Effects of School Forest on Elementary School Students' Awareness of School and Nature

학교숲이 초등학생의 학교와 자연에 대한 인식에 미치는 효과

This study was intended to investigate effects of building school forests on elementary school students, including changes in mental image of school, attitude toward nature and forest, and awareness of their relationship with school forest. The total number of 770 drawings and 1,124 writings were collected to be analyzed from three elementary schools. The results showed that there were significant differences between two student groups, respectively forest school group versus non-forest school group, in their mental image of school. For instance, more often observed in the drawings of forest school group students than their counterparts were natural and human elements, activities associated with nature, and natural or human elements located at central area. Also, more frequently found in the writings of forest school group students than their counterparts were letter-style sentences, stories about school forests, inherent values on nature and forest, and curiosity regarding the nature. These results seem to indicate that in order to materialize educational value of school forests, practical workshops for teachers need to be held as soon as possible and new activity models for students should be developed. In addition to that, long-term research on effectiveness of school forest have to be conducted to a number of schools.