Forest school applications in pre-school period: A case study

Abstract

The current study was conducted to investigate the contribution of the forest school approach to the development of preschool children. In this connection, the study group is comprised of 7 pre-schoolers aged at 48-60 months. The sample of the current study was determined by using the convenience sampling method, one of the purposive sampling methods. The current study is a case study, covering an eight-week period. A total of five data collection tools were used in the study: “General Information Form”, “Pre-Application Questions”, “Activity Evaluation Form (Individual)”, “Activity Evaluation Form (General)”, “Development Observation Form”. The collected data were transcribed; codes and themes were established and finally content analysis was conducted on them. As a result of the analysis, it was concluded that the forest school applications positively affected the children’s cognitive development, language development, social and emotional development, motor development and self-care skills in some situations and supported the development of the children in general. In light of these findings, integration of forest school into pre-school education is thought to be of great importance.