干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

Schoolyards are a part of the school environment, where students spend some of their time on a daily basis while they are at school. It is a space that provides the opportunity for free movement and play, creative activities, exploration, for students to come into contact with nature, and also offers the benefit of supporting processes related to their mental and emotional development. Furthermore, schoolyards also constitute a tool for environmental education, and can be transformed, through suitable planning, into a ’medium’ through which students can communicate with the natural environment. In Greece, despite the continuous improvements made to the educational process and the introduction of environmental education in schools, no substantial progress has been observed regarding the regeneration of schoolyards. Thus, they are spaces that remain unexploited, and cannot support experiential learning in their present form; they do not encourage children interaction with nature, nor the development of environmental awareness and communication. In recent years, the continuous residential expansion has meant that schoolyards have become open-air oases, still found within the urban fabric, and are virtually the last example of green areas that can be used by students and which can upgrade the urban environment. At kindergarten in particular, where students’ play, creative and exploration activities are directly related to their contact with the natural environment, the exploitation of schoolyards is considered to be essential. The general aim of the present paper is to contribute to a typological recording of the views of kindergarten teachers, regarding the possible use of kindergarten schoolyards, as a tool for environmental education. Through the application of the Hierarchical cluster analysis method on a sample of active kindergarten teachers in Primary Education in Thessaloniki, teacher types with relevant qualitative characteristics were identified.