International Journal of Educational

Science and Research (IJESR)

ISSN(P): 2249-6947; ISSN(E): 2249-8052
Vol. 6, Issue 3, Jun 2016, 111-118
TJPRC Pvt. Ltd.

THE EFFECT OF GARDENING ACTIVITIES FOR EDUCATION FOR

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT ON THE COEXISTENCE LITERACY OF
CHILDREN
KOO HYEHYUN1, KIM SUK JA2 & HONGHEEJU3
1
2

Early Childhood Education, Korea National University of Education, South Korea

Corresponding Author, Early Childhood Education, Korea National University of Education, South Korea
3

Early Childhood Education, Kemyung College University, South Korea

ABSTRACT
Children lost opportunities to experience the nature due to industrialization and they are more familiar with
concrete walls rather than soil, as well as being used to industrial products rather than natural objects. What can be secured
from the socially, environmentally and economically various education is the approach of coexistence, hence it seeks the
values, behaviors, and the ways of life which are needed in the sustainable future society, and is demanded to live together
with the others. Therefore this study aims to identify how the gardening activities for education for sustainable development
affect the coexistence literacy capability of children. In conclusion, while children participate in gardening activities for
sustainable development, they commune with nature through living things and learn about holiness of work and the value

sharing between each other dynamically influenced coexistence literacy.

KEYWORDS: Education for Sustainable Development, Gardening Activity, Coexistence Literacy of Children

Received: May 27, 2016; Accepted: Jun 10, 2016; Published: Jun 15, 2016; Paper Id.: IJESRJUN201613

Original Article

of sweat by looking after and harvesting vegetables themselves. This implies that the process of children cooperating and

INTRODUCTION
Background / Objectives and Goals
Children lost opportunities to experience the nature due to industrialization and they are more familiar
with concrete walls rather than soil, as well as being used to industrial products rather than natural objects(1).
With industrialization based on economic development in the 1970s, nature lost its place as an
instrumental value for human convenience and abundance, and natural space gradually disappeared due to this
while children became distant from nature with reduced opportunities to play as they liked in nature. Children's
emotions gradually became egotistical, and their lives and behaviors were significantly affected as well. Since
modern children do not know how to play even when put amidst nature due to lack of experience with it, efforts
are underway to practice education for development and supply of ecology (2).
Comenius in the 1600s insisted on principles of teaching according to natural order. Rousseau in the
1700s also insisted on natural environments as unique educational places. Pestalozzi in the 1800s practiced
work-oriented education. Frebel placed importance on observation of animals and plants, garden cultivation, and
sympathy with nature. All emphasized nature as an educational medium with direct experience within it.

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Koo HyeHyun, Kim Suk Ja & HongHeeJu

It has been proposed that in true ecology, humans and nature must be viewable from an integrated point of view(3).
Human and nature cannot be separated. Various lives must be connected for mutual epigyny, coexistence, and harmony to
occur. And opportunities must be provided for children to understand and take an interest in natural ecology by going to
gardens outside the classroom(4).
In order to solve such problems, education where children can experience the nature together with education for
sustainable development that can prepare for the future society are necessary.
The World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED: World Commission on Environment and
Development) released a report called "Our Common Future", also known as the Brundtland Report, in 1987 which
clarified the concept of sustainable development after many years of research.
This is a new paradigm that changes the existing ways worldwide, hence it is a concept(5) that not only include
environmental education, but also peace education, multicultural education, human rights education, etc. Therefore it is
defined as the development that the present generation satisfies their needs at the same time as not hindering the abilities
that satisfy needs of the future generation. In 2002, The United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development
(UNDESD) was announced to emphasize the education for sustainable development as the main theme for the human
survival(6). It furthermore proposed education for sustainable development from social, environmental, and economic
viewpoints and prioritized the relationships between human values and environmental values(7).
The OMEP international symposium held in Washington, USA in 2015 had "Early Childhood Pathways to
Sustainability" as its topic and emphasized directions for children's education for sustainable development. Educational
practice for education for sustainable development to prepare for future societies starts with children's education and
considers sustainable development and the environment through integrated study to raise responsible global citizens who
can contribute to a sustainable future(8).
In order to develop the early childhood education for sustainable development, an ecological space for
experiencing the nature should be made, where the children can look after animals and plants, and personally experience
the five senses(9). According to my opinion, gardening allows children to develop the respect for life and to experience
caring. The most important thing is that gardening provides the chances to have a deep awareness for the natural ecosystem.
School gardening has developed as a national movement in the United States during the past twenty years in
particular(1). Nature-friendly education developed as a national movement in Sweden in 1982, while in Canada, indoor
garden cultivation in local communities and gardening activities in families are supported(10).
Garden cultivation is part of raising interesting animals and plants in the field of natural inquiry within the Korean
Nuri curriculum, and is also a mandatory activity at the German Waldorf alternative schools starting in kindergarten(11).It
helps students love and respect nature while interacting with all living things and inanimate objects within nature and helps
children to take an interest in the beautiful and interesting characteristics of the natural world while developing a loving
mind and behavior toward nature(12).
Thus, gardening education must be comprehensive education based on character education fostering practical
ability and the behavior of a respectful life. This occurs through an understanding of the relationship between people and
nature and awareness of the value of nature through educational approaches making exchange and experience with nature.

Impact Factor (JCC): 4.3912

NAAS Rating: 2.72

The Effect of Gardening Activities for Education for Sustainable

Development on the Coexistence Literacy of Children

According to the study

(13)

113

, it was based on awareness of the relationships between people, accompaniment of

relationships between people and nature, and relationships of coexistence. Koreans whose main job was mostly agriculture,
had also kept mutual complementary and harmonious relationships and practiced coexistence of the community. In the
legend of Dangun, Korean native thought, a bear transforms into a woman and then marries Hwanung; the two societies
join together in marriage, i.e. coexist. That is, they respect each other's totems while having close ties and a relationship of
coexistence (14). Ultimately, they can be understood to coexist with each other rather than to be in competition or conflict or
to seek individual gain.
A major theme for human survival is searching for peaceful coexistence with nature and sharing a sense of
responsibility. It means social construction that allows enjoyment of human life and crisis awareness regarding global
environmental problems. This, precisely, is education for sustainable development. It has curricular characteristics, dealing
with holistic problems, so it must be offered not as a single field but as comprehensive curriculum within overall
education(15). It is the same as the educational principles of children's education pursuing topic-centered comprehensive
education, and similar to methods in children's education which focus on children's active participation and experience
while study takes place through experiences connected to individuals' actual lives(16).
It might be the approach of coexistence education that can be secured from the socially, environmentally and
economically. Because it seeks the values, behaviors, and the ways of life which are needed in the sustainable future
society, and is demanded to live together with the others(17).
Reflective voices that can maintain healthy relationships between humans and humans and between humans and
nature while understanding the severity of environmental problems are growing louder. This suggests the need for
educational efforts and agreement allowing for cooperation and peaceful coexistence of humans in healthy natural
environments(18). Thus, education must aim for children's coexistence literacy through an understanding of coexistence
relationships between humans and humans and between humans and nature through education oriented toward a society
that can learn the necessary values, behavior and ways of life for social revolution and a sustainable future(9).This means
education that adds practice to information about coexistence, starting with "me" and including "us", and must include
experiences aiming for coexistence.
From this point of view, the gardening activities for sustainable development to recognize the interdependent
relationship between men and the nature and seek coexistence-oriented ways of life allow children to lead coexistence of
men and men together with the nature, men and society, and human and the environment. Therefore the aim of this study is
to identify how the gardening activities for education for sustainable development affect the coexistence literacy capability
of children.

METHODS
40 children of age 5 from 2 kindergartens located in the same district of the city A in South Korea were selected
for this study. From September till November of 2015, the experimental group of 20 children (8 boys and 12 girls) was
introduced with gardening activities per twice a week while the control group of 20 children (9 boys and 11 girls) followed
the planned daily tasks based on the Nuri-curriculum. The Table 1 shows the detailed daily routines of the two groups.

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Koo HyeHyun, Kim Suk Ja & HongHeeJu

Table 1: Daily Routine of the 2 Groups

Treatment Group
Attendance at the Kindergarten & Free
Choice Activities
Arrangement & Break Time
Conversation Activity & Sharing Stories
Gardening Activity (Sowing Seeds,
Cultivating with Hands, Observing the
Gardening Activity, Sprinkling Water
etc)
Lunch Time
Activities Connected Gardening
(Representation Activity, Inquiry
Activity, Cooking Harvested Crops)
Rest & Daily Work Assessment
Reflection
Go Home

Time
8:00 ~ 10:20
10:20 ~ 10:30
10:30 ~ 11:00
11:00 ~ 12:00
12:00 ~13:00
13:00 ~ 14:00
14:00 ~14:30
14:30 ~

Control Group
Attendance at the Kindergarten & Free
Choice Activities
Arrangement & Break Time
Sharing Stories
Small & Large - Group Activity According
to Nuri Curriculum (Outdoor Activity,
Physical Activity, Music, Game, Literature
Activity etc)
Lunch Time
Nuri Curriculum Connected Activity
(Outdoor Activity, Game, Physical
Activity etc)
Rest & Daily Work Assessment
Reflection
Go Home

The Table 2 explains the detailed gardening activities of the education for the sustainable development in the
experimental group.
Table 2: Contents of the Areas of the Gardening Activities
Domain
Social
Environmental
Economic

Gardening Activities for ESD

Observing surrounding gardens, Making the garden (plowing, making furrows, picking out
stones), investigating the vegetables in season, cooking for the family (making Kimchi)
Sowing seeds and planting a seedling, Looking after vegetation
(Watering, Weeding, Catching bugs), Making environmental-friendly fertilizers
Visiting vegetable shops, Harvesting organic vegetables,
Making dried vegetables

In this study, the preliminary study was carried out using the instrument of the early childhood coexistence
literacy developed by Kim Suk ja and Hong Heeju(19). The post study was carried out using the same method as the
preliminary study after implemented the experimental study. The sub-factors of this instrumental are the concept of ego,
the concept of others, the concept of social culture, and the concept of environment economy (see Table 3). There are 20
questions in total and each question has scores from 0 to 3. There were 60 points in all. High scores meant a high level of
coexistence literacy.
Table 3: Classification System of Educational Contents in Coexistence-Oriented Early Childhood Education
Domain
Coexistence between
man and man

Coexistence between
humans and the
environment

Impact Factor (JCC): 4.3912

Category

Content
Identity, Conscience, Autonomy, Rights,
Dignity, Empathy,
Responsibility, Based on manners, Orderly,
Cooperative, Public interest, Caring
Citizenship, Media literacy, Peace,
Multiculturalism
Human activities and environmental issues,
Environmental conservation practices,
Markets and prices, Productivity
Total

The concept of ego

The concept of
others
The concept of
social culture
The concept of
environment &
Economy

Item
Number
6
6
4
4
20
NAAS Rating: 2.72

The Effect of Gardening Activities for Education for Sustainable

Development on the Coexistence Literacy of Children

115

The Conbach's-coefficient for whole reliability is .83. In order to test for significant differences between these
group scores, t-test was used.

RESULTS
Table 4 summarizes the effect of gardening activities for education for sustainable development on coexistence
literacy of children.
Table 4: Summary of t-test N=40

Before Test
After Test
Before Test
After Test
Before Test
After Test
Before Test

Treatment
Group
(n=20)
M
SD
1.29
.43
2.06
.44
1.65
.50
2.38
.31
1.00
.48
1.98
.61
1.43
.73

Control
Group
(n=20)
M
SD
1.40
.47
1.55
.38
1.60
.45
1.65
.39
1.29
.44
1.44
.60
1.15
.69

After Test

2.44

.37

1.16

.45

Before Test
After Test

1.37
2.21

.34
.28

1.39
1.48

.27
.27

Category

The Concept of Ego

The Concept of Others
The Concept of
Social Culture
The Concept of
Environment
Economy
Total
**

-3.93***
-6.44***
-2.83**
-9.74***
-8.47***

p<.01, ***p<.001

In order to test for significant differences between these group scores, t-test was used, and significant differences
were found (see Table 3). Statistically significant differences were appeared in the sub factors of the concept of ego
(t=-3.93, p<.001), the concept of others (t=-6.44, p<.001), the concept of social culture (t=-2.83, p<.01), and the concept of
environment economy (t=-9.74, p<.001). Therefore, the null hypotheses were rejected. This implies that introducing
gardening activities for sustainable development education positively affects coexistence literacy of children.

CONCLUSIONS
Firstly, the importance of earth, seasonal changes, respect for life and circulation in the natural world, and pro
social experiences are included in garden cultivation. The results of this study support the results of the research(4). With
respect for natural ecosystems by promoting children's understanding of the complicated interrelationships between people
and living things and plants and animals existing in the natural world can gain growth, recovery, and opportunities for
happiness(20).
This also supports the results of the study that emphasized on the necessity of raising awareness of sustainable
development in the relationship with regions and in the relationship with the earth by means of cultivating activities.
Furthermore, it suggests that gardening activities for sustainable development education can improve childrens life
attitude and practice ability of coexistence that the nature and human should live together.
Examining the sub-domains of coexistence literacy, we find that firstly, the experimental group which undertook
gardening activities for sustainable development showed statistically significant results in terms of the concept of ego,
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Koo HyeHyun, Kim Suk Ja & HongHeeJu

including identity, conscience, autonomy, rights, dignity, and empathy (t=-3.93, p<.001). One study examined also showed
the same results(21). So it might be possible to say that a sense of reverence for life would be developed by personally
cultivating and taking care of plants. Thus the process of personally planting, cultivating and harvesting vegetables affect
to enhance the young children's concept of ego .
Secondly, the experimental group which undertook gardening activities for sustainable development showed
statistically significant results in terms of the concept of others including Responsibility, Based on manners, Orderly,
Cooperative, Public interest, Caring(t=-6.44, p<.001). Results were the same as those from research(22) which shows a
positive effect of nature-friendly activities on children's peer competence and emotional intelligence as well as research(23)
which shows that children learn during the process of planting a plant, giving it water, and taking care of it . Moreover, it
also supports research(24) showing that while gardening activities can easily be done alone, they task in which several
people work together with a common purpose, so they must respect and cooperate with each other to perform their task.
Children cooperate with friends while gardening and share the joy of harvesting, with cooperation and sharing
between group members. These dynamic activities in which they respect other people's ideas can be seen to affect getting
the concept of others.
Thirdly, the experimental group which undertook gardening activities for sustainable development showed
statistically significant results in terms of the concept of social culture including Citizenship, Media literacy, Peace,
Multiculturalism(t=-2.83, p<.01).
The study also supports the results of the researches(17) showing the importance of creating structure with
awareness of sustainable development, not just from the educator but through one person at a time, with a need to increase
awareness with children through relationships with regions and with the earth . Furthermore, it supports the results of the
research(25) showing that activities in which children experience agriculture personally form a sense of emotional unity
between themselves, and work together with others have positive social results.
In particular, children could closely experience Korean living culture as Korean citizens while planting seeds,
looking after vegetables, and making kimchi to eat during the winter, which starts in September in Korea with its four
distinct seasons. Nature also affected children's concept of social culture by giving them an opportunity to experience
mental peace and security by becoming a playground and toy for them.
Fourthly, the experimental group which undertook gardening activities for sustainable development showed
statistically significant results in terms of The concept of environment including Human activities and environmental
issues, Environmental conservation practices, Markets and prices, Productivity(t=-9.74, p<.001). The results of this study
supports also the results of one research(17) showing that children can be understood to have practiced environmental
conservation through environmentally-friendly activities allowing direct experience with all five senses. Thus children
came to understand the constantly repeating principles of circulation in nature together with the production process of
various remaining seeds containing new life from a single seed. And children learned about the importance of water, earth,
air, and sunlight needed for plant growth. Understanding these processes might influence the children to get the concept of
environment and economy.
Education for sustainable development is a new paradigm changing previous methods from a global viewpoint
and is a comprehensive concept encompassing peace education, multicultural education, and human rights education(26).
Impact Factor (JCC): 4.3912

NAAS Rating: 2.72

The Effect of Gardening Activities for Education for Sustainable

Development on the Coexistence Literacy of Children

117

Gardening activities for sustainable development in pursuit of coexistence-oriented lives and awareness of the
interdependent relationships between humans and nature positively affected children.
In conclusion, while children participate in gardening activities for sustainable development, they commune with
nature through living things and learn about holiness of work and the value of sweat by looking after and harvesting
vegetables themselves. This implies that the process of children cooperating and sharing between each other dynamically
influenced coexistence literacy.
Education for sustainable development means coexistence between humans and humans, humans and society, and
humans and the environment and must be amalgamative education requiring intelligence, sensitivity and character oriented
toward the natural environment and ecosystems. Education that can foster coexistence literacy, competence in practicing
coexistence awareness behavior that must take its place as a practical value, must be the aim. Additionally, gardening
activities for sustainable development are not only interlaced from a simple environmental viewpoint, forming sustainable
relationships between people and nature, but are interdependent and reciprocal in various aspects, including economic,
social and cultural. Therefore, systematic research that can help put education for sustainable development into practice
must be supported.
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Impact Factor (JCC): 4.3912

NAAS Rating: 2.72