ECE356 OUTDOOR EDUCATION IN EARLY YEARS
| Course Code: | 4110356 |
| METU Credit (Theoretical-Laboratory hours/week): | 3 (2.00 - 2.00) |
| ECTS Credit: | 4.0 |
| Department: | Early Childhood Education |
| Language of Instruction: | English |
| Level of Study: | Undergraduate |
| Course Coordinator: | Assoc.Prof.Dr. SERAP SEVİMLİ ÇELİK, Assoc.Prof.Dr. HASİBE ÖZLEN DEMİRCAN, Assist.Prof.Dr VOLKAN ŞAHİN |
| Offered Semester: | Spring Semesters. |
Course Objectives
This course will introduce students the importance of outdoor education for young children. Moreover, the characteristics of ideal outdoor environment, risk and safety in outdoor environment will be studied. The course will also focus on the pedagogies related to nature-based education, the relation between sustainability and outdoor education. In addition, participants in this course will be provided strategies to plan planning outdoor activities for young children and effective teacher strategies in outdoor environments.
Course Content
The importance of outdoor play is widely acknowledged by early childhood researchers. However, studies, which are conducted to investigate teachers outdoor play practices, proposed educational implications in relation to in-service and pre-service training programs about outdoor education. They suggested that in-service and pre-service teacher training programs are needed about facilitation of childrens outdoor play by teachers. As those researchers indicated, in-service teacher training could be one way to form teachers beliefs and improve their outdoor play practices. However, when teachers are graduated from university and participated to the regular system, they have generally configured their beliefs in relation to teaching and learning. When it is considered that beliefs are resistant to change, the role of pre-service teacher training programs in constructing pre-service teachers beliefs becomes more crucial. In other words, pre-service teacher training programs might be more effective to construct pre-service teachers beliefs of outdoor education and to make them capable in terms of facilitating childrens outdoor play and learning. In this regard, several research that have been conducted to examine the role of pre-service teacher training programs in forming pre-service teachers beliefs constitute an evidence for this foresight. From this point of view, providing an outdoor education course for pre-service teachers would be golden opportunity to train qualified and capable students in the issue of outdoor education. In addition, in Turkey, curriculum for early childhood education suggested teachers to conduct learning activities in outdoor environment as much as possible. Based on this guide curriculum, teachers are expected to create their own plans. At that point, as the teachers will be decision makers of the curriculum and classroom it is important to make pre-service students to develop positive attitudes toward outdoor education. Due to aforementioned reasons, presenting a course for outdoor education is significant for pre-service early childhood teacher training program.
Course Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to
• Identify historical development of outdoor play in early childhood education
• Describe the role of outdoor play in a child’s growth and development
• Acquire skills in planning and carrying out outdoor activities which support young children’s development.
• Analyse the role of the adult in young children’s outdoor play
• Acquire strategies for educating parents and other professionals about the value of outdoor play in children’s lives.
• Differentiate reasonable risk and hazard in outdoor play environment
• Use criteria to select and evaluate materials and equipment for outdoor play and adapt outdoor environments to meet the needs of young children.
• Describe the characteristics and philosophies of nature-based pedagogies
• Acquire skills to conduct learning activities out of school environments such as woodlands, forests, parks or lakeside.
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