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

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Dept. of Environmental Engineering, Islamic Azad University, Lahijan campus, Lahijan, Iran

2 Dept. of Environment and Energy, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran

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.

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