Children’s Relationship with the environment upon going to excursions and field trips

U radu je dat kratak presjek odnosa djece i njihova okoliša, odnosno utjecaj okoliša na ekološki prihvatljivo ponašanje djece prema okolišu. Uz presjek literaturnih podataka o odnosu djece i okoliša, analizirana su i 4 inozemna rada iz kojih je razvidno da odlasci u prirodu bilo kao izleti ili ekskurzije pozitivno utječu na ekološke stavove djece. U sva četiri istraživanja su djeca koja su boravila u prirodi razvila proekološke stavove, posramljujuću u nekim situacijama svojim stavovima i svoje učitelje. Nažalost, u Hrvatskoj takvih istraživanja nema ili su rubna, što je porazno s obzirom na izuzetnu biološku, krajobraznu, geološku i kulturnu baštinu. Izleti ili ekskurzije moraju biti sastavni dio obrazovnog kurikula, shodno tome prirodna baština adekvatno zastupljen u kurikulu sveučilišnih studija učitelja i odgojitelja. Holistički pristup djece prema prirodi treba njegovati, jer će povratno djelovati na holistički proces odrastanja djece u odgovorne članove društva.The aim of this work was to give a short section oft he relationship between the children and their enviroment; in other words, to point out the influence of the enviroment on the ecologically acceptable children’s behaviour towards the environment they live in. Except the section of literature dana referring to the above mentioned relationship oft he children and environment, four foreign pieces of work have also been analysed here, from which we can see that going to the nature, either like picnics or like excursions, positively influences children’s ecological attitudes. In all four researches children spending some time in the nature have developed pro-ecological attitudes through which they even managed to make their teachers ashamed in certain situations. Unfortunately, there are no such researches in Croatia, but if they do exist, they are defective and not of good quality at all, which is totally unacceptable in regard to expetionally biological, landscape, geological as well as cultural heritage of our country. Pleasure trips or excursions have tob e constituent part of educational curriculum and suitably to this, natural heritage appropriately represented in the curriculum at the University studies for teachers and educators. Holistic approach oft he children to the nature should be trained because it will affect, in return, the holistic process of children’s growing-up into responsible members oft he society