Teaching about the importance of trees: a study with young children

Abstract

This paper reports on a study undertaken with the primary aim of investigating the effect of the storytelling teaching approach on kindergarten children's retention of ideas about the importance of trees. The study also assessed the effect of storytelling on children's intention to participate in a tree planting activity that they had to select from a list of activities. The story that was created included such elements as binary opposites, mental images, mystery, and wonder, according to Kieran Egan's theory. The study utilized a two‐group design, was conducted in three phases (pre‐test, intervention, and post‐test), lasted 11 weeks, and its results provide evidence of the effectiveness of the storytelling approach when compared with the traditional method of expository teaching complemented with visual images (pictures) of trees and their importance to human beings. The pedagogical appropriateness of the story, which was based upon the binary pair of opposites ‘security–insecurity’, is also discussed in the paper.

Keywords:

• education
• young children
• kindergarten
• environment
• trees
• storytelling
• effective learning

Notes

1. This study was also conducted in the context of a larger international research project carried out by the Imaginative Education Research Group (IERG) and directed by Kieran Egan, professor at Simon Fraser University, and Canada Research Chair in Education.

2. This is a summary of the story (see Appendix 1). It was told by the researcher from memory by using words and expressions that made the plot understood, and by encouraging children to form mental images of the introduced ideas about trees. Some parts of it (appearing in parentheses) were rephrased by the researcher during the narrative or omitted. The intention on the part of the researcher was to concentrate on the ideas about trees and on the formation of mental images of those ideas.