Children’s Play and Physical Activity in Traditional and Forest (Natural) Playgrounds
Journal Title: International Journal of Educational Methodology - Year 2017, Vol 3, Issue 1
Abstract
Early childhood is a crucial period for the physical and cognitive development of children. A child's exposure to nature is proven to be beneficial in this period of human life. The aim of the present research was to investigate children’s play and physical activity on a traditional playground and on a forest (natural) playground. Twenty-five observations took place on the traditional playground, and twenty-five observations were recorded on the forest playground. Twenty-five participating preschool children were observed in both playgrounds, but not necessarily in the same order. Research findings confirmed important qualities of natural playgrounds that provide children with a wide range of playing and learning opportunities not available on other playgrounds. Children were playing more with different natural materials in the forest playground and they more frequently played different chasing games and hide and seek in the forest playground. Participating children were also more physically active on the forest playground, and boys were more active on the forest playground than girls. The research concludes that it is important for preschool teachers to use natural playgrounds frequently and with regularity. Research design in this article is also an example of how GPS trackers can be beneficial for educational research.
Authors and Affiliations
Gregor Torkar, Aljoša Rejc
Evaluating and Improving Teacher Educators’ Language-Oriented Performance in Content-Based Teaching
In general, teacher educators are considered to be educational specialists whose main task is to communicate content-based concepts to prospective teachers. However, unfortunately, most studies on teacher professional de...
Application of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to Reduce Multicollinearity Exchange Rate Currency of Some Countries in Asia Period 2004-2014
This study aims to apply the model Principal component Analysis to reduce multicollinearity on variable currency exchange rate in eight countries in Asia against US Dollar including the Yen (Japan), Won (South Korea), Do...
Unpacking TPACK in Mathematics Education Research: A Systematic Review of Meta-Analyses
Teaching with technology is considered a necessity in the U.S. mathematics classroom. However, few studies have established explicit considerations to support technology-enhanced student achievement. The purpose of this...
Picture in Children's Story Books: Children's Perspective
The aim of this study is to collect and analyze children's comments on the pictures in children's story books. Four students studied in the first grade of a public primary school in Adana participated in the study. The r...
Enhancing Critical Thinking in Malaysian Primary School Students through PLS Method
Pictologics (PLS) is a language teaching method which relies on imaginative usage of pictures. The current paper reports the effects of applying this method on enhancing critical thinking ability of the Malaysian student...