Abstract:The necessity of creating proper relations between humans, nature and the environment requires extensive teaching. Children as young as pre-school age should be involved. At this age they are very susceptible to the influence of teachers and other people. The current exploratory study examined the effectiveness of a pilot environmental education program, for increasing environmental knowledge and increasing positive environmental perceptions in kindergarten children. The sample of the study is comprised of 104 preschool age children living in Rasht city, Iran. Children were individually interviewed before and after the program to assess changes in their environmental knowledge. Three kindergarten classrooms were randomly assigned to receive the program and three were exposed to story time not related to environmental education. The interview questionnaire was adapted from "The Children's Attitudes toward the Environment Scale-Preschool Version" (CATES-PV). Results revealed that the environmental education program was effective in increasing environmental knowledge and environmental perceptions for boys in the experimental group. These results from the current study can inform educators about how to integrate developmentally and culturally appropriate environmental education at the kindergarten level and encourages future research on early childhood environmental education and developing better, more psychometrically sound measures.
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