PLANNING EDUCATIONAL TRAILS - METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS

Authors

  • Éva FODOR Eszterházy Károly Egyetem, Sporttudományi Intézet, Eger
  • László RÉVÉSZ Eszterházy Károly Egyetem, Sporttudományi Intézet, Eger

Keywords:

education, educational trails, free time, planning educational trails, recreation

Abstract

Educational trails exist since the first third of the 1900’s, they appeared at first in the United States of America (1925) and Germany (1930). In Switzerland and Hungar y the first facilities adequate to the criteria of today’s educational trails were established in 1972. During the last decade educational trails have changed significantly, adapting to the challenges of civilisation advancement and the need of population. According to the functions of educational trails Hungarian literature (Kiss, ed., 2007) considers three of them crucial: education, conservation and – through spending free time in a constructive way, getting positive experience and developing health promotion – the recreational function. The role of educational trails within the field of recreation lays in their complex impact, which includes advantageous effects of both physical and mental recreation at the same time. The effects of these fields cannot be separated, however one of them usually becomes dominant. The type and physical characteristics of a certain trail, also the preferences of the visitors determine the dominance of physical or mental recreation. Planning educational trails is quite a complex process, hence cooperation bet ween different experts is absolutely necessary. In order to assure that educational trails shape environmental consciousness and support the recreation of their visitors, planning the facility and its issues are of great importance. By planning educational trails defining the age group of the visitors has a priority. The following characteristics are important due to the visitors’ age: physical performance and endurance, cognitive and affective qualities, fields of interest, applied pedagogical methods, amount of the available free time. Considering the route the length, altitude, lies of the land, type, moreover the natural and cultural values of the trails are essential. According to the stations the number, frequency, the exact place and number, the size and type of the built components are the most important factors. The boards situated on the educational trails also have a great importance, just as its presses and booklets.

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Published

2018-01-02

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