Investigation of the environmental sustainable behaviors of 60-72 months children and preschool teachers' opinions on environmental education practices

In this study, mixed method and sequential design were used to examine the sustainable behaviors of 60-72 month old children towards the environment and the views of preschool teachers about environmental education practices. In the 2021-2022 academic year, 184 children aged 60-72 months who continue their education in the official kindergarten and primary school affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in the city center of Kütahya and 11 pre-school teachers who are the teachers of these children were taken into the sample. In the research, the data were collected with the "Scale for Evaluating Environmentally Sustainable Behaviors for 60-72 Months-old Children", "Demographic Information Form" and semi-structured interview questions. T-Test for Independent Samples was used when examining the difference between the sub-dimensions of the scale, awareness and consciousness scores, according to the child's age, gender, the type of institution he/she attends, the mother's employment status and age. One-Factor ANOVA was used when examining the differentiation status of awareness and consciousness scores according to the number of siblings, father's age, and mother's and father's educational status. In line with the findings obtained from the research, it can be concluded that children's awareness and consciousness levels are high. In line with the findings obtained from the interviews with the teachers, they preferred both open and closed environments in environmental education practices, they tried to include different methods and techniques, they tried to make the practices more permanent and comprehensive with the participation of the family, and they thought that in-service training on the subject would be beneficial, It was concluded that they found the applied program insufficient in terms of environmental education.