Preschool outdoor education environment quality predicts children's environmental attitude, awareness and affinity towards nature (biophilia)

Abstract

Today's children grow up far away from nature and this negatively affects their connectedness to nature, their attitudes and behaviors towards nature. As the natural elements in their immediate environment diminish, it can be assumed that the impact of the outdoor spaces of the schools they attend on children's environmental attitudes and behaviors will increase. In this study, the effects of preschool outdoor education environments on the environmental awareness and attitudes of preschool children and their closeness to nature (biophilia) levels were studied. The research was carried out in four kindergartens and four preschools. A total of 240 preschoolers, 121 girls and 119 boys, constitute the sample of the research. The average monthly age of the children is 63.38 (sd. 1.96). The results showed that the outdoor quality of the kindergartens is higher than the outdoor quality of the preschools. The results indicated that the quality of outdoor educational environments has a significant effect on children's environmental awareness and attitudes and their affinity towards nature.