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EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATION THROUGH NATURE-CHILD INTERACTIONS: A CONCEPTUAL PAPER

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The present paper addresses following research questions: RQ1: How does nature or nature-based activities help children’s cognitive development? RQ2: How does nature or nature-based activities help children’s social and prosocial behavior development? RQ3: How does nature or nature-based activities enhance children’s learning abilities? To address these research questions, this paper will explore how nature helps young children’s cognitive, social, prosocial behavior development through primary and secondary existing literature sources (Fraenkel, Wallen, & Hyun, 2012). This paper will also touch on how teachers influence children’s learning objectives through guiding children’s learning activities during nature-based activities. The present paper tends to explore child development through peer-child and child-teacher interactions throughout nature-based activities through the lens of Vygotsky’s (1978) Socio-Cultural Theory.
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