Are gardens useful for promoting early age science education? Evidence from analysis of children’s drawings

  1. Aragón, Lourdes 3
  2. Ortega-Cubero, Inés 1
  3. Eugenio-Gozalbo, Marcia 2
  1. 1 Department of Didactics of Corporal Expression, Artistic Expression, and Musical Expression, Faculty of Education of Soria, University of Valladolid, Valladolid, SPAIN
  2. 2 Department of Didactics od Experimental Sciences, Social Sciences, and Mathematics, Faculty of Education of Soria, University of Valladolid, Valladolid, SPAIN
  3. 3 Department of Didactics, Area of Didactics of Experimental Sciences, Faculty of Education Sciences, University of Cádiz, Cádiz, SPAIN
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Revista:
Interdisciplinary Journal of Environmental and Science Education

ISSN: 2633-6537

Año de publicación: 2023

Volumen: 19

Número: 4

Páginas: e2320

Tipo: Artículo

DOI: 10.29333/IJESE/13727 GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openAcceso abierto editor

Otras publicaciones en: Interdisciplinary Journal of Environmental and Science Education

Resumen

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

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