Abstract:

Society is profoundly transformed both in its routines and in its values: children do not play in the street, they are confined to a screen or using a digital keyboard, between four walls. And the school neglects the context offered by Nature, which provides children with a panoply of advantages and opportunities in direct contact experiences. Thus, more time abroad is required to guarantee the sustainability of an environmental and sustainable education. The objectives that guide the study are to value Nature as an educational resource that enhances learning processes’; recognize the transversality of the Study of the Environment in promoting sustainability; identify strategies that encourage curiosity and interest in discovering the physical and natural environment; prove the benefits of students, whose school has an educational farm. The research question: can children learn the contents in direct contact with nature? The sample consisted of twelve students from a class of twenty-four from the 1st year of the 1st Cycle of Basic Education (aged between 6 and 7 years old), from a school in the north of the country. Children were asked at the site to draw the reality they observed and to choose an animal of their choice and emphasize its coat: in terms of color, softness, type of outer coat, shape, etc. Photos were taken of the children while they felt the surface of the animals on the educational farm, such as: ducks, chicks, rabbits, chickens, dogs, canaries, baby pigs, cats, doves, and so on. The qualitative methodology focused on the content analysis of 45 photos and 12 drawings created by the children. The children's departures from the classrooms and permission to take photos of them were pre-authorized by the school board and their guardians. The anonymity and confidentiality of all those involved in the investigation were safeguarded, as well as the respective data protection. With the support of the qualitative analysis software, webQDA, the content analysis data of the 12 drawings and 45 photos were triangulated and validated according to the Delphi method, for greater validity and reliability of the results. The main results confirm the existence of four categories in the analysis of photographs and drawings: well-being; general disposition; involved and motor skills, which are the basis of Forest School teaching theory. In this case, there was a higher frequency in the categories of well-being and motor skills, thus proving the potential of the learning-Nature symbiosis. Thus, we can conclude that the population concentration in urban areas conditions the most frequent type of contact experiences of children with the natural world, in general, and with animals. Hence the need, in environmental terms, and in the domain of the relationship between human beings, specifically children, with other species, both at the level of formal and non-formal education, which allows for the promotion of the construction of useful and usable knowledge in different contexts and situations in life, allowing each one to improve their interaction with natural reality, providing greater motivation for learning process, in general, for sociability, in particular, collaborative work and the promotion of sustainable education.

Keywords:

Sustainable Education, Nature, 1st Cycle, Learning process.