Pictographic Representations of the Word “Nature” in Preschool Education Children

Abstract

The relevance of preschool children's understanding of nature, its elements, how it affects the behavior of human beings, and how human beings influence it, is a twopurpose task. First, it helps to identify the necessary elements for the design of programs that have a significant impact in the development of environmental identity. Second, it also assists in the implementation of environmental education in the school curriculum in Mexico, in order to develop attitudes to preserve the environment from an early age. Based on this logic, the objective of this study was to identify the components of the concept of nature and its relationship with environmental identity, from drawings made by preschool children in a desert environment through a visual discursive analysis. The sample consisted of 118 preschool students whose ages ranged between 5 and 6 years. Participants were selected from four different schools in Hermosillo, Mexico: three located in the urban area and one on the coastal area of the State of Sonora. Participants were asked to draw the first thing that came to their minds when they heard the word nature. As a result, all the drawings presented categories such as plants, animals, waterbodies, celestial bodies, abiotic factors, natural locations, locations made by man, and others. Finally, the analysis showed that a general idea of what nature represents to children includes elements of known flora and fauna; however, they did not capture elements of the desert region in which they live. In addition, most participants' self-definition contained environmental identity.

Natures instead of nature—plural perceptions and representations of nature and its challenges for ecological transition: a systematic review of the scientific production

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Research on the Impact of Teaching Content Reform of Children’s Literature Courses on the Quality of Children’s Psychological and Aesthetic Education under the Background of “Internet Plus”

“…Children's literature courses can improve children's reading and expression skills while cultivating their knowledge. When children study children's literature courses, they can also feel the childishness of the works, cultivate their emotions, and feel the charm of literature [20][21].…”

Improving the quality of preschool education management based on the ordinary differential error approximation method

“…As the initial stage of human education, preschool education is related to the growth of children, the interests of each family, and even the hopes of the state and the nation [1][2]. In recent years, the state has attached more and more importance to preschool education, and preschool education frequently appears in government policy documents, which indicates that the Party and the state have placed more importance on promoting the development of preschool education [3][4][5]. In 2018, the state pointed out in "Several Opinions on Deepening Reform and Standardizing Development of Preschool Education" that it should build a preschool education that covers urban and rural areas and has a reasonable layout public service system and achieve balanced development of preschool education.…”