ECE356 OUTDOOR EDUCATION IN EARLY YEARS
Course Content
The importance of outdoor play is widely acknowledged by early childhood researchers. However, studies, which are conducted to investigate teachers’ outdoor play practices, proposed educational implications in relation to in-service and pre-service training programs about outdoor education. They suggested that in-service and pre-service teacher training programs are needed about facilitation of children’s outdoor play by teachers. As those researchers indicated, in-service teacher training could be one way to form teachers’ beliefs and improve their outdoor play practices. However, when teachers are graduated from university and participated to the regular system, they have generally configured their beliefs in relation to teaching and learning. When it is considered that beliefs are resistant to change, the role of pre-service teacher training programs in constructing pre-service teachers’ beliefs becomes more crucial. In other words, pre-service teacher training programs might be more effective to construct pre-service teachers’ beliefs of outdoor education and to make them capable in terms of facilitating children’s outdoor play and learning. In this regard, several research that have been conducted to examine the role of pre-service teacher training programs in forming pre-service teachers’ beliefs constitute an evidence for this foresight. From this point of view, providing an outdoor education course for pre-service teachers would be golden opportunity to train qualified and capable students in the issue of outdoor education. In addition, in Turkey, curriculum for early childhood education suggested teachers to conduct learning activities in outdoor environment as much as possible. Based on this guide curriculum, teachers are expected to create their own plans. At that point, as the teachers will be decision makers of the curriculum and classroom it is important to make pre-service students to develop positive attitudes toward outdoor education. Due to aforementioned reasons, presenting a course for outdoor education is significant for pre-service early childhood teacher training program.
