Norwegian preschool children´ s knowledge about some common wild animal species and their habitats

The study investigates Norwegian kindergarten children’s knowledge about common animal species and their natural habitats. The researchers seek to understand whether children’s experiences of nature, such as time spent outdoors and conversations about nature, affect their ability to recognise and place various animal species in the right habitat. By gathering data on the children’s species knowledge, researchers hope to gain insight into how early exposure to nature can contribute to the understanding of biodiversity. The research questions are:

1. Do kindergarten children recognise the animals in the study by their common name?
2. Are kindergarten children familiar with the habitats of the selected animals?
3. Do factors such as gender, time spent in nature or conversations about nature with parents and/or kindergarten staff explain the observed differences in species knowledge between the children?

The study shows that Norwegian kindergarten children have limited species knowledge, with an average identification of around four out of twelve species. The children were generally better at identifying animals from forests than from other habitats, which may be due to the frequent exposure to forest environments in Norwegian kindergartens. Factors such as time spent in nature with adults and conversations about nature proved to have little impact on the level of knowledge, while visual characteristics such as wet fur could help children place the species in the right habitat. The results suggest that species knowledge among the youngest children can be promoted through direct experiences of nature in the local area.

The study used individual interviews with 55 Norwegian kindergarten children, where each child was shown pictures of 12 common Norwegian animal species and asked to identify them, as well as place them in the right habitat. In addition, parents and kindergarten staff filled out questionnaires about how often the children spent time in nature and talked about nature. The data were analysed using quantitative methods to compare species knowledge between different groups.

Wold, P. A., Melis, C., Bjørgen, K., Moe, B., & Billing, A. M. (2023). Norwegian preschool children´ s knowledge about some common wild animal species and their habitats. Cogent Education, 10(2), 2259513.