Back to the Garten: Ontario kindergarteners learn and grow through schoolyard pedagogy

MacDonald, Kate; Breunig, Mary

doi:10.1007/s42322-018-0011-z

Cited by 4 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Affinity toward nature/biophilia [32,79] Connection to nature [53,60,[69][70][71] Connection to other living things [64] Sense of intimacy and at home-ness in nature [60,65] Sense of belonging in/attachment to place [64] Environmental identity [63,64] Awareness of and sensitivities to natural/environmental surroundings [64,70] Appreciation and respect for nature [51,52,59] Environmental dispositions and values; valuing of life within nature [32,65] Environmental Literacy Development:…”

Section: Category Outcome Study Environmental Literacy Development: Affective Attitudes and Valuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Respectful interactions with nature [69] Stewardship of/caring for plants, wildlife, living creatures, and/or nature; compassionate care for nature [59,60,63,65,66,70] Sharing environmental knowledge with others [71] Modeling/monitoring for pro-environmental behavior with peers and family (such as making sure family recycles, teaching other children about how to treat animals) [51] Citizenship, civic skills [65] Approaches to Learning Creativity, creative thinking, imagination [54,59,74,78] Curiosity [2] Languaged and non-languaged exploratory behavior [70,72] Exploratory skills [60,63,65,72] Focus, attention [54,55,74] Persistence, perseverance, determination [32,55,60,67] Processing and using information [59,60] Engagement [67,68,71] Motivation [55,59,67] Feelings of competence [55,76] Positive attitudes toward learning [55] Risk analysis [59] Cognitive: General…”

Section: Actions/behaviorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Early literacy skills [51,58,69,71] Increase in diversity and specificity of parent-child talk about plants and nature; use of plant-related terminology [56] Language development, vocabulary development, word acquisition [59,72] Verbal expression of thoughts, ideas, and feelings [59,60] Communication skills [59,65,69] Writing skills [71] Cognitive: Math…”

Section: Cognitive: Language and Literacymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Early numeracy skills [51,58] Recognizing patterns [69] Math skills [71] Cognitive: Scientific Knowledge and Thinking…”

Section: Cognitive: Language and Literacymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Asking questions [60] Making, describing, and recording observations [60,69,70,74] Sensory observation of the world [72] Classification skills [70] Using evidence to answer questions [70] Inquiry skills [66,76] Scientific thinking and reasoning [59,69,70] Making connections and integrating information [60] Problem solving [54,59,76] Model building [63] Making and testing [63,70] Communicating about science [70]…”

Section: Cognitive: Language and Literacymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Contributions to Sustainability through Young Children’s Nature Play: A Systematic Review

et al. 2021

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Nature play with young children has been criticized for lacking the transformative power necessary for meaningfully contributing to sustainability issues. The purpose of this systematic review was to identify outcomes associated with young children’s nature play that align with Education for Sustainability outcomes, toward addressing the question of its contribution to a more sustainable future. A total of 272 citation records were screened using eligibility and quality appraisal criteria, resulting in 32 studies that were reviewed. These studies’ outcomes were coded and then mapped to an education for sustainability framework. Results suggest that nature play supports education for sustainability benchmarks of applied knowledge, dispositions, skills, and applications. The multiple and varied relevant outcomes associated with nature play suggest practitioners should not abandon nature play in the pursuit of sustainability. Implications for practice and further research are discussed.

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Section: Category Outcome Study Environmental Literacy Development: Affective Attitudes and Valuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Actions/behaviorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Cognitive: Language and Literacymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Early numeracy skills [51,58] Recognizing patterns [69] Math skills [71] Cognitive: Scientific Knowledge and Thinking…”

Section: Cognitive: Language and Literacymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Cognitive: Language and Literacymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Contributions to Sustainability through Young Children’s Nature Play: A Systematic Review

et al. 2021

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Make Kindergarten “Funner”: Examining how Kindergarteners Made Sense of the Changed Kindergarten

Brown

Barry

2021

Teachers College Record

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Background/Context Over the last two decades, policymakers’ standards-based accountability reforms in the United States have fundamentally changed public schooling in general and kindergarten specifically. As this has occurred, little has been learned about how the children themselves make sense of these changes in schooling. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The purpose of this article is to address this issue by providing insight into how a sample of kindergarteners enrolled in a public kindergarten in Texas made sense of their experiences in kindergarten today in relation to two research questions: a) How did they make sense of their educational experiences in kindergarten?, and b) How would they like to alter kindergarten so that it reflects their understanding of schooling? Research Design This is an explorative qualitative, video-cued, multivocal ethnographic research study. Data were generated through focus-group interviews with 19 kindergarteners in Texas. The students were asked about how they made sense of the changed kindergarten through viewing a micro-level example of their kindergarten classroom in Texas. The video the kindergarteners watched and commented on provides a coherent narrative that captured shortened versions of each of the activities they participate in over a typical day in their classroom. Findings/Results The findings shared in this article illuminate these kindergarteners’ understandings of kindergarten as well as whether or not they believed they would be able to succeed in a school system that expects them to learn more academic content and demonstrate their knowledge on an increasing number of standardized tests. These findings also provide insight into the changes these kindergarteners would like to see made to kindergarten to improve their learning experiences in school. Conclusions/Recommendations The kindergarteners in this study framed kindergarten as a place they go to learn academic content that they believe will allow them to progress to and through subsequent grade levels. Though they enjoyed kindergarten and had strong relationships with their teacher, they would like more opportunities for physical activity and choice throughout the day, which echo the sentiments of other early childhood education stakeholders and researchers. As these were kindergarteners enrolled in a typical public kindergarten, additional insight into these issues could be gained by seeking out the voices of children in different kindergarten programs (e.g., private, play-based, half-day, etc.) or from these same children at different points in their educational careers.

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Young Children’s Journey into a World of Play with Open-Ended Materials: A Case Study of the Creative Play Club

Al-Mansour¹

2018

IES

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This study is mainly based on conducted naturalistic descriptive observation of 13 children ages 6–8 years using open-ended materials in their play at the Creative Play Club (CPC). The research carefully examines and analyzes how four boys and nine girls in the CPC used open-ended materials in their play over 8 weeks. One aim was to evaluate changes in the quality of play over time. A second aim was to analyze the influence of various factors on children’s social and nonsocial play behaviors. Those factors were the materials’ characteristics and affordances and the social activity setting. The research gave special attention to the possible influences that flatten expression in play and those influences that might reignite play expression within or across CPC sessions. The research generated evidence that children’s drawing, manipulating objects, and reflecting are meaning making. Interpretations of data were guided by an activity setting model, affordance theory, and a multimodality and meaning-making conceptual framework. The main findings were that the CPC and the case study are good conduits for exploring the possibilities and challenges that emerge from children’s experiences with open-ended materials in play with other children.

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Back to the Garten: Ontario kindergarteners learn and grow through schoolyard pedagogy

Cited by 4 publications

References 40 publications

Contributions to Sustainability through Young Children’s Nature Play: A Systematic Review

Contributions to Sustainability through Young Children’s Nature Play: A Systematic Review

Make Kindergarten “Funner”: Examining how Kindergarteners Made Sense of the Changed Kindergarten

Young Children’s Journey into a World of Play with Open-Ended Materials: A Case Study of the Creative Play Club

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