Examining the effect of the philosophy for children (P4C) program on children's tendency levels to connect with nature in preschool education period

The connection with nature has been declining at an alarming rate in recent times due to a number of factors such as technological advancement, population growth, industrialisation, biodiversity decline and climate change. Consequently, it is important to provide education that can help children of all ages to connect with nature. In order for preschool children to connect with nature, they first need to understand the basic concepts related to it. In order to include these concepts in the learning process, it is important to investigate the effect of Philosophy for Children education on preschool children's connection with nature. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to examine the effect of the Philosophy for Children programme on preschool children's tendency to connect with nature. In accordance with the nature of the research, a quasi-experimental design from quantitative research methods was used in the study. The research data were collected from students in an independent early childhood education institution. The study group of the research consisted of thirty children, 15 experimental and 15 control groups. In order to equalise the experimental and control groups, DCNS was applied to both groups. The data obtained in the study were processed and analysed in SPSS software. When the results of the study were analysed, it was observed that there was no significant difference between the pre-test findings of the experimental and control groups. However, a significant difference was observed in the pre-test and post-test mean scores of the experimental group. This increase in the scores of the experimental group was statistically significant. When the pre-test and post-test averages of the control group were compared, there was no statistically significant difference between them.