Teachers’ Opinion Regarding the Contribution of Outdoor Activities in the Development of Preschoolers’ Cognitive Skills

"The educational environment is an active and decisive factor in the preschoolers’ educational process. The quality of the educational environment influences the children’s progress in all areas of development. So, recognizing the indisputable value of nature in human life, one can say that, in addition to the activities realized in the classroom, the outdoor activities also contribute to the preschoolers’ global and harmonious development. Starting from the premise that outdoor activities contribute to the preschoolers’ development of the cognitive skills, through the conducted study the intent was to identify the ways in which these are integrated into the daily program of preschoolers (within personal development activities, in freely chosen games and activities or in carrying out activities in experiential fields). The results of the study should also offer examples of good practices regarding the organization of learning situations in the outdoor environment. Another objective set is to find out what are the facilitating factors and what are the hindering factors preventing the good performance of these types of activities. In order to find out the answer questions proposed, the survey method based on the questionnaire was used and applied to a number of 100 preschool teachers working in the Caras-Severin county. The conclusions emphasize the major contribution of outdoor activities to the development of the children’s cognitive skills, but the ways in which these activities are carried out differ, being characterized by a great thematic variety."