Barns tankar om älven
Förskolebarns förståelse av älven och vattnets miljö
AbstractThis research is about pre-school children?s conceptions of the river and the water environment. The aim of this study was to apply a new teaching method based on the outside learning, as well as to test the method and see if it works, i.e. if children get more knowledge this way compared to ordinary methods like teaching in the class-room which involves showing pictures and discussion of them.The main questions in this study were how children get new knowledge through outside learning and how effective this learning method is, i.e. how much they noticed and learned about the river and the water environment as a result of that outside observation. Drawings, observations and qualitative interviews constituted the study's method. The study showed that the ?outdoors method? in teaching can be efficient: the pre-school children have learned a lot about the river's structure after visiting it which they may be had not achieved if they learned according to the usual teaching method in the class-room (when the teacher shows children some pictures which they discuss then). Children knew what a river was and that the water streamed from higher to lower levels. They found it hard to explain where it began and where it ended but they knew that the river flew some where. They knew that all life forms must have water and had noticed the various processes in the water cycle,including the connection between the river and the water outside.