The purpose of this study is to develop an affordance-based media-based early childhood environmental education program and apply it to 5-year-olds to test whether it has a positive effect on improving children's environmental sensitivity and promotin...
The purpose of this study is to develop an affordance-based media-based early childhood environmental education program and apply it to 5-year-olds to test whether it has a positive effect on improving children's environmental sensitivity and promoting pro-environmental behavior intentions. To this end, the research questions set in this study are as follows.
Research Question 1. How to develop an affordance-based media-based early childhood environment education program?
1-1. What is the purpose and goal of the affordance-based media-based early childhood environment education program. How to set it up?
1-2. How will the themes and contents of the affordance-based media-based early childhood environment education program be organzed?
1-3. How will the teaching-learning method of the affordance-based media-based early childhood environment education program be organized?
1-4. How will you evaluate the affordance-based media-based early childhood environment education program?
Research Question 2. What is the effect of the affordance- based media- based early childhood environment education program?
2-1. What is the effect of the affordance-based media-based early childhood environment education program on early childhood's environmental sensitivity.
2-2. What is the effect of the affordance-based media-based early childhood environment education programs on early childhood's pro-environmental behavior intention?
In this study, related literature and prior studies were analyzed to develop an affordance-based media-based early childhood environment education program. Based on this, a proposal for this program was developed. The details of the program developed through this process are as follows.
The purpose of early childhood environment education using affordance based media is to promote children's understanding and interest in the environment, develop environmental sensitivity, and promote pro- environmental behavior intention.
Specific goals for achieving these goals are 'understanding the environment and interested in nature', 'developing environmental sensitivity based on love and aesthetics for nature', and 'promoting pro-environmental behavior intention through information that induces behavior'.
The subject of this program was largely divided into natural objects, ecosystems, natural phenomenon, and environment conservation and presented in detail, and the contents that match the subject were classified into environmental attitudes, environmental knowledge, and environmental behavior, and details for each category were presented.
Teaching-learning methods consist of teaching-learning processes, teaching-learning strategies, teaching-learning media, and the role of teachers. The teaching-learning process is a process of being interested in nature, experiencing nature, choosing pro-environmental behavior, promoting and practicing the intention of pro-environmental behavior.
The teaching-learning strategy consists of direct and indirect experience through perceptual activities reflecting emotional affordance, supporting emotional responses through integrated approaches, inducing specific actions using media, and interacting through participation, cooperation, and sharing.
Teaching-learning media were largely divided into traditional media and new media, and detailed types were presented.
The role of teachers was motivation and engagement inducement, information and environmental providers, acceptance and encouragement, interaction and educational activity proponents, and exploration activities and thinking facilitators.
The evaluation consists of early childhood evaluation, teacher evaluation, and program evaluation.
From April to June 2023, a research program was conducted on 50 5-year-old children (25 in the experimental group and 25 in the comparative group) at D kindergarten located in Daegu Metropolitan City to verify the effectiveness of applying the affordance-based media environment education program.
Prior to the application of the program, pre-tests were conducted on the environmental sensitivity and pro-environmental behavior intention of the two groups of early childhood, and post-tests were conducted using the same inspection tool after the application of the program.
ANalysis of COVAriance(ANCOVA) was performed using the SPSS 27.0 program to analyze differences between groups based on the results derived through pre-test and post-test.
The application effects of this program are as follows.
First, as a result of analyzing the effect of affordance-based media-based early childhood environment education programs on early children's environmental sensitivity, the experimental group's score was statistically significantly higher than that of the comparative group in sensitivity, aesthetics and emotional stability, sympathy, and compassion, which are sub-factors of environmental sensitivity. Therefore, this program can be seen as effective in improving early children's environmental sensitivity.
Second, as a result of analyzing the effect of affordance-based media-based early childhood environment education programs on children's pro-environmental behavior intention, the experimental group's scores were statistically significantly higher than the comparative group in consumer behavior, physical behavior, learning behavior, and interaction behavior, which are sub-factors of pro-environmental behavior intention. Therefore, this program can be seen as effective in enhancing the intention of pro- environmental behavior.
Based on the above results, it was verified that affordance-based media-based early childhood environment education programs have a positive effect on children's environmental sensitivity and pro-environmental behavior intention.
This program is suitable for the application of early childhood education sites, and it is meaningful in suggesting how to apply early childhood environment education programs with educational value.