AD ALTA
JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
Another research tool was a questionnaire. All items in the
questionnaire were closed-ended. We needed to find out what
level of influence the participants attribute
to these factors,
therefore the tool in each item was the Likert scale (Rod, 2012).
2.2 Research file
Qualitative research is characterized by the fact that the
participants of the research group must have something in
common. When compiling the research file - a panel of experts,
we wanted to capture the widest possible range of diversity of
perspectives and at the same time to link the theory to the
practice and specific experiences of experts. The final panel of
experts consisted of experts from forestry, forestry politics,
education, environmental education and forest pedagogy. The
criteria for selecting the experts - research participants were set
as follows:
the participant knows the system of environmental
education, its goals, methods and forms;
the participant has real experience with the practical
implementation of environmental programs in the forest
environment;
the participant is an academic with knowledge of forestry
sciences, environmental sciences.
The anticipated number of experts was 15. Each participant was
addressed separately. After the initial electronic contact and
informing about the research goals, 13 experts were involved in
the further implementation. They worked in the following areas:
university / academic environment (4 participants), school /
kindergarten (2 participants), educational institution providing
environmental education (5 participants), organization providing
environmental education programs (2 participants). There were a
total of 13 participants. We would like to remind that during
each communication was maintained anonymity, it has been
communicated exclusively electronically and the participants did
not know the list of other participants - experts.
2.3 Research methodology
The first round of an evaluation took place in the following
period: 01. 03. - 14. 03. 2019.
In the first round, the participants were asked an open-ended
question: "Indicate which factors do you think influence the non-
formal pre-primary education of children in environmental
education in the forest environment". The aim was to identify as
many factors as possible - positive as well as negative, which
have an impact on non-formal pre-primary education in
environmental education in the forest environment.
The categorization of factors was not predetermined. The
number of factors formulated by individual experts ranged from
4 to 46. The total number of answers to this question was 159.
Many factors were the same, they were only formulated
differently. Therefore, it was inevitable to make one list of
factors as the intersection of all responses with minimal
adjustments, in order to preserve the authenticity of the panelists'
responses. The final list contained 67 factors, which were also
used in other phases of the research.
The next step of this round was the definition of the so-called
areas. An area is a group of factors with the same specification.
Experts themselves predicted (anticipated) areas that correspond
to the natural process of education, i.e. educator, learner, parent
(in the case of preschool children) location, content, goals,
methods, means.
For further research we identified 8 areas: 1. Location; 2. Target
group and its predispositions; 3. Parents / family environment;
4. Kindergarten teacher; 5. Environmental education, its goal
and content; 6. Environmental education - methods and forms;
7. Educator for environmental education from the external
environment; 8. External factors.
Subsequently, the factors in each area were divided into two
groups - positive and negative. The full overview of the areas
and their factors is stated in Tables 1 - 16, which we present in
the following part of the study.
2.4 Research results using the Delphi method
Results of the 1st round of research using the Delphi method
The ratio of factors with positive and negative influence was
relatively balanced, positive factors in the number of 35 slightly
exceeded negative factors in the number of 32.
Factors with a positive impact - most factors with a
positive impact were in the areas of: Environmental
education - methods and forms - 9; Environmental
education, its goal and content -7; Location - 6. The least
factors (2) had following areas: Target group and its
predispositions and Parents / family environment.
Factors with a negative impact - most factors with a
negative impact occurred in these areas: External factors -
9; Educator for environmental education from the external
environment - 6; Location - 6. We noticed one negative
impact in the area: Environmental education, its goal and
content.
Participants attach the highest importance to the field of
environmental education as such in terms of methods, forms,
goals and its content.
The second round of evaluation took place between 10.02 –
22.02 2020.
In this phase, we focused on the evaluation of the factors
identified in the first round, in terms of the extent of their impact
on non-formal pre-primary education of children in
environmental education in the forest environment. As a research
tool, we chose a questionnaire, which, unlike the first round,
consisted of closed-ended questions. Given the goal of the
inquiry, we used the Likert scale (Rod, 2012), which is
frequently used to measure attitudes and opinions. Experts
expressed their opinions on each factor using a five-point scale,
with grade 5 indicating the greatest degree of influence of the
factor and grade 1 indicating the least degree of influence of the
factor. We sent the questionnaire to all the participants who
answered in the first round. The return rate of the questionnaires
was 100%. The data collection was then followed by its analysis.
The mean and median were calculated for each factor. We
assumed that all values 1 to 5 of the Likert scale have the same
importance, therefore we calculated them using the following
formula:
=
/
If the average is less than 3, then this factor is not important, if it
is higher than 3, then this factor is important. If the average
value is higher than 4, then this factor is a key factor. The results
are interpreted in the following Tables 1-16. We distinguish
between positive and negative factors and feature them
separately.
In the following section, we graphically present by using tables
the factors that positively affect the informal pre-primary
education of children in environmental education in the forest
environment. Positive factors are in Tables 1 - 8.
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