Norwegian Kindergarten Children’s Knowledge about the Environmental Component of Sustainable Development

Abstract

Although kindergarten children are the group of citizens who will face the consequences of today’s environmental challenges, research on their knowledge about environmental sustainability is limited. In June 2019, we interviewed 56 children (five to six years old) from eight kindergartens in Norway and asked kindergarten staff and the children’s parents to fill out a short questionnaire. The aim of the study was to investigate children’s knowledge of how our actions affect the natural environment and children’s self-declared sense of belonging to nature. Our results show that upon completing kindergarten, many children had gained an early understanding of environmental sustainability. Garbage disposal, deforestation, and air pollution from vehicles were the environmental issues children were most aware. We detected a positive association between time spent in nature with parents and children’s knowledge; this emphasizes the importance of children spending time in nature with their parents.

Fostering Eco-literacy and Naturalistic Intelligence through Environmentally Based Education in Coastal Preschool

“…This is in line with the research conducted (Ernst & Burcak, 2019), which shows the positive influence of playing in nature on children's curiosity, creative thinking, and resilience, all of which are important for sustainability. Research conducted by Melis et al (2020) further supports these findings, showing that Preschool children in Norway have a good understanding of environmental sustainability, with their knowledge being positively related to time spent in nature. Finally, the values and attitude dimension highlights changes in children's positive attitudes towards the environment.…”

Water, Waste Material, and Energy as Key Dimensions of Sustainable Management of Early Childhood Eco-Schools: An Environmental Literacy Model Based on Teachers Action-Competencies (ELTAC)

“…The collaborative action-research experience developed with early childhood education teachers enables the construction of an educational management model that prioritises sustainability as a key element in the life of schools and acts as a stimulus for the teachers' professional growth and continuous training in specific educational activities, such as the solid waste management of the centre, the control of water consumption, energy expenditure and the use of alternative energies, mobility and travel activities through safe school roads coordinated with families, and other activities to mitigate climate change or the responsible production and consumption of products of proximity in school canteens and kitchens. The educational centre becomes an eco-school: an organisation conceived as an ecosystem that can be characterised as a mini-city made up of biotic and abiotic components, as sets of structures where interactions take place and decisions are made guided by principles of sustainability and environmental respect [1][2][3].…”

A Conceptual Model for Developing Climate Education in Sustainability Management Education System

“…Morón-Monge et al present an approach to prospective primary school teachers' concepts of environment and biodiversity through their design of educational itineraries [41]. Other authors mostly focus on selected problems and research findings in sustainability in education at the pre-school level [31,[42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49] and K-12 level [50][51][52][53] in various countries. There is substantially less research in sustainability education for postgraduate students [20] and adults as well as life-long learning [21,[54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68].…”

“…Accord- Students are not taught civics, art, or music solely to improve their labour productivity but rather to enrich their lives and make them better citizens. Based on the literature review [18,[44][45][46][47][48][49][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83] and the results from the interviews which we conducted, we were able to answer RQ5 by identifying a list of learning goals which teachers should pursue to equip the graduates with a universal skill set. They include:…”

“…We claim that each stage should be associated with a corresponding approach to climate education. Climate education should not only concentrate on knowledge development but, first of all, should shape the value system and an ability to take actions to benefit the climate [40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][61][62][63][64]83,[89][90][91]. Our conceptual model postulates that the systemic change in education should reflect these four stages.…”