Meta-analysis of Educational Effectiveness of School Garden

Urban Farm DB summary

A meta-analysis of research papers published in Korea between 2001 and September 2017 examined the educational effectiveness of school gardens. Papers were identified by cross-searching the keywords "garden," "school," "elementary," and "early childhood," yielding 25 papers and 49 calculated effect sizes. Dependent variables were character development, dietary habit improvement, intellectual ability improvement, and environmental literacy, with study subject, number of participants, garden type, and instructional hours used as moderator variables. School garden education showed a large overall effect size, with character development showing the largest effect size among the dependent variables. Effects were largest when targeting early childhood subjects, groups of 15 or fewer, box-type gardens, and 10-15 instructional sessions. A publication bias test found some bias present, but the educational effect of school gardens remained large even after accounting for it.