Children’s Perceptions of Natural Environment Behaviours in Books

The aim of this case study, which is one of the qualitative research methods, is to examine the perceptions of preschool children regarding the behaviours related to the natural environment in the illustrations of the storybooks. The research group consists of fourteen children who are five- year-olds in a kindergarten, which is determined by convenience sampling. In the study, semi- structured interviews were made with the children, and the statements of the children were recorded by identifying the illustrations containing four positive behaviours and four negative behaviours related to the natural environment. The analyses were made with inductive content analysis and the perceptions of children about behaviours related to the natural environment were categorized. Within the scope of this research, necessary validity and reliability studies were carried out. It was found that the majority of children, by noticing these behaviours in the images containing positive behaviours towards the natural environment, properly described and explained the reasons for the behaviours for positive reasons. It was determined that children could not notice the negative behaviours towards the natural environment in some illustrations, and they explained these negative behaviours with positive reasons. In light of the research results, suggestions were given to adults to be careful about choosing appropriate books, considering that the picture storybooks may steer the children’s behaviours.