The effect of an environmental education program based on nature experience on the environmental awareness of preschool children

The purpose of this research is to examine the effect of the developed environmental education program based on nature experience on the environmental awareness of preschool children. A mixed method including qualitative and quantitative research methods was used in the research. The qualitative dimension of the research is a case study, and the quantitative dimension is a pretest-posttest single group experimental design. The study group of the research consists of 10 children, 4 girls and 6 boys, aged 60-72 months, who attend a kindergarten in Tokat in the 2022-2023 academic year and have not received environmental education before. In the research, environmental education program activities based on nature experience were applied to the study group in the form of a one-day training plan per week for 9 weeks in the designated forest area. The data of the study were collected through the semi-structured interview form developed by the researcher and the "Environment Scale for Children". The qualitative data of the research were analyzed using the content analysis method. The difference between pre-test and post-test scores was analyzed with a dependent sample t-test. As a result of the research, when the opinions of children before and after the environmental education program based on nature experience were compared, it was determined that the children's knowledge level and awareness about the environment, environmental pollution, environmental protection, living creatures and recycling concepts increased. In addition, after the experimental study, the post-test mean scores of the students were significantly higher than the pre-test mean scores. This result indicates that the environmental education program based on nature experience has a positive effect on the environmental awareness of preschool children. The current research results were discussed in the light of the relevant literature and suggestions were presented to teachers and researchers.