Effectiveness of Environmental Education on Environmental Knowledge of Kindergarten Children in Rasht City

Abstract

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.

An Investigation of the Ecological Footprint Awareness Levels of 60-72-Month-Old Children

“…Güngör (2019) states that ecological awareness levels of children increased with the sustainability applications carried out in a preschool. In the literature, there are studies pointing out that training provided on the subject has positive effects on children's attitudes and behaviors towards the environment (Benzer & Şahin, 2013;Çabuk & Çabuk, 2017;Erol & Ogelman, 2019;Güven, 2014;Hadzigeorgiou, Prevezanou, Kabouropoulou & Konsolas, 2011;Karimzadegan, 2015;Liefländer 2015;Şallı 2013;Uslucan, 2016). These differences between schools detected in the study can be associated with the perspective of schools on sustainability education.…”

Investigation of Preschool Children’s Perceptions to Protect the Environment Through Drawings

“…It was considered that the reason why the children included in this study did not have awareness in these areas may be because they did not have experience in this subject and that these subjects were not included in the education process. In fact, it was emphasized that environmental education provided for the children by different researchers in different sample groups had a positive effect on children's environmental awareness and attitudes towards the environment (Fisman, 2005;James and Bixler, 2010;Karimzadegan, 2015;Liefländer, 2015;Mallena-Barrazab et al, 2009). In addition to this, there were studies in the literature revealing that children's environmental perceptions were affected by variables such as gender, socioeconomic level, educational background of parents, and the awareness of teachers and parents (Chawla and Cushing, 2007;Loughland et al, 2002;Robertson, 2008;Uzun and Sağlam, 2007).…”

“…It was determined that the studies in literature investigated what children understand from the concept of the environment (Günindi, 2012;Yardımcı and Bağcı-Kılıç, 2010), the effects of different socio-economic levels and the environment in which children live on environmental perception (Taşkın & Şahin, 2008), the effects of cultural differences in environmental perception (Boeve-De Pauw & Van Petegem, 2012), children's feelings about environmental problems (ecophobia) (Strafe, 2012), their perceptions of solutions to the environmental problems (O'Malley, 2015), and the effects of environmental education on children (James and Bixler, 2010;Karimzadegan, 2015;Liefländer, 2015;Mallena-Barrazab et al, 2009). Considering the studies conducted on the preschool children, it was determined that there were no studies investigating the environmental protection perceptions of children through drawings and associating these perceptions with the 7R model.…”

Proje Yaklaşimina Dayanan Ai̇le Katilimli Çevre Eği̇ti̇mi̇ Programinin 5-6 Yaş Çocuklarinin Çevreye Yöneli̇k Tutumlarina Etki̇si̇ni̇n İncelenmesi̇

“…Bir diğer çalışmada da Brewer (2010), kaz projesi ile çocukların çevreye olan ilgilerinin ve meraklarının arttığını bulmuştur. İlgili alan yazında çevre eğitiminin belli bir program dâhilinde yürütüldüğünde, çocukların çevreye yönelik tutumları üzerinde olumlu sonuçları olduğunu gösteren çalışmalar bulunmaktadır (Benzer ve Şahin, 2013;Genç, 2015;Güven, 2014;Hadzigeorgiou, Prevezanou, Kabouropoulou ve Konsolas, 2011;Karimzadegan, 2015;Song, 2012;Uslucan, 2016;Yucasu, 2015).…”