IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i9p3698-d353581.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Species Learning and Biodiversity in Early Childhood Teacher Education

Author

Listed:
  • Lili-Ann Wolff

    (Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki, PB 9, 00014 Helsinki, Finland)

  • Tuula H. Skarstein

    (Department of Early Childhood Education, University of Stavanger, 4036 Stavanger, Norway)

Abstract

To understand biodiversity, it is crucial to have knowledge of different species and their life conditions. Biodiversity learning for children starts with observing plants and animals in the neighbourhood. Therefore, it is important that early childhood (EC) teachers know the local nature. There are few studies on species knowledge among EC student teachers but results from a Norwegian study show that although EC student teachers had poor species knowledge when entering university, their knowledge increased remarkably during their studies. Based on these results, the current study investigates the implementation of species learning in an EC teacher education course in Finland. Our aim was to study the student teachers’ species identification skills, their views on the importance of species knowledge, and their experiences of species learning. The study used a mixed-methods approach and included species identification tests, a questionnaire, learning diaries, and focus group interviews. The results show that the student teachers were eager to learn about species. They found species learning important both for EC teachers and for sustainability, and they appreciated learning about species in a broad sense, from personal, educational, and social perspectives. Our conclusion is that implementing species knowledge in EC teacher education promotes an interest in the natural world and may form a significant contribution to nature and sustainability education for EC teachers.

Suggested Citation

  • Lili-Ann Wolff & Tuula H. Skarstein, 2020. "Species Learning and Biodiversity in Early Childhood Teacher Education," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-19, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:9:p:3698-:d:353581
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/9/3698/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/9/3698/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Irmeli Palmberg & Sirpa Kärkkäinen & Eila Jeronen & Eija Yli-Panula & Christel Persson, 2019. "Nordic Student Teachers’ Views on the Most Efficient Teaching and Learning Methods for Species and Species Identification," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-19, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Francisco Javier Robles-Moral & Manuel Fernández-Díaz & Gabriel Enrique Ayuso-Fernández, 2022. "What Do Pre-Service Preschool Teachers Know about Biodiversity at the Level of Organisms? Preliminary Analysis of Their Ability to Identify Vertebrate Animals," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(18), pages 1-11, September.
    2. Abramowicz Dawid & Dóniz-Páez Javier & Tritt Remigiusz & Bąk Mariusz, 2022. "Methodological Framework for Geodiversity Application in Geographic Education from a Case Study of Canary Islands, Spain," Quaestiones Geographicae, Sciendo, vol. 41(1), pages 79-91, March.
    3. Kezban Özgem & Umut Akçıl, 2022. "An Investigation of Preschool Level Out-of-Class Education Activities in Finland, Estonia, Ireland, and Turkey within the Framework of 21st Century Skills," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-15, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andres Echeverria & Idoia Ariz & Judit Moreno & Javier Peralta & Esther M. Gonzalez, 2021. "Learning Plant Biodiversity in Nature: The Use of the Citizen–Science Platform iNaturalist as a Collaborative Tool in Secondary Education," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-12, January.
    2. Nabila Nurul Hawa & Sharifah Zarina Syed Zakaria & Muhammad Rizal Razman & Nuriah Abd Majid, 2021. "Geography Education for Promoting Sustainability in Indonesia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-15, April.
    3. María Consuelo Sáiz-Manzanares & Sara Gutiérrez-González & Ángel Rodríguez & Lourdes Alameda Cuenca-Romero & Verónica Calderón & Miguel Ángel Queiruga-Dios, 2020. "Systematic Review on Inclusive Education, Sustainability in Engineering: An Analysis with Mixed Methods and Data Mining Techniques," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-18, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:9:p:3698-:d:353581. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.