Using pictures for an evaluation of a program for development pre-school children’s environmental sensitivity
Abstract
This article presents and evaluates a development of environmental sensitivity program conducted for parents with small children who participated in a holiday excursion organised by the Free Time agency. The program was designed as a 5-day integrated thematic approach consisting of connected activities based on the ideas of Joseph Cornell.
A mix of instruments were used for the evaluation: observation, interviews with parents and comparisons of children’s outdoorexperiences captured in artistic form both pre- and post-program. The artistic reflectios were subsequently conceptualized with the aid of ‘figure-background-interaction’ categories.
The analysis showed a significant shift in the way nature was represented in the children’s pictures: nature came into play more often in the roles of figures and background. The authors suggest using the methods for similarly oriented pre-school children’s program evaluation.