Abstract
While environmental education in early childhood can raise children’s environmental awareness and shape environmental attitudes, little is known about the effects of environmental education programs on pro-environmental behaviors in children. This paper analyzes the impact of the Eco Experience Education Program for Early Childhood (EEEPEC), an educational program featuring lectures on global warming and water- and energy-saving, as well as visual prompts, on young children’s water-saving behaviors in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. Through observations, interviews, and survey data, this study found that the EEEPEC was associated with increased water-saving behaviors. The results suggest that the behavioral changes were driven by the program’s visual prompts (e.g., water coils placed next to water taps) that provide children with immediate feedback and enhance pro-environmental communication among teachers, parents, and children. Early childhood environmental education programs such as the EEEPEC have the potential to foster long-term pro-environmental behaviors in young children.
Highlights
In 2012, the Japanese government partially amended a law related to environmental education, entitled “Act on the Promotion of Environmental Conservation Activities through Environmental Education.” The amendment extended the period of environmental education to include “early childhood”
This paper evaluates the effects of the Experience Education Program for Early Childhood (EEEPEC), an early childhood education program for the environment, by examining young children’s water-saving behaviors in both preschool and home settings
EEEPEC fulfilled the level required for early childhood education without difficulty,it includes a wide variety of educational topics, including warming energyand and though it includes a wide variety of educational topics,global including globaland warming water conservation
Summary
In 2012, the Japanese government partially amended a law related to environmental education, entitled “Act on the Promotion of Environmental Conservation Activities through Environmental Education.” The amendment extended the period of environmental education to include “early childhood”. The text strongly emphasized the fostering of three desirable components of early childhood environmental education (ECEE):. Environmental education is becoming increasing central to early childhood education in Japan, it is important to note that the numbers of both practical cases and research articles targeting ECEE have not been sufficiently reported. By the year of 2003, Inoue [2] searched articles related to ECEE edited by the Japanese Society for Environmental Education and found that only nine papers focused on the field. Abe [5] emphasized that early childhood education should prioritize “education in the environment”. Such experiential environmental learning, which helps young children respect and care for their environment [6], is fundamental to successful early childhood education.
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