The purpose of this study is to figure out how would children be able to go through in the process of planting and managing the seeds of the plants and raising animals by using the space of the classroom.
According to the objective mentioned above, t...
The purpose of this study is to figure out how would children be able to go through in the process of planting and managing the seeds of the plants and raising animals by using the space of the classroom.
According to the objective mentioned above, these research tasks are presented as follows.
1. How is the experience of children in the indoor garden management?
The total number of children participated in this study turned out to be 19, 5 years old, all attended at the kindergarten attached to B public elementary school.
The research has been processed for about 6 months from 31 March 2008 to 19 September 2008. Children have experienced the nature-friendly indoor garden activities such as planting and managing the seeds of the plants and raising goldfishes, tropical fishes and turtles by using the classroom space.
The research materials, which could improve the validity and reliability of the qualitative research, accumulated by Triangulation(Merriam, 1988/1994) for the research analysis were video tape recordings through the participant observation, teacher journals, observation diaries by researchers, records on children, records and memos by researchers and photographs. The accumulated materials were interpreted through the three stages of categorized process named transcription, coding and discovery of theme.
The experience results through the indoor garden management of children are analyzed as follows.
The experience of children on the indoor garden management occurred in the form of [solving the curiosity on the anxiety], [the shift of feeling fear in the nature], [empathy on the nature], [feeling the aesthetic sensibility in the garden], [intimacy on the nature], [taking care of the nature with love] and [knowing the relationship in which plants, animals and humans are bound].
First, children have experienced solving the curiosity resulted from the anxiety. It was found that children would solve the curiosity by using their own experience and the interactions with their classmates and teachers to pull out the experience at the early stage of the research. They have tried to utilized books and searching what they wanted to know on the portal web site called 'knowledge naver' as time went on.
Second, children have experienced the shift of feeling fear in the nature. The fear in children's mind was shown in the form of '(it's)harmful for our body', '(I'm)worried' representing the sign of surprise, worry and fear. The fear in children's mind seemed to have had little interest in nature materials and even ignored living things without knowing plants could have the life in the first stage. However, as the indoor garden management by their teachers and classmates was making progress, they would make contact with nature little by little and thereafter change into the active and positive children taking off the fear on nature.
Third, children have experienced the empathy on the nature. The empathy in children's mind occurred in the form of 'feel pity', 'glad', 'sad' and 'angry' developing it into the personification. Given the empathy ability by children, the children definitely became to know that plants and animals are also the precious being with life and introduced their feelings into the plants and animals experiencing the feelings of sympathy and sadness when plants are all wilted or animals are dead and expressing much pleasure together when observing the scene in which plants started to sprout and animals are born and raised.
Fourth, children have experienced feeling the aesthetic sensibility in the garden. As the children were doing the indoor garden activities, the aesthetic sensibility by them was represented to be 'peaceful', 'beautiful'. The children considered the garden to be the peaceful place comparing the feeling of smooth leaves to their mothers by using their tactile sensation. The garden was the place in which the children would think of it as so much the peaceful and beautiful space that they could even purify their emotions and also get beautiful minds. The aesthetic sensibility felt in the indoor garden would also be represented throughout the children's works. Throughout the activities, the children would make the indoor garden the better place to enjoy the beauty and comfort.
Fifth, children have expressed the intimacy on the nature.
At the beginnings of activities, the children only seemed to know that seeds are also the natural materials and they have their own developing processes without knowing they are the precious being with life. And they wouldn't think of the natural materials in the indoor garden as the nature in which they can play what they wanted to do and approach them in the friendly manner. Throughout the activities, the children seemed to have understood that when they're playing with the natural materials in the indoor garden, even the small seeds are having the life and much more interested in the plants and animals outside the garden as well as those creatures inside than ever before. Therefore, they would consider the nature to be the very intimate object always being with us.
Sixth, children have experienced taking care of the nature with love. At the early stage of the activities, the works in which the children could take care of the nature were limited to water plants. However, as the activities were making progress as scheduled, the children finally started to love plants and animals and therefore could have much more interest in the nature than ever before. They would also learn that they need to change the environments depending on the feature of plants and animals. For these reasons, the children could experience the diverse care activities. In addition, the more various forms of care activities were presented ; deciding the location of plants specifically adjusting the amount of sunlight, adjusting the amount of water as required, wiping the floor with a floorcloth against the falling water, giving somewhat weak trees the plant nutrients and setting up the support for the branch falling down to its side.
Lastly, children have expressed knowing the relationship in which plants, animals and humans. The children had a good chance to know the relationship ; although some plants are good for human health generating the negative ion in the process of growing up inside and some animals are good for making the soil so much fertile that plants would grow satisfactorily, other animals and plants are pretty harmful to humans in other ways.