1994 Volume 8 Issue 2 Pages 83-93
The purpose of this study was to describe the images of the nature and the natural fields, and to investigate the actual condition of the playing experiences in the natural fields of the young men and women living in the big cities.
460 university and college students were administered a questionnaire including the measures of images of the nature and the natural fields, playing experiences in the natural fields, and the principle of the home discipline in their early childhood.
The results were as follows
1. The average images of the nature and the natural fields (river, lake, sea, woods, open fields) were generally positive. The image of the open fields was most positive of the five natural fields.
2. The playing experiences in the natural fields of the subjects were very poor.
3. A positive correlation was found between the playing experiences in the natural fields and the images of the nature and the natural fields. That is, the more playing experiences in the natural fields one had had, the more positive images of the nature and the natural fields one showed.
4. The rich playing experiences in the each natural field were positively correlated with the positive images of the same natural field respectively.
5. The principle of the home discipline in ones early childhood to enrich the playing experiences in the natural fields was correlated with his positive images of the nature.
As mentioned above, the playing experiences in the natural fields were very important to improve the images of the nature and the natural fields, and were very poor among the young men and women living in the big cities. Consequently, promoting the playing experiences in the natural fields, especially through the home discipline in the early childhood, is very important from the viewpoint of environmental education.
