Rethinking Preschool Physical Design: Enhancing environmental stewardship among children
Children are the future guardian of the Earth. Environmental Education (EE) at preschool level is crucial for instilling environmental stewardship. This paper discusses how preschool designs can be manipulated to facilitate and enhance the EE implementation. In summary, it is suggested that preschool settings should be designed to maximise children’s interaction with nature. It not only helps to optimise children’s development and literacy but also contributes to the prediction of their intentions to appreciate and to protect the environment. Findings are useful for Malaysian policy makers and designers in designing preschools that are sustainable and support EE.Keywords: Malaysian preschool; green preschool design; children environmental behavior; environmental education.eISSN 2398-4295 © 2018. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21834/ajbes.v3i13.150