Zum Forschungsstand über Waldkindergärten | State of research on forest kindergartens
Although forest kindergartens have existed in Scandinavian countries for over 60 years, empirical research on the consequences is still very scanty. Most diploma thesis and studies in this area concern themselves with describing projects and concepts of forest kindergartens or the school abilities of the «forest» children. As far as empirical research of the experience gained so far is concerned, it can be concluded that the effects are positive on the children's motorary skills and creative development and prepares them for school at least as well as children who visit a conventional kindergarten.
A Multiple Case Study of Challenges and Successes Experienced by Founders and Directors of Nature-Based Preschools in the United States
Nature-based preschools are defined as educational settings in which children spend three or more hours per school day in natural environments such as woods, meadows, and beaches (Knight, 2013). The purpose of this qualitative, multiple case study was to obtain a deep understanding of the challenges and successes of nature-based preschool (NBP) founders and directors in the United States and to develop recommendations for those interested in establishing and operating NBPs in the United States. A rich description of the phenomenon of founding and directing NBPs was developed by first answering the primary research question: “What can be learned from the challenges and successes experienced by founders and directors of NBPs in the United States?” The study’s participants included directors and founders from three NBPs in the United States. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews, public documents, timelines, and through multi-media sources, such as each school’s website. Withincase analysis and cross-case analysis was employed to analyze the data, generating the following key themes: experience, relationships, temperament, like-mindedness, mission focus, collaboration, leadership, worldview, and outlook. Recommendations are provided for other NBP founders and directors which may lead to an increase in the number of NBPs in the United States.
Training and maintaining the performance of dogs (Canis familiaris) on an increasing number of odor discriminations in a controlled setting
Abstract The number of substances detector dogs are trained to detect varies depending on the mission of the agency they serve. No studies have been conducted concerning how training multiple odor discriminations affects detection performance and refresher training requirements. This study used a controlled field setting to examine the effects of training dogs to detect multiple substances on their subsequent detection performance and refresher training requirements. Dogs were first trained to detect a single odor. Their detection performance was tested 10 days later and refresher training was then given to bring their performance back up to a predetermined standard. Following refresher training, detection of a new substance was trained, and approximately 10 days later the detection of both trained substances was tested. This sequence of testing, refresher training, and new odor training continued every 10 days until the dogs had been trained and tested on 10 odors. The detection of previously learned odors did not decrease as the number of substances trained increased. In fact, the amount of training required to refresh detection performance and to train new odor discriminations tended to decrease as more odor discriminations were trained.