Preschool children’s knowledge about the environmental impact of various modes of transport

Abstract

This study explored Swedish preschool children's knowledge about the environmental impact of various transport modes, and investigated whether or not eco-certification has any role to play in relation to this knowledge. Additionally, this study examined children's perceived sources of knowledge. Using illustrations and semi-structured questions, 53 children, aged five to six years, from six eco-certified and six non-eco-certified preschools were interviewed. Qualitative and quantitative data were analysed using content analysis and Orthogonal Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis (OPLS-DA), respectively. Findings revealed that most of the children had acquired some knowledge about the environmental impact of various transport modes, although some children were not familiar with the word 'environment'. Although the complexity of children's justifications for the environmental impact of different modes of transport tended to be higher at eco-certified preschools compared to non-eco-certified preschools, no statistically significant differences were found. Parents were reported to be a major source of knowledge.<p>Open Access APC beslut 12/2017</p

Economic (in)equality and sustainability: preschool children’s views of the economic situation of other children in the world

“…These findings are consistent with those of previous studies reporting that children who participated in whole-school programmes, such as eco-schools or schools that promote a healthy lifestyle, had a deeper understanding of these issues; furthermore, they learned about various global and local issues related to sustainability with support of their teachers (Davis, 2005;Davison, Davison, Reed, Halden, & Dillon, 2003;Lewis, Mansfield, & Baudains, 2010;Mackey, 2012). Nevertheless, two previous studies that compared eco-certified and non-eco-certified preschools in terms of children's knowledge and practices of environmental and sustainability issues using statistical analysis did not find any statistically significant differences (Borg, et al, 2017a(Borg, et al, , 2017b. Therefore, it is important to conduct a large-scale study of sufficient statistical power to investigate whether eco-certification plays any role in developing children's knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of particular relevance to a sustainable society.…”

“…The interviewer also used a cuddly puppet, some toys and a special sitting mat with a picture of two puppies to initiate a friendly and informal conversation with the child. The cuddly puppet (a teddy bear that was named Kim) was used for asking children questions as though the puppet was their friend (for more information about the interview instrument, see Borg, 2017;Borg, Winberg, & Vinterek, 2017a, 2017b. Each interview took approximately 5-10 minutes.…”

Norwegian Kindergarten Children’s Knowledge about the Environmental Component of Sustainable Development

“…This was done to introduce the term "nature". We used the term "nature" (natur in Norwegian) instead of "environment", since previous research conducted in Sweden has shown that the word "environment" (miljø in Norwegian, miljö in Swedish) is unknown to most kindergarten children [34], while they are more familiar with the term "nature". Then we asked the children whether they considered humans as being part of nature.…”

Cycling for a Sustainable Future. Stimulating Children to Cycle to School via a Synergetic Combination of Informational and Behavioral Interventions

“…Transport emissions have a major impact on the worldwide climate problem [1,2]. The World Health Organization (WHO) even declared the transportation sector as the fastest growing contributor to climate emissions, as it (among other factors) leads to long-lived carbon dioxide emissions and short-lived black carbon [3].…”

“…The World Health Organization (WHO) even declared the transportation sector as the fastest growing contributor to climate emissions, as it (among other factors) leads to long-lived carbon dioxide emissions and short-lived black carbon [3]. This affects people's futures, but also their current quality of life, as it has an impact on health (e.g., automated transport decreases a person's physical activity level and it degrades the air-quality due to polluted emissions), safety (e.g., more cars on the road lead to more traffic and accidents), and well-being (e.g., traffic leads to more noise pollution) [1,4]. The WHO calculated that air pollution is even the biggest environmental risk to health, and showed that in 2016, 4.2 million deaths could globally be attributed to ambient air pollution [5].…”