The purpose of this study is to identify the effects of forest experience activities together with nature photography appreciation on science process skills and environment friendly attitudes of 5 years old children.
To achieve this goal, the follow...
The purpose of this study is to identify the effects of forest experience activities together with nature photography appreciation on science process skills and environment friendly attitudes of 5 years old children.
To achieve this goal, the following research questions are proposed.
Research Question 1. What are the effects of forest experience activities with relation to nature photography appreciation on science process skills of children (e.g. observation, classification, communication, measurement, prediction and inference)?
Research Question 2. What are the effects of forest experience activities with relation to nature photography appreciation on environment friendly attitudes of children (e.g. nature friendly attitude and environment conservation attitude)?
The total 57 subjects consisting of 5 years old children who attended the J preschool located in Ansansi, Gyeonggido were participated in this study. They are divided into two groups; the experimental group (5 Years Old Children Class A of J Preschool, n=31) and the control group (5 Years Old Children Class B of J Preschool, n=26). The study was conducted following the order of experiment design, early childhood teachers training, preliminary test, pre-test, experimental treatment and post-test.
This study measures science process skills and environment friendly attitudes of the young children of the both groups in the pre- and post-test. For a tool to measure science process skills of children, this study uses the 'Science Process Skills Test Tools' development and modified by Giwon Nam (2001) and partly supplemented by Jeongsim Park (2012), based on information presented by Martin(1999). For environment friendly attitude test, it uses CATES-PV(The children's Attitudes Toward the Environment Scale-Preschool Version), developed and modified by Mussuer and Diamond(1999), translated and modified by Yoonjeong Heo (2001) and partly supplemented by Darae Kim (2013), based on CATES(The children's Attitudes Toward the Environment Scale of School-Age Children) developed by Museer and Malkus(1994).
The experimental treatment was conducted for 9 weeks from 3rd of May to 4th of July, 2013 and 16 sessions in total. There were total 8 topics. Each topic consisting of nature photography appreciation and forest experience activities was presented twice. A nature pictures viewing session contained a conversation time. Forest experience activities included visiting forest near the preschool to find objects or places seen in a picture, discovering scientific topic and expressing an opinion and emotion. Then, topic related activities after viewing nature pictures were also included in the sessions.
When the experimental treatment was applied to the experimental group, participants in the control group talked about a study topic, conducted forest activities as a large group and discussed what they felt during forest visit, without viewing nature pictures.
The study aims to identify whether or not forest experience activities connected to nature picture appreciation have effects on improvement of science process skills and environment friendly attitudes of young children. The study secures 동질성 between the groups using independent two samples t-test on pre-test scores of the experimental group and the control group. Independent two samples t-test is also used for the post-test to analyze effects between the groups. The software used for the analysis is SPSS Win 18.0.
The findings are as followings.
First, it is shown that science process skills of children are significantly improved though forest experience activities happening in connection with nature photography appreciation. In other words, there are significant difference between science process skills of two groups. It is found that all components of science process skills of young children, which are 'observation, classification, communication, measurement, prediction and inference', are significantly improved. According to the finding, it is assumed that forest experience activities happening with nature photography appreciation improves 'Observation, classification, communication, measurement, prediction and inference' skill of young children.
Second, it is shown that environment friendly attitudes of children are positively improved though forest experience activities happening in connection with nature photography appreciation. In other words, there is a significant difference between environment friendly attitudes of children in two groups. Both 'nature friendly attitude and environment conservation attitude', which are subcategories of environment friendly attitudes of young children, shows significant improvement. According to the finding, it can be said that forest experience activities happening with nature photography appreciation enhance 'nature friendly attitude and environment conservation attitude' of young children.
In conclusion, it is found that forest experience activities connected to nature photography appreciation have significantly positive effects on science process skills and environment friendly attitudes of young children. It implies that a scientific approach that allows forest experience activities connected to nature photography appreciation to help exploration is necessary in future and it can enhance interest and concern of young children and maximize their expectation.