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Asia-Pacific Forum
on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 13, Issue 2, Article 8 (Dec., 2012) |
The study was conducted with 82 second-grade students attending the Department of Elementary School Teaching at Ziya Gokalp Education Faculty at Dicle University in 16 weeks in the Fall Term of the academic year of 2010-2011. However, of all the participants, only 75 of them responded as required (36 students from the control group, and 39 from the experimental group). Thus, the research data were collected from 75 participants. In the study, the pretest and posttest experimental design with a control group was applied.
In line with the purpose of the present study, the ‘Environmental Literacy Scale’ developed by Kisoglu (2009) was used. The scale was made up of four dimensions. The Cronbach alpha value for the sub-dimension of environmental knowledge was calculated as .64, for the sub-dimension of environmental attitude as .77, for the sub-dimension of environmental behavior as .79 and for the sub-dimension of environmental perception as .78. In the study, the ‘Environmental Education Self-Efficacy Scale’ developed by Aydin (2008) was used. For this study, the Cronbach alpha value of the scale was found to be .76.
The statistical analyses of the data in the study were conducted with the SPSS/PC (Statistical Package for Social Science for Personal Computers) based on the total scores of the teacher candidates regarding the sub-dimensions of the environmental literacy scale. In order to determine the difference between the teacher candidates’ scores regarding the sub-dimensions of the environmental literacy scale and their self-efficacy perceptions pretest and posttest scores, independent samples t-test was applied.
The Process of Teaching the Lessons
First of all, the researcher prepared not only the lesson plans for each course hour to act as a guide the research process but also the learning-teaching situations to execute the experimental processes in the study. In addition, the table of specifications for the gains expected as a result of the present study was prepared. In this phase, the studies in the field were examined, and faculty members from the fields of educational sciences and biology education were asked for their help.
In the study, the project-based instruction method was enriched with computer animations prepared for educational purposes. Before the experimental processes, a guide for students was prepared regarding the animation supported project based learning application to make it adopted and understood better. The student guide included the in-class activities, the studies that the student would carry out in the process, the responsibilities they would undertake and the evaluation criteria. In the first week, in company with the student guide, the students were informed about the method. For the application of the project-based instruction method, the students were divided into groups of four. The projects prepared for the students to research were presented to them for their views, and the projects were shared. The project assignments were made up of two phases. In the first phase, the teacher candidates were asked to put forward solutions to the problem related to the subject of the project and to discuss these solutions in class. In the second phase, they developed materials for elementary school students regarding the problem they chose. Starting with the 2nd week, the theoretical subjects of the environmental education course (biotic and abiotic factors of the ecosystem, ecological relationships, life zones were taught by the researcher faculty member with the support of animations for 6 weeks. In this way, the students were given time to research the project subjects and to prepare for their presentation. In the week following the end of the theoretical subjects, each group introduced the material they developed to the class. Afterwards, every week, two groups of students started introducing their projects. Following the presentations, the environmental literacy scale and the environmental education self-efficacy scale applied as pretest previously were conducted again as the posttest.
