Preschool children\u27s perceptions of bears and activities to improve coexistence with bears

Otroci se že v zgodnjem otroštvu na podlagi lastnih izkušenj seznanjajo z naravo in do nje začnejo gojiti odnos. Izoblikujejo si predstave o naravi, ki pa niso vselej ustrezne. Tu imajo lahko pomembno vlogo vzgojitelji in drugi odrasli, ki pomagajo otrokom, da neustrezne predstave nadomestijo z ustreznejšimi. Na otrokove predstave poleg lastnih izkušenj in odraslih vplivajo tudi risanke, slikanice in pesmi, ki velikokrat vsebujejo naravoslovno neustrezne informacije. V mnogih literarnih delih za otroke in risankah nastopa medved, ki je v slovenskem podeželskem okolju pogosta gozdna žival. Prav zato sem v diplomskem delu raziskovala predstave predšolskih otrok o medvedu in zasnovala dejavnosti, ki bi lahko podprle sobivanje z medvedom. V prvem delu raziskave sem ugotavljala, kakšne so predstave predšolskih otrok o medvedu in primerjala odgovore podeželskih otrok z odgovori otrok iz urbanega okolja. V tem delu raziskave je sodelovalo 60 otrok, starih od 5 do 6 let, in sicer 30 otrok iz mestnega okolja in 30 otrok s podeželja. V drugem delu sem se posvetila samo otrokom s podeželja. Zasnovala sem pet dejavnosti, ki bi lahko vplivale na sobivanje z medvedom, in tako bivanje z medvedom v skupnem okolju in zmanjšale število konfliktov med ljudmi in medvedom. Dejavnosti sem izvedla s 17 otroki iz eksperimentalne skupine in z tako poskusila spremeniti otrokove predstave in odnos do medveda, 13 otrok pa je bilo vključenih v kontrolni skupini. Po izvedenih dejavnostih sem intervjuje z obema skupinama otrok ponovila. Analiza začetnih in ponovnih intervjujev je pokazala, da so prisotne razlike v predstavah mestnih in podeželskih predšolskih otrok, saj podeželski o medvedu vedo več, njihove predstave pa so tudi bolj realne. Analiza je pokazala tudi, da so otroci v eksperimentalni in kontrolni skupini na začetku imeli napačne predstave in stereotipe o medvedu, ki pa so jih otroci iz eksperimentalne skupine z dejavnostmi večinoma ustrezno preoblikovali. Končna primerjava je pokazala, da vzgojitelj z dejavnostmi lahko pomembno vpliva na predstave otrok. Menim, da bi ob nadaljnjem izvajanju zasnovanih dejavnosti lahko pri naslednjih generacijah izboljšali možnosti sobivanja človeka in medveda.Children learn about nature from an early age through their own experiences and develop an attitude towards nature. The perceptions they form this way may not be adequate. The educator and other adults can play an important role in helping children to replace their inadequate perceptions with adequate ones. In addition to children\u27s own experiences and those they get from adults, children\u27s perceptions can be influenced by cartoons, picture books and children\u27s songs, which often contain scientifically compromised information. The brown bear, a common beast in Slovenia\u27s forested-countryside, features in many works of children\u27s literature and cartoons. This is the main reason why I decided to investigate preschool children\u27s perceptions about the bear and designed activities for children which could support coexistence of people and bears. The first part of my research investigates preschool children\u27s perceptions of the bear and compares the responses of rural children with those of urban children. This part of the study involves 60 children aged 5 to 6 years, namely 30 from an urban area and 30 from the countryside. In the second part, I focus on the children from the rural areas. I design five activities that could have an impact on coexistence with the bear – they could improve the chances of living with the animal in a common environment and reduce the number of clashes between people and bears. I carry out these activities with 17 children from the experimental group in order to change their perceptions and attitudes towards bears, while the control group consists of 13 children. The activities are followed by another round of interviews with both groups. The analysis of the initial and follow-up interviews showed that there are differences in the perceptions of urban and rural preschool children, as rural children knew more about the bear, and their perceptions were also more realistic. The analysis also showed that the experimental and control groups initially had misconceptions and stereotypes about bears, which, through activities, children from the experimental group mostly changed to appropriate ones. The final comparison showed that the educator can significantly influence children\u27s perceptions through activities. By further implementating of the designed activities, I believe that the possibilities of coexistence of the human and the bear in a common environment could be improved in the next generations