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Young Children’s Contributions to Sustainability: The Influence of Nature Play on Curiosity, Executive Function Skills, Creative Thinking, and Resilience

Author

Listed:
  • Julie Ernst

    (Applied Human Sciences, University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth, MN 55812, USA)

  • Firdevs Burcak

    (Hasan Ali Yucel Faculty of Education, Department of Early Childhood Education, Istanbul University - Cerrahpasa, 34500 Istanbul, Turkey)

Abstract

Environmental education for young children has great potential for fostering the skills, values, and dispositions that support sustainability. While North American guidelines emphasize the importance of using the natural world for open-ended exploration, discovery, and play, this approach has been criticized for lacking the transformative power necessary for meaningfully contributing to sustainability issues. Four pilot studies were conducted exploring the influence of nature play in the context of nature preschools on children’s curiosity, executive function skills, creative thinking, and resilience. These studies used established quantitative instruments to measure growth in these constructs among nature preschool participants, comparing this growth with participants in high quality, play-based, non-nature preschools. The results suggest a positive contribution of nature play, with greater levels of curiosity, creative thinking, and resilience than what was observed in the non-nature preschool participants, and executive function skills similar to the non-nature preschool participants and exceeding national norms. Collectively, these pilot studies suggest the potential contribution of nature play in the context of education for sustainability.

Suggested Citation

  • Julie Ernst & Firdevs Burcak, 2019. "Young Children’s Contributions to Sustainability: The Influence of Nature Play on Curiosity, Executive Function Skills, Creative Thinking, and Resilience," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(15), pages 1-22, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:15:p:4212-:d:254674
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Julie Ernst & Kerri McAllister & Pirkko Siklander & Rune Storli, 2021. "Contributions to Sustainability through Young Children’s Nature Play: A Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-36, July.
    2. Sixian Li & Qianyi Jiang & Chenyu Deng, 2022. "The Development and Validation of an Outdoor Free Play Scale for Preschool Children," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-18, December.
    3. Avril Johnstone & Anne Martin & Rita Cordovil & Ingunn Fjørtoft & Susanna Iivonen & Boris Jidovtseff & Frederico Lopes & John J. Reilly & Hilary Thomson & Valerie Wells & Paul McCrorie, 2022. "Nature-Based Early Childhood Education and Children’s Social, Emotional and Cognitive Development: A Mixed-Methods Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(10), pages 1-30, May.
    4. Serap Sevimli-Celik & Begum Canaslan-Akyar, 2024. "Pre-schoolers in nature: A five-week play & learning experience within a Turkish context," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 14(1), pages 87-101, March.
    5. Thomas Beery, 2020. "Exploring Access to Nature Play in Urban Parks: Resilience, Sustainability, and Early Childhood," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-18, June.
    6. Miriam Romero-López & M. Carmen Pichardo & Judit Bembibre-Serrano & Trinidad García-Berbén, 2020. "Promoting Social Competence in Preschool with an Executive Functions Program Conducted by Teachers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-17, May.
    7. Claudia Melis & Per-Arvid Wold & Kathrine Bjørgen & Børge Moe, 2020. "Norwegian Kindergarten Children’s Knowledge about the Environmental Component of Sustainable Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-16, September.
    8. Johan Colding & Matteo Giusti & Andreas Haga & Marita Wallhagen & Stephan Barthel, 2020. "Enabling Relationships with Nature in Cities," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-16, May.
    9. Thomas Beery & Ola Magntorn, 2021. "Pre-Service Early Childhood Educator Experience in a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-20, April.

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