results and consequences for education at botanical gardens are discussed.