Abstract
The purpose of this study is to clarify the effects of learning through natural experience upon self expression of children, focusing on the environmental education program by activity.The subjects were107pupils (grade 5th) who participated in the environmental education program by activity at a school curriculum.The measurement of learning through natural experience was conducted after each outdoor activity. Moreover, the self expression of children questionnaire referred to the assertion scale for youth by Tamase et al (2001) was administrated before, after and two months after all outdoor activities.Main findings were as follows:
1) It became clear that the contents of learning through natural experience were a content of learning from nature and a content of learning from experiential learning. Moreover, the correlation was accepted between two contents of learning through natural experience in each outdoor activity.
2) The value of self expression of children significantly increased (p<0.01) after all outdoor activities, and maintained it two months after all outdoor activities.Learning two contents of learning through natural experience enables self expression of children to maintain.
The result suggested that learning the contents of learning from nature and from experiential learning effected a change of self expression of children.
