Concept and Challenges of LandscapeDrawing Methods in Environmental
Education Programs for School Children
Tomoki YAGASAKI, Senior Researcher
Institute for Global Environmental Strategies

Acknowledgements: This work was partly supported by the Keidanren Nature

Conservation Fund and the AEON Foundation. We would also like to thank our project
partners: Luang Prabang Provincial Forestry Section, Xiengkhouang Provincial
Department of Education and Sports, Saitama University, and all school teachers andeducation staff who joined the programs.

Japanese Center for International Studies in Ecology / [HQ] Biodiversity and Forests Area

1 Background and Introduction
a problem.*3 It is likely that the lack of experience withnaturenegatively
impacts
children’s
individual
characteristics and personality formation, as well as theformation of basic social skills, such as building cooperative
relationships and communicating with the community.
Establishing a greenery-rich environment is required inurban areas in Japan. However, the loss of green spaces
continues to increase, worsening the conditions of natureexperiences for schoolchildren. Recently, the lack of contact
with nature has been called the “extinction of experience,"
related to people’s lack of interest in nature and recognized
as a pressing matter across various academic fields.*4

It has been suggested that a child’s experience of nature
has a positive effect on their subsequent growth anddevelopment (tempering aggression, promoting the ability tointeract and relate to others, etc.) (Fig. 1); it is also
recognized as an important opportunity to develop the "skills
for livelihood" of individuals.*1, 2 However, we still do notknow much about their current experiences with nature in
their daily lives.
With the spread of home video game machines(predominantly since the 1990s), Japanese children’s main
playgrounds have changed from outdoor to indoor venues,
and children's "lack of experience with nature" has become

Correlation
Natureexperience

HumanrelationshipskillsRelationships
with plants andanimals

Sense ofsymbiosis

Fig. 1. Relationships between the two elements.*1

2 Objectives, Targets, and Methods of the Program
Laos has a valuable landscape characterized bybiodiversity, abundant greenery, and a close relationshipbetween people and nature (Fig. 2). It can provide a goodlearning opportunity, not only for the people of Laos, but forforeignschoolchildren
seeking
todeepen
theirunderstanding of the value of nature in their daily lives.
However, a scientific approach to clarifying the current
relationship between people and local landscapes and theirexperiences with nature has not yet been developed.

A learning program for elementary school children wasdeveloped and proposed as a packaged teaching plan foreducators. It aimed to deepen children’s understanding ofmulticultural coexistence, international relations, andbiodiversity; raise their awareness of the naturalenvironment; and fostering a harmonious attitude towards
coexisting with people from different cultures and ways of life.
The learning program mainly comprised several different
activities such as drawing, presentations, and cooperative
learning (Fig. 3). An original approach, the LandscapeDrawing Method (LDM), was developed as a tool forboth teaching and surveying target children and was applied
to the learning program so that they could actively work tovisualize the relationship between nature, humans, andcreatures in their daily lives.*5, 6 It also aims to visualize therealities of their experiences of nature.
Fig. 3. Flow of the learning program.

Fig. 2. Typical landscape and livelihood in Laos.

3 Results and Discussions
R1

Twenty two completed drawings were obtained
from primary school children in the Lao P.D.R.*5

R
R4

R5stFig. 4. Drawing by a 5th-grade student.

Experience category
Have seen（★）
Have eaten（★）
Have touched（★）
Have caught / taken（★）
Have played with / on（★）
Have raised / grown（★）
Have heard (★)

R2Approximately 90% of the described elements
were real organisms observed by the children.*5

R3

The most often recorded experience was “haveseen,” while the dominant biological taxon inthe elements was plants.*5n = 22

As of now, approximately 2,400 children (4th- and5th-grade students) from 42 schools in Lao P.D.R.
have been engaged in learning through the LDM.
Most of the target teaching staff (n = 80) in theLao P.D.R. felt that their children could raise
their awareness of the environment throughtheir teaching program using the LDM.

D2Plants play an important role in nurturing children's
experience of nature.

D3

The greater the type and the number of experienceschildren have, the more opportunities for receiving
services could be provided to them.

R3Experiences
Have seen（★）
Have eaten（★）
Have touched（★）
Have caught/taken（★）

Very well represented
Fairly well represented
Not so well represented
Not at all
No idea
Q1. How well do you think the LDM
drawings represent children's actual
experiences with nature and theirinteractions with living things?

Very useful
UsefulSlightly usefulNot useful
No idea
Q2. How well do you think LDM-based
lessons help in raising children’s
environmental awareness?

A lotSome
Only a littleNothing
No ideaQ3. How many new insights did you
gain from the children's drawings?

DHave played with/on（★）
Have raised/grown（★）
What does “containing many stars ofvarious colors” mean?

Cultural services*8
Aesthetic appreciation
Recreation, mental and physical health,and tourism
Inspiration for culture, art and design
Spiritual experience and sense of place
Language, knowledge, and information
for cognitive development
Provisioning services*8

Fig. 8. Schematic images of the relation between experience andecosystem services.

Yes, highly increased
Yes, increased
No, decreased
No change
No idea
Q4. Has your motivation as aninstructor changed during yourteaching based on the LDM?

I definitely want to continue
I want to continue, if possible
I don't want to continue
I definitely don't want to continue
No idea
Q5. If you were to teach students inthe same grade next year, at what level
would you be willing to continue LDMbased lessons?

Fig. 6. Results of the questionnaire survey.

Very useful
UsefulSlightly usefulNot usefulNo idea

School Teachers Meeting in Laos(on 3rd and 24th March, 2023)

D1 Their drawings could provide highly reliable

D4“Sharing LDM-based drawings” will be a good
opportunity for children to learn about each other's
realities and aspects of nature, culture, and daily lives.

D5

Can information from the number and type of stars be
an indicator of the quality and quantity of theecosystem services that children receive?

andaccurate
information
about
theirexperiences of nature, the natural environment,
and realistic landscape elements in general.

R1 R2 R3
Children’s experiences in village A, in Lao P.D.R.
ラオスA村における児童の体験

Fig. 5. Number of living elements in the drawings related toeach experience category.

Nonrealistic drawing phase(Drawing what they think)

Realistic drawing phase(Drawing what they see)First half of elementary school curriculum

The latter half of the curriculum

Fig. 7. Changes in children's drawings as observed inthe elementary school curriculum.*7

Sharing drawings

Fig. 9. Drawing by a 5th-grade student.

We would like to continue to verify theeffectiveness of the outputs from LDM-baseddrawings as an indicator of the actual QoL
within the landscape.

-----------------------------References *1: National Institution For Youth Education, Japan (2010) [Online] https://koueki.net/user/niye/110288693-1.pdf *2: National Institution For Youth Education, Japan (2019) [Online] https://koueki.net/user/niye/110356474-2.pdf *3: Ministry of the Environment, Gov. of Japan. [Online] https://www.env.go.jp/policy/hakusyo/h23/index.html*4: Soga, M. https://doi.org/10.11519/jfsc.127.0_790*5: Yagasaki, T., et al. 2021. Biodiversity and nature experiences of children from a rural village primary school in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic: Toward the evaluation of cultural services and identification of effective education methods using drawing test analysis. Journal of Nature
Restoration and Conservation 12(1): 17-26. (in Japanese with English abstract)*6: Yagasaki, T. and Lattanavongkot, B. 2022. Developing a learning program for elementary school children for multicultural coexistence, international relations, and biodiversity-Proposal of the Landscape Drawing Method. JISE Report 8: 3-13. (in Japanese withEnglish abstract) *7: Misawa, N. 2014. Developmental stagnation expressed in S-HTP. 192pp. Seishin Shobo, Tokyo. (in Japanese). *8: TEEB. 2010. The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity: Mainstreaming the Economics of Nature: A synthesis of the approach, conclusions and recommendations of TEEB.

矢ケ崎朋樹

主任研究員

公益財団法人 地球環境戦略研究機関

謝辞: 本研究の推進にあたっては、経費の一部を公益信託経団連自然保護基金,公益財団法人イオン環境財団環境活動助成より支出した. 協働パートナーのル
アンプラバン県林業セクション, シェンクワン県教育スポーツ局, ラオス小学校
教職員, 埼玉大学教育学部を含む関係各位に, 心より御礼申し上げる.

国際生態学センター / IGES本部 生物多様性と森林領域

1 背景と序文
子どもの自然体験は, その後の成長・発達に良い影響を与えること（攻撃性を和らげる, 他者との関わり,交流能力を高めるなど）が示唆されており（図1）,個人の「生きる力」を育む重要な機会としても認識されている.*1, 2 しかし, 現在の子どもたちの日常生活における自然体験については, まだよく分かっていない.
主に1990年代以降, 家庭用ゲーム機の普及により,日本の子どもたちの主な遊び場は屋外から屋内へと変化し, 子どもたちの「自然体験不足」が問題になっている.*3

自然体験の不足は, 子どもたちの個性や人格形成に悪影響を及ぼすだけでなく, 協力的な人間関係の構築や地域社会とのコミュニケーションといった基本的な社会的スキルの形成にも悪影響を及ぼす.
日本の都市部では, 緑豊かな環境の整備が求められている.しかし, 緑地の減少が進み, 児童の自然体験の環境は悪化の一途をたどっている. 近年, 自然との触れ合いの欠落（自然離れ）は「経験の消失」と呼ばれ, 人々の自然に対する関心の低さとも関連し, 様々な学問分野で喫緊の課題として認識されている.*4

相関性
人間関係能力

自然体験

共生感
動植物とのかかわり図１. ２つの要素間の関係.*1

2 目的、対象と方法
ラオスには, 生物多様性, 豊かな緑, 人と自然の密接な関係を特徴とする価値ある景観（ランドスケープ）が存在する（図2）. このことは, ラオスの人々だけでなく, 日常生活における自然の価値について理解を深めようとする諸外国の子どもたちにとっても、良い学習の機会となる. しかし, 人々と地域のランドスケー
プ・自然体験との関係を明らかにする科学的なアプ
ローチはまだ十分に開発されていない.

小学生向けの学習プログラムを開発し, 教育者向けにパッケージ化した指導案を提案した. このプログラ
ムは, 多文化共生・国際関係・生物多様性についての理解を深め, 自然環境に対する意識を高め, 異なる文化や生活様式を持つ人々と共存する調和的な態度を養うことを目的としている.
本プログラムは, 描画・プレゼンテーション・協同学習など, 様々なアクティビティを中心に構成されている（図3）. この学習プログラムでは, 対象となる子どもたちが日常生活の中で自然と人間, 生物との関わりを積極的にイメージできるよう, 指導と調査の両面で活用できるツールとして, 「ランドスケープ描画法
Landscape Drawing Method (LDM)」を独自に開発している.*5, 6 LDMは, 子ども達の自然体験の実態を可視化することを目的としている.

図２. ラオスの典型的な景観と生業のひとこま.

図３. 学習プログラムの流れ.

3 結果および考察
R1

R

ラオスの小学５年生から22枚の完成画が得られた.*5

R4

現在までにラオス国42校の子どもたち（小学4年生・5年生, 約2,400名）がLDMによる学習に取り組んでいる.

R5 ラオスの対象教員（n=80）のほとんどが, LDM

D

植物は子どもたちの自然体験を高める上で重要D2な役割を果たす.

R3

D3 子どもたちの体験の種類と数が多ければ多いほど、サービスを受ける機会も増える。

を使った教育プログラムを通じて, 子どもたちの環境意識を高めることができたと感じている.

*8

体験カテゴリーst

見たことがある（★）
食べたことがある（★）
触ったことがある（★）
捕まえた／採ったことがある（★）
遊んだことがある（★）
育てたことがある（★）
鳴き声を聴いたことがある (★)

図４. 小学５年生児童による描画.
“様々な色の星がたくさん含まれる”⇒ 何を意味するのか？

子どもたちが観察しR2 描かれた要素の約90％は,*5

図８. 体験と生態系サービスの関係模式図.

た実際の生物であった.

R3 絵画のなかに最も多く記録されていた体験カテ

Very useful
UsefulSlightly usefulNot useful
No idea

ゴリーは「見たことがある」であり, 最も多く描かれていた生物分類群は植物であった.*5n = 22*8

図６. 教員を対象とした質問紙調査の結果.

ラオス小学校教職員ミーティング(2023年3月３日、3月24日開催)

D1 小学５年生が描く絵は, 自然体験や自然環境, 実

D4｢LDMを使った絵の共有｣は, 子どもたちにとって,互いの現実, 自然・文化・日常生活の一面を知る良い機会になる.

D5

星の数と種類から得られる情報は, 子どもたちが受ける生態系サービスの「質と量」の指標となり得るか？

際的なランドスケープ要素の全般について, 信頼性の高い正確な情報を提供しうる.

R1 R2 R3

Children’s experiences in village A, in Lao P.D.R.
ラオスA村における児童の体験

図５. 絵画に示された小学生22 名の体験と関連する生物要素の数.

図７. 小学校課程で観察される子どもの絵の変化.*7

図９. 小学５年生児童による描画.

LDMによる絵画から得られる情報が, 地域のランドスケープにおかれた人々の実際の生活の質（quality of life: QoL）の指標として有効かどうか, 今後も検証していきたい。

-----------------------------出典 *1: 国立青少年教育振興機構（編）（2010）「子どもの体験活動の実態に関する調査研究｣報告書. 158pp. *2: 国立青少年教育振興機構（2019）「青少年の体験活動等に関する意識調査（平成28 年度調査）」報告書. 161pp. *3: 環境省 平成23年版 環境白書・循環型社会白書・生物多様性白書. *4: 曽我昌史. 「経験の消失」時代における都市近郊林の役割. https://doi.org/10.11519/jfsc.127.0_790 *5: 矢ケ崎ほか（2021）ラオス農村部小学生の自然体験と生物の多様性：描画テスト分析を用いた文化的サービスの評価と効果的な教育方法の特定に向けて. 自然環境復元研究 12: 17-26. *6: 矢ケ崎・ラタナボンコット（2022）小学生向け多文化共生・国際関係・生物多様性学
習プログラムの開発－ランドスケープ描画法の提案. JISE REPORT 8: 3-13. *7: 三沢直子（2014）S-HTP に表れた発達の停滞. 181pp. 誠信書房, 東京. *8: TEEB (2010) The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity: Mainstreaming the Economics of Nature: A synthesis of the approach, conclusions and recommendations of TEEB.