ECE348 ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION IN THE EARLY YEARS
| Course Code: | 4110348 |
| METU Credit (Theoretical-Laboratory hours/week): | 3 (3.00 - 0.00) |
| ECTS Credit: | 5.0 |
| Department: | Early Childhood Education |
| Language of Instruction: | English |
| Level of Study: | Undergraduate |
| Course Coordinator: | Prof.Dr. REFİKA OLGAN |
| Offered Semester: | Spring Semesters. |
Course Objectives
- Develop awareness related to human-nature relationships.
- Develop a clear understanding of the potential of early childhood education for environmental education.
- Understand the current position of today’s children to realize the importance of early childhood environmental education.
- Identify related theories and practices about early childhood environmental education
- Learn how to reorient early childhood education towards environmental education and ESD.
- Understand the importance of planning both indoor and outdoor activities in early childhood education.
- Develop and implement developmentally appropriate practices to teach environmental concepts.
- Engage in activities that will strengthen prospective teachers’ awareness and understanding of the environment and natural resources.
Course Content
Concepts of environmental education in early childhood settings; developing child-nature relationship; theories and practices of early childhood environmental education; pedagogical approaches for early childhood contexts; awareness and understanding of environment and natural sources; education in natural play spaces; issues on living things, climate, pollution, waste management, biodiversity, water, soil, food cycle, energy, ecosystems and natural disasters; rethinking preservice teacher education.
Course Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- critically evaluate and reflect upon their own views and represent their own practices about environmental education teaching and learning.
- develop positive attitudes toward nature
- recognize developmental milestones of children
- learn how to support young children’s positive attitudes and practices about the environment
- plan and practice developmentally appropriate and culturally relevant preschool environmental education activities
- use appropriate teaching methods to enhance children’s learning
- develop and practice environmental education integrated preschool activities
- become familiar with alternative resources to assist children
Program Outcomes Matrix
| Level of Contribution | |||||
| # | Program Outcomes | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| 1 | To have the knowledge about 0-72 month old children's cognitive, motor, language, social and emotional development and self help skills and to be able to make applications to support this area. | ✔ | |||
| 2 | To be able to take measures for the protection of children's health. | ✔ | |||
| 3 | To know the importance of game in pre-school education and to support the education and development of the child through play. | ✔ | |||
| 4 | To recognize the pre-school education institutions in the scope of the purpose, structure and functioning of the Turkish education system. | ✔ | |||
| 5 | To have information about classroom management approaches to be used in educational environments and to effectively implement these approaches. | ✔ | |||
| 6 | To have information about international programs that are applied in the field of pre-school education and to use these programs' aspects that are appropriate to our culture in classroom practice. | ✔ | |||
| 7 | To be able to conduct research in the field of pre-school education and analyze and interpret research findings. | ✔ | |||
| 8 | To be able to prepare, implement and evaluate Turkish, science, math, art, music, movement, games, reading and writing preparation and field trip activities that support different areas of development (cognitive, motor, language, self-care, social and emotional) of pre-school children and can be planned as individual, small group, large group and integrated groups. | ✔ | |||
| 9 | To be able to use and to allow students to use audio-visual teaching materials appropriate for pre-school age children for their development. | ✔ | |||
| 10 | To be able to take responsibility and to fulfill these responsibilities in individual and group work. | ✔ | |||
| 11 | To understand the importance of family involvement in children's education and to plan activities related to family involvement. | ✔ | |||
| 12 | To have knowledge about literary genres prepared for pre-school children and to examine existing publications in terms of literary and artistic perspectives. | ✔ | |||
| 13 | To have knowledge about the importance and purpose of the use of formal and informal assessment methods appropriate for the age level and developmental level of pre-school children, and to apply and interpret different evaluation methods and to be able to interpret findings. | ✔ | |||
| 14 | To be able to follow/access, understand and question scientific publications for pre-school education. | ✔ | |||
0: No Contribution 1: Little Contribution 2: Partial Contribution 3: Full Contribution