A Phenomenographic Study on the Concept of Nature and Alienation of Children from Nature

Abstract

It is very difficult to instill a concept and interpretation of nature and a sense of responsibility to protect nature in the minds of children who are increasingly becoming disconnected and alienated from it.. TheFailure to integrate learning environments with nature, despite the continuous increase in the integration between learning environments andmodern technology, is complicating the task of creating perception of nature and awareness in children concerning the problems of nature. This study aims at shedding light on the way the teachers who are responsible for the design of the educational environments, perceive the concept of “nature” and “alienation of children from nature”. The phenomenographic research design, which is one of the qualitative research methods, was used in this study. The sample of the study was selected using criterion sampling method, one of the purposive sampling methods. The participants of the study are 40 teachers, including 20 elementary school teachers and 20 science teachers, who are assigned to schools located in the center of Diyarbakır province and affiliated with the Provincial Directorate of National Education. 17 (42.5%) of these participants were female and 23 (47.5%) were male. The findings of the study revealed that the teachers interpret the concept of nature under three different categories: these are respectively physical/ visible features of nature, wholeness and function of nature and its importance for the human health. Consequently, inclusion of activities that have the contents of nature in the design of educational programs and relate to children who spend most of their time at school and design of learning environments with models, samples and visual tools which include contents of nature may make it easier for children to perceive and interpret nature.