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Contribution of Early Childhood Education to a Sustainable Society: Influences from Home in Preschool Children’s Understanding of Composting in France

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Abstract

Today, the understanding of environmental concerns is of great significance, making it desirable for children to investigate the scientific concepts underlying a growing list of emerging environmental issues. This paper deals with young children’s preconceptions. The authors have stressed the importance of investigating children’s ideas at an early stage, with some of these ideas leading to knowledge far removed from scientific knowledge. Our study focused on the knowledge about organic matter processes among five-year-old children who were only exposed to informal learning within the context of home waste management. We used semi-structured interviews with 48 young children to determine their knowledge about the organic matter cycling in composters. The determination of five significant stages for a global understanding of the cycle of organic matter and the construction of three levels of formulation have allowed us to conclude that young children are able to understand scientific processes involved in composting in the context of their family practice of organic waste management.

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Acknowledgements

This work constitutes part of a PhD funded by the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME) and conducted by Valerie Marchal-Gaillard at the CREAD educational research laboratory in the University of Western Brittany (France). The authors sincerely thank the local education authorities (Inspections Académiques) in Rennes and Tours for their support. They are also grateful to the children, parents and school staff who participated in the study on which this paper is based. Our gratitude extends to Konstantinos Ravanis, Professor at the University of Patras, for his comments on an earlier draft.

Funding

The PhD research from which this paper is based is supported by ADEME under Grant TEZ17-32.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre de Recherche sur l’Education, les Apprentissages et la Didactique (CREAD), Université de Bretagne Occidentale, 29200, Brest, France

    Valérie Marchal-Gaillard, Patricia Marzin-Janvier, Jean-Marie Boilevin & Agnès Grimault-Leprince

  2. Agence de la Transition Ecologique (ADEME), 20, avenue du Grésillé, BP 90406, 49004, Angers Cedex 01, France

    Valérie Marchal-Gaillard

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  1. Valérie Marchal-Gaillard
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  2. Patricia Marzin-Janvier
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  3. Jean-Marie Boilevin
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  4. Agnès Grimault-Leprince
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Correspondence to Valérie Marchal-Gaillard.

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Marchal-Gaillard, V., Marzin-Janvier, P., Boilevin, JM. et al. Contribution of Early Childhood Education to a Sustainable Society: Influences from Home in Preschool Children’s Understanding of Composting in France. Early Childhood Educ J 50, 1247–1261 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-021-01260-8

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