Secondary School Students' Awareness of Environmental Education Concepts

Abstract

Humans have been living in an environment since its existence. Human approaches and attitudes towards the environment in which they live have changed over time. It is hoped the negative attitudes of humans towards nature, the environment and environmental problems will change in a positive way, due to increasing levels of awareness occurring through environmental education. The aim of this study is to measure secondary school students' level of awareness about environmental education concepts. A quantitative survey model is used in this study. The sample of the study was taken at several central secondary schools in the Sivas province for students in Grades 5-8. There is a total of 524 students in the study. The "Environmental education concepts awareness scale (EECAS)", consists of 22 items and is a data collection tool for this study. The IBM SPSS statistical 23 package program was used to analyze the data. The results were analyzed by means of arithmetic-mean, standard-deviation, Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis test. The data was evaluated with a significance level of 0.05. As a result of the research, it was concluded that secondary school students who participated in this research had a high level of awareness about the concepts of environmental education overall. On the other hand, it was concluded that there was no significant difference in secondary school students' awareness of environmental education concepts compared to gender and family speech status variables on environmental issues. İt was observed that there was a significant difference between variables such as class, mothers' education, fathers' education and family monthly income levels.

Factors affecting Attitudes and Behavior of Greek Secondary School Students on Current Environmental Issues

“…How students' gender and age affect the relationship between their environmental knowledge, attitudes, and behavior was of interest to several researchers. Ablak & Yeşiltaş (2020) concluded that the gender does not make any significant difference in secondary school students' awareness about environmental education. Loughland et al (2003), who studied gender responses from students' ages 9-17 in order to determine if they saw the environment as an "object" or as "relation", found that girls saw the environment as a "relation" more than boys.…”

Environmental Problems and Education in Last Five Years

“…Environmental problems can be listed factory waste, human waste, harmful gases from factories, exhaust gases, misuse of forested areas, pollution in rivers, unconscious hunting, rapid population growth, uncontrolled urbanization, global warming, greenhouse effect, nuclear pollution, acid rain, mass extinction of plant and animal species, desertification, ozone depletion and chemical waste off (Ablak and Yesiltas, 2020;Zannat et al, 2021). It can be said that the most important environmental problem is environmental pollution (Duran, 2021;Recepoglu, 2021;Dogan and Simsar, 2019;Kalayci, 2020).…”

“…Environmental education is a continuous learning process that enables people to get to know concepts related to their environment (Topal et al, 2020). Environmental education has become important in many countries and it is a lifelong process of education (Ablak and Yesiltas, 2020).…”

“…It is seen that with the statement in National Curriculums the necessity of environmental education is emphasized (Recepoglu, 2021;Mutlu et al, 2021;Mahat et al, 2020;Yuksel, 2021). Environmental education is a key element in raising environmentally conscious individuals (Reported by Ozer Keskin and Aksakal, 2020; Ablak and Yesiltas, 2020;Kiraz and Salman, 2021;Duran, 2021;Mutlu et al, 2021). Environmental education is important in terms of raising individuals who are environmentally sensitive and can offer solutions to environmental problems (Berber, 2021).…”

“…Environmental education course "will serve to increase students' environmental sensitivity and improve their sustainable living skills." (Ablak and Yesiltas, 2020). An effective environmental education improves the attitude, value and information about the environment and brings individuals to gain skills that will lead them to display positive environmental actions (Pullu and Pullu, 2021).…”