Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of the forest experience on elementary students' environmental sensitivity and cognition ability. The forest experience was applied to the experimental group and the control group was taught by the traditional teaching method focused on teachers' lecture for 8 lessons. The pre-test, the 1st, and 2nd post-test for environmental sensitivity were applied to both groups to analyze the effects of the forest experience. After then the results were analyzed by One-way ANOVA and ANCOVA. And the narration test for cognition ability on learning a environmental context was applied to only the experimental group and the results were analyzed. As a result, the students' environmental sensitivity was not significantly different(p<.05) between experimental and control groups in terms of the pre-test score. However, the 1st and 2nd post-test scores of experimental group were significantly higher than those of the control group in term of the level of environmental sensitivity(F=9.28, p<.01, F=10.95, p<.01). The results of the forest experience in the aspect of cognition ability, 'the sound of nature(61%)', 'the smiling forest path which blooming out(57%)', and 'one's own places(52%) were high but 'the kinds and characteristics of the roots(30%)' was low. In conclusion, the forest experience made a positive effect on the students' environmental sensitivity and cognition ability through the direct observation, data collection, and analysis on the nearby natural environment.

Keywords

• the forest experience;
• environmental sensitivity;
• cognition ability