Forest schools from the perspective of pre-school education institutions

The forest schools approach, unlike traditional classroom education, aims to provide students with interactive and experiential learning opportunities with nature. The benefits of this approach to preschool children, such as arousing curiosity, discovery and developing environmental awareness, are emphasized. The forest school approach can support children in this period in learning about nature, gaining a sustainable life philosophy, and growing up as individuals who are sensitive to environmental problems. The aim of the research is to examine the role and effects of forest schools from the perspective of preschool education institution administrators. Phenomenology, one of the qualitative research method designs, is preferred in the research. Data were collected by face-to-face interview and semi-structured interview technique. In order to benefit from the experiences of forest school administrators in the analysis, the interpretive phenomenology approach was used and the MAXQDA program was used to transcribe the data. According to some results of the research, it has been revealed that forest school administrators primarily prefer candidates who have received the relevant training in their teacher preferences. It has been observed that the climate and topographic conditions in the regions where forest school education is provided are a determining factor and that administrators, in addition to the principles and child-centered nature of forest school education practices, also take into account the climate and topographic conditions of the region. In the interviews, it was stated that school administrators and teachers viewed the forest school approach positively and that this approach supported student-centered learning. It has been revealed that forest schools integrated with projects and the Reggio Emillia approach not only offer students the opportunity to learn about nature, but also allow students to have learning experiences according to their interests and needs. Key Words: Forest schools, Preschool education, Teacher, Forest school administrator