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Asia-Pacific Forum
on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 10, Issue 2, Article 4 (Dec., 2009) |
With an increasing threat posed to the human health by environmental problems, environmental values have started to draw greater attention (Reid, 1995). With environmental problems lie the irresponsible and indifferent environmental behaviours (Bradley, Waliczek & Zajicek, 1999). Hence, the most important stage of the fight to overcome environmental problems at an early age is of great importance to enhance environmental knowledge of individuals (Gambro & Switzky, 1996). In the literature, there are many studies arguing that environmental education results in significant changes in the environmental knowledge level of students (Bradley, Waliczek & Zajicek, 1999; Palmberg & Kuru, 2000; Erten, 2001; Makki, A.E.Khalick & Boujaoude, 2003; Farmer, Knapp & Benton, 2007).
The traditional view of the purpose of the environmental education is to help students develop positive opinions on the environment and to protect the environment by learning the environmental values. However, today, it is seen in environmental education literature that learning about the environment, within natural settings and through experiences, has gradually gained more importance (Fien & Tilbury, 2002; Tilbury, 2004). In other words, for the environmental education to be effective, the school setting should not be viewed only as a teaching area, but also as an area where good applications can be performed (Hart, 1997). From this standpoint, students should learn about the environment by doing activities and living in it (Gayford, 1996). There are many studies in the literature reporting the positive results of this new student-based approach (Brisk, 2000; Erten, 2001; Nicol, 2002; Yilmaz, Morgil, Aktug & Gobekli, 2002; Aksoy, 2003; Sahin, Cerrah, Saka & Sahin, 2004; Fishman, 2005).
In recent years, new applications, often with different names such as green classroom (grüne Klassenzimmer), green school (grüne Schule) and ecological school (ökologiche Schule), where educational settings are intertwined with nature, have been gaining greater importance in many countries, primarily in the European Union (Anonymous, 2003; Stroh & Sabel, 2005). Green learning applications based on the idea of providing activities, which help students use their brain, heart and hands simultaneously in an integrated manner, not only bring about opportunities for long-lasting and meaningful learning, but also rich educational experiences by improving the harmony and peace between human beings and nature (Stroh & Sabel, 2005). In such educational environments, students can directly observe nature and discover it with as many senses as possible. This leads to enriched experiences resulting in a synthesis for students. For this purpose, educational activities based on direct interaction with the natural elements should be put into practice to impart better understanding of phenomena, such as diversity of living and non-living things in the nature and mutual interactions, links between the non-living environment and living organisms and food and energy flow between them, matter transformation and diffusion to students (Illinois Environment Protection Agency, 2003; Tempel, 2005). In this way, teaching settings are transformed from places restricted by four walls to living areas where environmental events can be directly observed (Sterling, 2001).
In recent years, there have been green learning applications in many countries to help students learn faster and retain information longer. Some of these are the Environment and Schools Initiative (ENSI) Eco-Schools, Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE) Eco-Schools, Green Schools in China, the Green School Award in Sweden and Enviro-schools in New Zealand (Henderson & Tilbury, 2004).
When the related literature is reviewed, it is seen that majority of the studies in Turkey are descriptive in nature, and the number of studies looking at environmental knowledge at the elementary school level is very limited. Ulucinar Sagir, Aslan and Cansaran (2008) conducted a study among 7thand 8th graders and they investigated their environmental knowledge and attitudes in relation to various variables. Alp, Ertepinar, Tekkaya & Yilmaz (2006) aimed to determine students’ environmental knowledge and attitudes, the effects of their gender and grade level on their environmental knowledge and attitudes, and investigate the relationship between positive environmental behaviors and intentions, feelings, knowledge and internal-external locus of control. Cabuk, Kaya and Turan (2005) investigated the knowledge level, knowledge sources and environmental sensitivity of the students from different schools (private and public). Atasoy and Erturk (2008) conducted a study to elicit the environmental attitudes and knowledge of the 6th, 7thand 8th graders. In a study, Ozdemir (2003) attempted to determine environmental knowledge and environmental awareness levels of 8th graders, moreover, he tried to find out whether these variables exhibit significant differences due to socio-economic characteristics of the students.
In the literature review performed, it was found that apart from the green-class applications carried out by the researcher (Ozdemir & Uzun, 2006; Uzun, Saglam & Varnaci Uzun, 2008), there is no study dealing with green class activities in Turkey.
Due to importance of the issue, the present study aims to investigate the effects of applied environmental education conducted according to the green class model on students’ environmental knowledge and its retention by the students.
