Browsing by Author "Uitto, Heli"

The formation of children's forest relations and environmental sensitivity is part of the development of children's identity and later affects their attitudes towards the forest and the environment. The purpose of this master's thesis is to describe, analyze and interpret preschool children's views and experiences of working in the natural environment and especially in the forest. The research examines more closely what kind of effect forest-focused preschool education has on children's forest relations and environmental sensitivity as experiences they describe themselves. This thesis is a qualitative study in which I analyze the children's drawings and interview material using content analysis to identify meaningful changes in children's forest relations and their environmental sensitivity after the implementation of forest-focused preschool education. Forest-focused preschool education groups implemented preschool education in their local forest two mornings a week. For the study, children (28) from two forest-based preschool groups drew pictures of the forest before and three months after the forest preschool activities. After the drawing sessions, the preschoolers were interviewed about their drawings and the forest topic. The research was an abductive process, where the theory guided the analysis of the material. The framework examined five central theories related to environmental sensitivity and forest relations and related concepts, which were used in the analysis of the data by forming meaning dimensions describing the environmental sensitivity and forest relations of the data. The effect of forest-focused preschool education on preschool children's forest relations and environmental sensitivity was structured into five meaning dimensions: sensory, emotional, social and functional, and value dimension. Forest offers a rich and versatile learning environment for children. After the forest activity, the sensory dimension expanded and the depiction of living and non-living environment increased in the drawings. Forest excursions involve moving around and observing the surroundings of the preschool, which is why the description of non-forest environments, such as the built environment, became more diverse. According to the results, preschool forest activities are an important enabler of equal education and change the social environment of forest experiences, bringing friendships in addition to family, expanding the social dimension. The social dimension also includes the effects of family and other adults on values and forest relations, as well as the effect of adults' activities on the utilization of the opportunities offered by the forest and thus on children's forest experiences. Before preschool, the forest was generally perceived positively. The most significant change after the forest activities was the awakening of preschool children's place attachment to the forest used in preschool education and the increase in attachment to trees. In the functional dimension, before and after preschool education, a diverse picture of children's experiences of learning in and about the forest was obtained. In the value dimension, the awareness of the importance of the forest was visible and the desire to acting for the forest appeared stronger after the implemented forest pre-school education. Working in the forest also evoked more challenging feelings in few children, which were related to the experience of boredom during freer activities or challenges in friendships. But that still did not reduce the preschoolers' thoughts about the importance of forests. Based on the data from this study, forest activities in preschool education develop children's forest relations and environmental sensitivity.