Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies

3.4.Comparison of success rate of children from forest and traditional kindergartens

This comparison was chosen to illustrate the success of individual approach implemented in forest kindergartens (as demonstrated in previous chapter) to prepare children for demands of traditional education and ultimately for life in society.

The following excerpt comes from Diploma thesis by Veronika Syrová, student of the Faculty of Education of Masaryk University, called The Continuity of the Forest Kindergarten and the Primary School. For the purposes of this thesis it was translated into English.

“A hundred and three teachers from eight constituent states participated on Peter Häfner’s research Kindergarten in Nature and Forest in Germany: An Alternative to Traditional Kindergarten in the Pre-school Education (doctoral thesis, 2002). Together they were able to take into consideration 203 questionnaires about children who attended forest kindergartens as a form of pre-school education and 114 questionnaires about children who attended traditional kindergartens. The 42 questions of the questionnaire were narrowed into six superordinate terms.

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  Factor 1: Motivation – persistence – concentration
  
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  Factor 2: Social behaviour
  
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  Factor 3: Cooperation in lessons
  
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  Factor 4: Musical area
  
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  Factor 5: Cognitive area
  
• 
  Factor 6: Physical area
  

The biggest difference between the two groups of children was evident in the first three areas. In these three areas the children who previously attended the forest kindergartens were given the best marks by their teachers at the first grade in school. The most evident difference between the two groups is visible at the Factor 3 – Cooperation in lessons. Children from the forest kindergartens were awarded the mark 2.16 which is nearly a half a mark better than children from the traditional kindergartens – 2.15 (see graph)” (Syrová 18).
Table - Comparison of success rate of FK and TK children
Note: In her thesis Syrová in her graph obviously by mistake interchanges the marks belonging to the traditional and forest kindergartens. In the text she refers to them correctly, but the caption is wrong. Since the author of this thesis does not speak German it was not possible to verify the figures in the original thesis therefore they were verified in manual issued by the Ministry of environment called Eco and Forest Kindergartens (page 17, figure 2⁷).

From the research can be seen that children from the individualised environment of forest kindergartens are not only equally competent as the children from traditional kindergartens, they are even better prepared than them. They are exceeding in the first three factors that are especially important for living in the society and being successful in life.

4Case Study

The course in question took place from 22th September 2014 to 29th January 2015 on the premises of leisure time centre Lužánky, namely its department in Vinohrady called Louka. The course takes place every Monday from 16 to 17 p.m. except for school and bank holidays. Without the two lessons that were taught by a substitute teacher due to author’s illness it therefore makes 13 lessons. The content of the lessons will be discussed in detail in following paragraphs. As was mentioned in the introduction, there are five children attending the course. Three girls and two boys. Each of the girls is 6 years old. The boys are aged 7 and 8. One of the girls started attending the course two lessons later than the others. Each of the children will be discussed in detail in following paragraphs.

4.1.Participants of the course

The following chart was made from parents’ answers to the questions they were given before the start of the term. The entries are therefore quotes translated into English. The rest of the entries are derived from the first impression the children gave. The approach refers to both what parents said and what has proven effective during the course. Their progress will be discussed in following paragraphs. The children were given nicknames by transforming their names into their closest English equivalents. The questions the parents were asked are provided below:

1. 
   Did your child come into contact with English before? In what way?
   
2. 
   Why did you enrol your child into the course? What are your expectations about the outcome?
   
3. 
   What approach, yours or teachers’, proved effective to your child?
   
4. 
   How would you describe your child’s attitude towards other children?
   
5. 
   What does your child like to do in his/her free time?
   

Name	Jeanette
Date of birth	11. 8. 2008
Previous contact with English	In kindergarten.
Goal, Expectations of the parents	No visible progress.
Approach	Friendly./ Praise for every piece of knowledge she shows.
Air	Shy and solemn
Interests	The answer provided by parents: Playing games on tablet. Later findings: Dancing, beauty
Parents involvement	The materials from the lessons are sent to the parents, the father waits for her throughout the whole course.
Others	The parents are foreign, but she was born in Czech republic. It results in them having slightly different traditions.

Table - Case study: Jeanette

Name	Claire
Date of birth	7. 11. 2008
Previous contact with English	In kindergarten from 4 to 5 years, pause from 5 to 6.
Goal, Expectations of the parents	Learning the language in fun way, different from how it is taught in schools where they have to sit all day and there are curriculums and so on.
Approach	Patient and kind. She tends to keep to herself even what she knows./Proved to be true. She needs encouragement. Good way to reach her is through her interests.
Air	Friendly but shy
Interests	Gymnastics. She likes to move, but she also likes to draw.
Parents involvement	The mother was concerned whether there is need for her to study with her daughter, she was told it is not necessary, she therefore did not ask for the materials from the lessons.
Others	-

Table - Case Study: Claire

Name	Veru
Date of birth	24. 7. 2008
Previous contact with English	For the last two years she attended a weekly course in kindergarten.
Goal, Expectations of the parents	Not to be afraid of English and to perceive as a possible form of communication.
Approach	Not to push her./ Proved to be accurate.
Air	Cheerful and friendly
Interests	Flute, aerobic
Parents involvement	Grandfather asked for the complete materials, mother was not interested
Others	She joined the course two lessons later.

Table - Case Study: Veru

Name	Philip
Date of birth	20. 5. 2007
Previous contact with English	In the first grade at school.
Goal, Expectations of the parents	To improve English.
Approach	Patient./ Friendly encouragement, kind, listen to him.
Air	Very shy
Interests	Voluntary fire-fighters, computers and other games
Parents involvement	Basically none, they are hardly ever seen, do not respond to e-mails.
Others	-

Table - Case Study: Philip

Name	Daniel
Date of birth	12. 4. 2006
Previous contact with English	In the first and second grade at school. Basics in kindergarten.
Goal, Expectations of the parents	To practise what he learns at school, to communicate.
Approach	Friendly but consistent./ Proved to be accurate. He tends to get distracted.
Air	Confident, even a little superior, curious
Interests	Sports, games, music, films and modern culture
Parents involvement	The materials are sent to the mother, she asked for assessment of his progress, never spoken to in person, Daniel comes and leaves on his own. On few occasions the mother was supposed to come for him, but in the end he left on his own.
Others	-

Table - Case Study: Daniel