Abstract:

According to the preschool teaching program, since the students at this stage forge closer ties with nature, it is important to reveal their awareness and perceptions of the environmental problems in nature. Within this respect, the study aims at determining concepts that the preschool students have in their cognitive structures related to the environmental issues and their perceptions related to these problems. The study was carried out with 5 students who study at a preschool institution in Rize province in Turkey. Phenomenology which is one of the qualitative research designs was used in this study. The data were obtained by having carried out interviews about the events and circumstances. 5 pictures about soil pollution, light pollution, noise pollution, water pollution and air pollution were used as data collection tool. The students were asked to look at these pictures and state their comments related to them. It was aimed to establish with which concepts in their minds students associated the environmental pollutions illustrated on the pictures and their perceptions in this regard. When the students’ comments on the pictures were analysed, it was established that most of them used directly relevant and meaningful concepts related to the subject. On the other hand, it was found out that some of the students had deficient or incorrect concepts in stating environmental problems. It was also determined that students associate all environmental problems with the human concept, and they are of the opinion that problems are caused by the human.

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