Abstract
The aim of this multi-case study was to explore Turkish and Finnish teachers’ beliefs and practices of outdoor play. The participants consisted of seven Turkish and seven Finnish early childhood teachers. Data were drawn from semi-structured interviews with teachers and observation of teachers’ outdoor play practices. The main differences between two cases concerned barriers to outdoor play and practices of outdoor play. Finnish teachers identified no such barriers, whereas Turkish teachers stated they encountered many barriers to applying outdoor play practices. Thus, Finnish teachers practiced outdoor play regularly in all seasons while Turkish teachers applied outdoor play only in good weather.
Keywords: Early childhood education, Outdoor play, Outdoor learning, Cross-cultural study
Copyright and license
Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
How to cite
Yalçın, F., & Tantekin Erden, F. (2021). A Cross-Cultural Study on Outdoor Play: Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices. Education and Science, 46(206), 131-159. https://doi.org/10.15390/EB.2021.9640