This article reports how Swedish teachers' aims and practices were modified by an ecosystem services development project that introduced insect hotels, bird boxes and planting to ten preschool yards. Teachers' understanding of ecosystem services, human--nature relationships and the impact of these on nature connectedness showed that their…

This study provides an opportunity for young children to express their thoughts about all matters affecting them based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). Accordingly, 20 five-year-old children attending a preschool in Korea participated in this study, reading picture books, including animal matters. I recorded and…

The paper intends to discuss India's humane cultural traditions and its animal protection laws, justify the current need for humane education in Indian schools and preschools, offer examples of humane education curriculum ideas, and highlight the work of animal welfare organizations in India. Since ancient times, reverence and compassion for…

This article presents research designed along one scholar course with first-year pre-schoolers in Spain. A coherent sequence of learning activities, that combined classroom work with working outside the classroom (in the school garden), was designed in order to analyse if the first-year-preschool children were able to apply scientific tools,…

With the aim of exploring how science is done in collaborative interactions when children discuss reasons for animal diversity, this paper provides insight into the relationships between acts of doing science and collaborative interactions. Video data from four small-group discussions (N = 14) were analysed using Lemke's (1990) talking science…

Learning opportunities can be found all around, and innovative education approaches are expanding the concept of a school environment. Nestled in the urban core of San Antonio, Texas, is a nature-based preschool that is taking a wild approach to learning about conservation. Will Smith Zoo School, part of San Antonio Zoo and named in honor of a boy…

It can be a struggle for early childhood teachers to create hands-on, engaging lessons about animals. This is especially true of units that require exposure to a wide range of animals from a variety of habitats. The authors' describe how they shook up their traditional animal unit by creating a Kindergarten zoo! Herein they summarize their…

Using the human-animal bond, relational ecology, and the "common world" framework as theoretical underpinnings, I set out to better understand the array of settings and experiences wherein young children are able to interact, either directly or indirectly with animals within the context of early childhood environmental education (ECEE).…

The authors conducted three experiments examining the effect of grouping on children's generalization of animal labels. In Experiment 1 (N = 96), first graders (M age = 6 years, 10 months) who had seen a novel animal grouped with similar animals generalized its trained label more broadly than those who had seen it by itself or grouped with…

This study explores the progression in the perceptions that pre-service primary teachers have about the interdependence of people and invertebrate organisms, after implementing an inquiry proposal. By means of an inductive analysis, the reports made by the pre-service teachers were assessed and grouped into four models, according to the level of…

Children are constantly working to make sense of themselves, their experiences, and their worlds. One way that children tend to do this is through creating artifacts. By engaging in discussions around, and interacting with these artifacts, teachers and educators are able to gain further insight into the experiences of children. Through observing…

In this study children's learning of the concept, stability, during some building activities were investigated. It was also examined how a story can create meaning, having the children build for some animals in the story. Two preschool teachers and 10 children participated. Data consisted of video-recordings from activities with the children and…

Research Findings: Although work across developmental and educational psychology reveals that trust impacts children's acceptance of claims and that teacher-student relationships impact learning outcomes, little work has integrated these literatures to better understand how students' trust in their teacher facilitates learning. In the present…

This study was carried out within a project to promote health and ecosystem services, 'the benefits people obtain from ecosystems', in preschools in Sweden. The paper applies the concept 'affordance' to capture the functional meaning that children assign to different material aspects of their schoolyards before and after the installation of…

I present my perspective on the design process in this article, arguing for a focus on student learning and "slow design" that stems from knowledge of mathematics and their support system in the learning process. I have a question about the design process academization and task design research direction. Numerous examples from my work at…