Are gardens useful for promoting early age science education? Evidence from analysis of children’s drawings
Lourdes Aragón 1 * , Inés Ortega-Cubero 2 , Marcia Eugenio-Gozalbo 3
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1 Department of Didactics, Area of Didactics of Experimental Sciences, Faculty of Education Sciences, University of Cádiz, Cádiz, SPAIN2 Department of Didactics of Corporal Expression, Artistic Expression, and Musical Expression, Faculty of Education of Soria, University of Valladolid, Valladolid, SPAIN3 Department of Didactics od Experimental Sciences, Social Sciences, and Mathematics, Faculty of Education of Soria, University of Valladolid, Valladolid, SPAIN* Corresponding Author

Abstract

This study analyzes pre-school children’s mental representations of their idea of ​​a garden, before and after implementing an educational project. A total of 39 and 43 pairs of drawings (pre-post) are analyzed in children aged four and five years, respectively, using two methods: (1) a quantitative approach, based on counting the frequency with which elements linked to curricular scientific content appear (sun, water, earth, animals, plants and trees), and (2) a qualitative approach, based on the degree of richness and specificity of such elements in the drawings. Both methods provide important information on children’s interest in, and their affective-emotional relationship with, the garden and their learning of science. The choice of curricular scientific content that is explicitly focused on in the garden is considered important from the point of view of teaching, since such content can condition the construction of children’s mental models of a garden, as well as scientific content in higher educational stages.

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

INTERDISCIP J ENV SCI ED, Volume 19, Issue 4, 2023, Article No: e2320

https://doi.org/10.29333/ijese/13727

Publication date: 25 Sep 2023

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Article Downloads: 1032

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