Natural Scientific and Ecological Environmental Education in the Training of Kindergarten Teacher Students at the University of Sopron, Hungary

The greatest challenge of the 21^st century is to recreate the disturbed balance between people and their environment. The functioning of the changed global system warns us about the multiplying of today’s global and local problems, which are affecting the world’s population. International organizations deal with this issue. In their opinion, environmental education and environmentally conscious thinking can be a way out of the crisis. The efficiency of environmental education is influenced by the ratio of theory and practice as well as the appropriately applied teaching methods, which is confirmed by the experience of the Ecology and Environmental Protection in Kindergarten course of the Benedek Elek Faculty of Pedagogy at the University of Sopron, Hungary.