 |
Asia-Pacific
Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 7, Issue 2, Article
7 (Dec., 2006) Haluk ÖZMEN & Orhan KARAMUSTAFAOĞLU Environmental consciousness and education relationship: Determination of how environment-based concepts are placed in Turkish science curricula
|
When the
environment-related literature was investigated, especially it was understood
that the gaining of the environmental conscious was on the front. Especially
developed countries have conducted many of the studies related to the
pollution of air and water, acid rains, chemical wastes, energy sources and
global warming which were proved the hazardous to the environment and
consequently to the human health in order to make the people conscious.
But, these kinds of studies are not enough to inform the public, especially
students and formal education is necessary for this information. So, school
curriculum should be designed to make it easier. This kind of conscious could
be achieved with well-designed curricula that include environment-based
concepts because studies in the literature state that schools play an
important role in the formation of children’s positive attitudes towards to
environment and the formal education system is the most convenient for
incorporating EE programmes (Smyth, 1987; Spiropoulou, Roussos and Voutirakis,
2005). Especially, applying this kind of studies in the lack of environmental
education and realizing the facilities done by the combined study of both
ministry of environment and ministry of education, it is believed that the
educational programs in Turkey must be improved again to arise the
environmental conscious through subjects. In parallel to development in the
educational systems and government policies, textbooks have been prepared and
distributed by the government to the primary school students for the last two
years. In the current textbooks, it is seen that chapters or units about
environment and daily knowledge are widely placed. It is thought that these
textbooks can partially prevent this lack of knowledge.
In this
process, especially environmental related courses must be included in the
educational programs such as ‘Environmental Education’. Because, teachers
who teach these subjects feel themselves limited between applied sciences and
biology courses and also they feel irresponsible to teach such a subject
because they are not trained to teach it. And therefore, teachers are failing
to develop environmental literacy because they are not incorporating
environmental concepts ecological principles into the subjects they are
teaching (Spiropoulou, Roussos and Voutirakis, 2005). It could be useful to
gather environmental subjects in the biology and applied science books in
order to teach them in detail and to give conscious. It is better to teach
them as a separate course and it helps the problems disappear. In this content
of this course, beside the unit ‘Living things’, the global warming, acid
rains, holes in ozone, the greenhouse-effect and some kind of environmental
pollution affecting the human and environment negatively should be taught
theoretically including the necessary precautions. In this current situation,
in order to execute these courses, firstly applied science, biology and
chemistry teachers should be informed about environmental subjects through
in-service training. Because, one of the most important difficulties
encountered for an effective environmental education is lack of the expert
teachers in environmental education. The teachers play an important role in
teaching environmental-based concepts (Khalid, 2003). But, as stated by Ko and
Lee (2003), if there is an urge to do something for the environment, the
teachers will try to teach environmental education despite the barriers. In
addition, curriculum designed for environmental education should be clear and
enough for teachers to realize desired environmental education and enough time
should be given in class to teach it. We also advise to establish a separate
department training environmental teachers in universities. We believe that it
is useful to include environmental courses in primary and secondary school
curricula.
There is
no doubt that Turkey is not the only country in the developing world
insufficient environmental education is in action. Lack of environmental
knowledge in curricula is obvious in many countries. The results of
globalization have been closely noticed in every passing day. For this reason,
all people around the world have been affected by all the activities related
to environment, either positive or negative. For example, some scientists
claim that the newly hurricanes ‘Katrina’ and “Rita” are caused by
global warming. It is also clear that scientists lack a detailed explanation
of how global warming would cause the hurricane trends seen so far. However,
it is known that environmental pollution and degradation of the natural
balance cause many undesired natural events. So it is crucial to enlighten
people about the environmental problems and to bring up with environmental
concious through environmental education. It is important to make the pupils
concious in such an educational environment. But besides the educational
institutions, non-governmental organizations should also fulfill their
obligations about this subject all over the world. “Green Peace
Organization” is the well-known organization around the world, which is very
sensitive to the environmental problems in the world. In Turkey, as a
candidate to EU, the members of this organization have also done sensitive
works to environment. TEMA is also another crucial organization doing good
works for the environment in Turkey. As the efforts in Turkey, many
studies are carried out all over the world about the environmental education
and concious. Instead of performing such studies seperately in all countries,
they should take common precautions altogether. Such an approach would help
them to solve arising problems easily.
In summary, it is urgent to give the necessary training both to the students in school and the people in society. It is stated that if the students do not have the proper knowledge and understanding of causes and effects of these environmental issues, it will be very hard for them to make correct decisions in the future to reduce and control these problems (Khalid, 2003). Thus, environmental education for whole society and citizen is crucial for human life and world life. And also, as stated by Tuncer and colleagues (2005), it is not forgotten that translate theoretical knowledge into environmental attitudes will help very much in constructing an environmental education strategy. Because, to know is not enough, to apply is also necessary. Everybody must not forget that we have one world.
