Can eco-schools improve elementary school students’ environmental literacy levels?

To live in a healthy environment and to sustain the natural resources for next generations, citizens in all ages should be aware of their influences on the environment and in accordance with their responsibilities, take the necessary precautions to solve environmental problems. To achieve this, environmental education should provide the necessary knowledge to interpret the natural events, to be aware of environmental problems, thus should improve children’s environmental literacy levels. The eco-school program emerged with a purpose to promote a medium for improving students’ environmental literacy thus, improving the quality of environmental education. Although the program is implemented in a wide area, there is little research to indicate the effectiveness of eco-schools on elementary school students’ environmental knowledge, attitude, uses and concerns; that is measures of environmental literacy. Thus, in this study, effects of eco-school applications on elementary school students’ environmental literacy were investigated.

ELQ consists of questions to assess elementary school students’ environmental knowledge, attitudes, uses and concerns. The pre-test percentages for environmental knowledge questions of both experimental and control group showed that students are not fully knowledgeable about environment. The analysis of the data obtained from post-test applications revealed that, after the application, both statistically and practically significant mean differences exist between elementary school students enrolling eco-school and traditional school in the favour of eco-school students. This result is relevant for all grade levels which are concerned in the present study. These results are expected because during the study, experimental group students conducted many environmental activities as part of the eco-school application. In eco-school, experimental group students conducted environmental review and as a result of this review they conducted several environmental activities to improve the situation of the school. Besides, in experimental group environmental issues were explained not only in science lessons but also in other courses such as social sciences, English, visual arts, music etc.

While the situation in the experimental group was in this way, it was very different in the control group. Although there were many environmental issues in science and technology curriculum, teachers in the control group thought that these issues are easy for students to learn. For this reason, science teachers did not mainly emphasize environmental topics in science lessons. Besides, the teachers of the other courses did not perform any environmental activities. Even, some courses were not performed regularly such as computer classess, visual art classess etc, during the whole semester. During these class hours, control group students preferred to solve several multiple choice questions and to administer several multiple choice tests for the preparation of students to the SBS examination. But, this approach seems to be ineffective for students to learn environmental issues appropritately.

The second subscale of ELQ was ‘environmental attitudes’. The analysis of the related data exposed that experimental group students’ agreement for attitude items increased at post-tests. Additionally, considering the post-test results, statistically and practically significant differences exist between 6th grade and 8th grade experimental and control group students. Besides, no significant difference was found for 7th grade treatment groups with respect to their environmental attitudes. Based on these results, it can be concluded that eco-school program made a measurable difference in 6th and 8th grade elementary school students’ environmental attitudes. Related literature shows that traditional courses about environment do not affect one’s attitudes toward environmental issues. Various kinds of life experiences are needed in shaping children’s environmental attitudes (Kinsey & Weatley, 1984). Eco-school application differs from traditional school application in many aspects. First of all, eco-school students were actively participated in all steps of the application through eco-teams. They carried out environmental review to determine environmental problems, developed an action plan to improve the environmental situation of their school, monitored and evaluated their progress. Second, eco-school activities provided elementary school students’ life experiences both in school and outside school. During eco-school applications, students planted trees in their school garden and in the campus of Aksaray University, planned one-week spring festival, recycled cans, papers, glass, increased the number and kinds of plants inside the school. With all these activities, eco-school students found chance to involve in environmental activities actively. This active involvement is the possible cause for an increase in eco-school students’ environmental attitudes. Another reason for the significant difference in environmental attitudes may be due to the increase in environmental knowledge. According to Arcury (1990) increased environmental knowledge would foster positive environmental attitudes. In the present study, the increase in 6th and 8th grade eco-school students’ environmental attitudes may be due to their increased levels of environmental knowledge.

The third subscale of ELQ was ‘environmental use’. When the post-test results are examined, it can be observed that experimental group students’ agreement about the statements increased after the treatment. Results of the present study also revealed that a significant difference exists between 7th grade and 8th grade treatment groups with respect to their environmental use scores. Besides, no significant difference was found for 6th grade treatment groups. Involving in many environmental activities may be the possible explanation of the findings. During the study, experimental group students discussed the advantages and disadvantages of using technology to solve environmental problems, studied the relationship between human and the environment, focused on global and local environmental problems and the ways to solve them, dealed with the roles of nongovernmental foundations and our personal responsibilities to solve the environmental problems and considered the future of environmental problems.

The fourth and the last subscale of ELQ was ‘environmental concerns’. After the treatment, experimental group students’ concern levels increased for ‘smoke pollution’, ‘automobile emissions’, ‘industrial pollutions’, ‘hazardous wastes’, ‘poor water quality’, ‘ozone layer depletion’ and ‘global warming’. Besides, control group students’ concern levels increased for only ‘hazardous wastes’ and ‘ozone layer depletion’. Results of the study revealed that although practically small, statistically significant mean difference exists for 6th grade treatment groups. Results also showed that both statistically and practically significant mean differences exist for 8th grade treatment groups. Studies have shown that experiences in nature increase students’ environmental concern (Palmberg & Kuru, 2000). An increased number of activities conducted in nature may be the cause of increasing environmental concern. Besides, Malkus and Musser (1997) as cited in Yılmaz et al. (2004) expressed that if students have enough environmental knowledge and positive attitudes toward environment then they would be more sensitive to environmental problems. Being consistently with this research, experimental group students’ increased levels of environmental concerns may be due to their increasing levels of environmental knowledge and attitudes.

Overall, the results of the study present a very favorable situation: eco-school applications improve elementary school students’ environmental knowledge, attitudes, uses and concerns. The results of this study are consistent with the results of previous research (Aktepe & Girgin, 2009; Bajd & Leščanec, 2011; Krnel & Naglic, 2009). Research findings showed that eco-schools are effective to improve students’ environmental knowledge and environmental awareness. With this study, it is proved that eco-school application foster elementary school students’ environmental literacy. Eco-schools provide a learning environment both in and out school in which to explore what a sustainable lifestyle means. With eco-school application, students found rich learning settings in which they can participate environmental activities actively. Importance of active participation is emphasized by several researchers. Orr (1992) states that “ecological literacy is becoming more difficult, I believe, not because there are fewer books about nature, but because there is less opportunity for direct experience of it” (p. 88). It is clear that simply providing more knowledge to people does not necessarily lead to an increase in their environmental literacy. This study addresses an alternative way to educate environmentally literate children.

On the basis of the findings of the present study, there are some recommendations for further researches. First of all, the results presented in this study are valid only for the schools participated and are not generalized. A similar study can be conducted to urban and rural schools having students with different backgrounds. By this way, it will be possible to generalize the effects of eco-school applications on students’ environmental literacy. It would be also interesting to replicate this study with students from different locations and cultures. Perhaps, this kind of research could be conducted internationally to look for similarities and variations. Additional studies may be conducted to investigate the effectiveness of eco-schools on primary school and high school students’ environmental literacy. Although eco-schools are widespread there are not enough studies questioning eco-schools’ effectiveness. Another area for future study would be to conduct the same research by using other variables. A limited number of variables could be considered in the present study. It is worth to study investigating the effects of eco-schools on different variables other than environmental literacy such as environmental values, beliefs etc. Besides, gender and grade level seem to be effective on improving elementary school students’ environmental literacy through eco-schools. Further investigations of other factors that may influence the environmental literacy are required. Increasing the time frame may be another focus point for future studies. The time frame for this study was not sufficient to study the long term retention of environmental literacy, and the extent of its continued impact on environmental attitudes and behaviors. While the initial results are favorable, there is no certainty that the acquired literacy will be retained. It is worth to conduct a longitudinal study and assess its effects.