Environmental protection education using an experiential learning approach for children 5-6 years old at preschools in Binh Chanh district, Ho Chi Minh City

Abstract

Environmental protection education for preschool children is a necessary content, because this is an important stage in the formation of children’s awareness and habits. That has been stipulated in the Early Childhood Education Program and confirmed in many other legal documents. The ultimate goal of environmental protection education is to help form awareness, attitudes and behaviors to live sustainably and responsibly towards the environment. Experiential learning is an important learning theory, highlighted by educational psychologist David Kolb. This theory believes that learning is not just a passive process of receiving information but an active process, in which practical experience plays a central role in forming knowledge, skills and thinking. Using the retrospective method of related research, this article focuses on proposing ways to apply David A.Kold’s experiential learning model to educate environmental protection behavior for preschool children. . The 4 steps in the experiential learning process have been analyzed and instructions on how to specifically apply them. The author of the article proposes principles when applying the model. Although the flexibility is emphasized, the most important thing is to ensure that children can experience, “trial and error” under the organization and guidance of teachers. Preschool teachers let children build their own understanding and behavior. The results of this study continue to contribute to opening up the way to flexibly apply the experience-based learning model to educate other content for preschool children.