Analysis of the alpine content implementation in kindergarten

This diploma thesis focuses on mountaineering in kindergartens: how it affects a child's development, what are the advantages of organising alpine activities in kindergarten, what influence do the teacher and the management of the kindergarten have on the implementation of alpine content and how it is included in the document Kurikulum za vrtce. The goals of the research are to present the frequency of the implementation of theoretical and practical alpine content in kindergarten, to study the differences between the implementation of this content in the first age bracket and in the second one, and to research the factors that affect the frequency of alpine content implementation in kindergarten. With the help of non-standardised survey questionnaires, we obtained the data on the frequency of alpine content implementation in kindergarten, the suitability of the environment and the support of the kindergarten management on the implementation, and the teachers' opinion on the effects of mountaineering on children. The obtained data were numerically weighted. SPSS Statistics software package 21.0 for Windows was used for statistical data processing. Basic statistical parameters (descriptive statistics) were used. Contingency tables, chi-squared test and Pearson correlation coefficient were employed to discover the differences between the groups. Multiple regression analysis was used to discover the effects of chosen factors (location, age of children, support of the management) on the implementation of alpine contents. Statistical significance was examined on the level of 5 percent risk (p ≤0,05). The analysis of obtained results determined that the implementation of both theoretical and practical alpine content is more frequent in the second age bracket. A good 60 percent of all interviewed kindergarten teachers go for a short walk in the vicinity of the kindergarten more than two times per week, while more than 20 percent take their group for a short walk fewer than three times per month. A longer trip which exceeds a child's everyday strain and includes at least 150 m of elevation gain in one direction, was implemented by 64.6 percent of the interviewed teachers in the past school year, while 17 percent of the interviewed teachers implemented four or more such trips. The results showed that the frequency of alpine content implementation is not connected to the kindergarten's surroundings. It also showed that the factors we chose and thought they strongly affect the frequency of alpine content implementation (location, teacher's opinion and support of the management) only have a 10 percent effect on it. Support, provided for the teachers by the management of the kindergarten, has a positive effect on the frequency of practical alpine content implementation in kindergarten (walks, longer trips, orienteering and climbing)