From “Forest Fires” and “Hunting” to Disturbing “Habitats” and “Food Chains”: Do Young Children Come up with any Ecological Interpretations of Human Interventions Within a Forest?

Ergazaki, Marida; Andriotou, Eirini

doi:10.1007/s11165-008-9109-6

Cited by 31 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…These findings are consistent with those studies that propose that environmental judgment and care for the natural world have a unique moral status from a very early stage in children's development [10,27].…”

Section: Discussion Of Resultssupporting

confidence: 92%

Environmental Awareness and Its Relationship with the Concept of the Living Being: A Longitudinal Study

2018

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Abstract:There is currently a growing theoretical discussion about the foundations that underlie the development of environmental awareness and nature care in early childhood. The aim of this study is to analyze how the environmental concerns of young children emerge and evolve during early childhood and whether these concerns are connected to an understanding of the biological notion of the living being. This study is designed to address methodological limitations of previous studies through a longitudinal axis and an extensive age sample. A sample of 178 children between the ages of four and nine participated at two different testing times for a period of one year. The methodology includes the categorization of various images of living beings and inert entities in order to analyze their understanding of living organisms. Dilemmas involving environmental, moral and socio-conventional situations are presented to examine and compare how young children view transgressions against plant life. The results reveal that young children's judgments about environmental behaviors may arise before the development of an understanding of the concept of the living being. It is therefore proposed that this type of understanding does not support environmental awareness. Previous research indicates that complex biological concepts may be successfully introduced at the preschool age, provided that suitable educational interventions are designed for the initial stages of education. In this regard, there is evidence that a basic understanding of the issue of the ecological interactions among organisms may be achieved in the preschool years.

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Section: Discussion Of Resultssupporting

confidence: 92%

Environmental Awareness and Its Relationship with the Concept of the Living Being: A Longitudinal Study

2018

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“…More specifically, this study report a significant number of young children who sustain their opinions on the basis of “flora-centric” criteria such as: “plants can grow like us … we must let them grow” 2010, p. 194). These authors conclude that the use of this kind of reasoning by young children suggest that they have to handle some basic knowledge about the distinction between living and nonliving things.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 85%

“…Moreover, from another separate perspective, profuse research activity has been undertaken in the study of young children’s judgment on the environment (Ergazaki & Andriotou, 2010; Hussar & Horvath, 2011; Severson & Kahn, 2010). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, complementary data regarding young children’s environmental judgment refers to the finding that young children are able to use biocentric reasoning (namely, judgments linked to the idea that the environment is worthy of some kind of moral status -Schmidt, 2011-) when it comes to judging environmental transgressions (Ergazaki & Andriotou, 2010; Hussar & Horvath, 2011; Severson & Kahn, 2010). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this regard, in a significant study regarding 4 and 5 year old children’s justifications against forest fire, Ergazaki and Andriotou (2010) emphasize the idea that children’s biocentric (Ergazaki & Andriotou, judgment concerning the environment needs to have any relationship with their understanding of biological concepts. More specifically, this study report a significant number of young children who sustain their opinions on the basis of “flora-centric” criteria such as: “plants can grow like us … we must let them grow” 2010, p. 194).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Environmental judgment in early childhood and its relationship with the understanding of the concept of living beings

Villarroel

2013

SpringerPlus

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The evidence collected concerning the biocentric judgment that young children express when evaluating human actions on the environment leads some scholars to suggest that an essential understanding of the notion of living beings should appear earlier than previously believed.This research project aims to study that assumption. To this end, young children’s choice when they are put in situation of having to compare and choose the most negative option between environmentally harmful actions and the breaking of social conventions are examined. Afterwards, the results are categorized in relation to those obtained from the study of children’s grasp of the distinction between living beings and inanimate entities.The data is analysed according to the individuals’ age and overall, it suggests a lack of relationship between environmental judgment and the understanding of the concept of living beings. The final results are discussed in keeping with recent research in the field of moral development that underscores the role that unconscious emotional processing plays in the individual’s normative judgment.

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Defining and characterizing ecosystem services for education: A Delphi study

Ruppert

Duncan

2017

J Res Sci Teach

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Recent advancements in science have led to an increasingly sophisticated understanding of the many ways in which humans benefit from environmental systems. These benefits, termed Ecosystem Services, are sparsely characterized in education literature, but were included in the most recent iteration of US national science standards: the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). In this paper, we introduce the concept of Ecosystem Services and discuss why it is emerging as an important idea to teach. Specifically, we present a definition and set of big conceptual ideas about ecosystem services developed using a Delphi technique: a method that uses repeat survey of a panel of experts in a domain, to reach a consensus about important ideas. Using the central ideas that emerged during this study, we developed a refined model of coupled human-environment systems that articulates multiple human populations as embedded within ecosystems, connected to these ecosystems near and far, and benefiting from the resources and conditions provisioned by these ecosystems. We discuss the implications of this model to future education research, as well as to future revisions of Disciplinary

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From “Forest Fires” and “Hunting” to Disturbing “Habitats” and “Food Chains”: Do Young Children Come up with any Ecological Interpretations of Human Interventions Within a Forest?

Cited by 31 publications

References 14 publications

Environmental Awareness and Its Relationship with the Concept of the Living Being: A Longitudinal Study

Environmental Awareness and Its Relationship with the Concept of the Living Being: A Longitudinal Study

Environmental judgment in early childhood and its relationship with the understanding of the concept of living beings

Defining and characterizing ecosystem services for education: A Delphi study

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