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SIMPOSIUM KIMIAANALISIS KE-15

(SKAM-15)

Bayview Beach Resorts,Pulau Pinang

September 10-12, 2002

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AN ANALYSIS OF SCHOOL TEACHERS’

ATTITUDES ON THE IMPORTANCE OFENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

GOALS

ARBA'AT HASSANYayasan Pendidikan Labuan

Tingkat 16 (A1), Menara UtamaKompleks Ujana Kewangan, 87000 WP Labuan

Email: arbaat@yahoo.com

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INTRODUCTION►Malaysia achieved independence in 1957

►After independence, Malaysia is developing aggressively to achieve a status of an industrial country by the year 2020

►Forests are logged; factories, highways, residential and shop houses, hydroelectric dams, and other infrastructures are constructed ▬ everywhere

►Development in education ▬public or/and private▬ are also progressing at the same pace

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TERMINOLOGY►Environmental education (Alam dan Manusia) was incorporated in school curriculum in 1982. ►The terms came in many names: Nature Study, Outdoor Education, Conservation Education, Environmental Management Education, Community Education, and so on.►United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) stated that this terminology was used as a synonym for each of the five, singly, or in any combination

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DEFINITION►Cerovsky (1971) defined environmental education in The Book of Environmental Education with International Studies as "...a process of recognising values and clarifying concepts to develop skills and attitudes necessary to understand and to appreciate the inter- relatedness among man, his culture, and his biophysical surroundings. Environmental education also entailed practice in decision-making and self-formulation of a code behaviour about issues concerning environmental quality"

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►These are criteria suggested for good environmental education (The American Environmental Education Act (PL 91-516) (1970): An interdisciplinary approach, emphasising nature-human interrelationshipsA focus on environmental problems relating to the community

CRITERIA

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Incorporation of informal (as well as formal) education

Development of conservation ethic (as well as information programs and resources) outside the classroomInvolving people of all agesA participant-centred design that allows involvement in the choice of issues and the problem-solving solutions

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The Tbilisi Conference (1977) endorsed goals for environmental education into 5 categories (UNESCO, 1977):

1. Knowledge: to gain a variety of experience and basic understanding of the problems

2. Awareness: to acquire an awareness and sensitivity to environment and its problems

GOALS

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3. Attitudes: to acquire a set of values and feelings of concern to environment, and motivations for actively participating in environmental improvement & protection

4. Skills: to acquire skills for identifying and solving environmental problems

5. Participation: to be actively involved at all levels in working toward resolution of environmental problems.

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Table A : Environmental Education Goal Levels(Hungerford & Volk, 1983)

Goal Level I: Knowledge and Ecological Foundation ▬ to provide sufficient ecological foundation knowledge to permit students to make ecologically sound decisions with respect to environment

Goal Level II: Conceptual Awareness of Issues and Values ▬ to develop a conceptual awareness of how actions influence the quality of life and the quality of the environment, and how these actions resulted in environmental issues be resolved through investigation, evaluation, values clarification, decision-making, and citizenship action

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Goal Level III: Issue Investigation and Evaluation ▬ to develop and equip skills necessary to investigate environmental issues and evaluate alternative solutions

Goal Level IV: Environmental Action Skills and Participation ▬ to equip skills necessary to take positive environmental action/s for the purpose of achieving and/or maintaining a dynamic equilibrium between quality of life, and the quality of environment.

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PURPOSESThe purposes of the environmental education are

to educate students and public to be more sensitive to what is happening surrounding them, and

to participate positively in protecting and maintaining the environment

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PURPOSE OF THE STUDY►Purpose: to investigate the attitudes of school teachers on the importance of environmental education goals

SAMPLE & METHOD►Samples: 180 Grade 6 primary school teachers►Method: Teachers were randomly selected

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►Instrument: Alam dan Manusia Teacher Questionnaires (ADMTQ) (Arba’at, 1992)►Original version: Environmental Education Curriculum Needs Assessment Questionnaire (EECNAQ) (Volk, 1983)►Mode: a bilingual version►Reliability and validity: tested by the environmental educators in USA and Malaysia

PROCEDURE

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1. Students gain sufficient knowledge of ecology to permit them to make ecologically sound decisions with respect to both humans and the environment.

2. Students gain an understanding of the ways in which human social activities (economics, religion, politics, social customs, etc.) influence the environment.

3. Students gain an understanding of the ways in which individual human behaviours impact on the environment.

4. Students gain an understanding of a wide variety of environmental issues and both the ecological and social implications of these issues.

5. Students gain an understanding of the various alternative solutions for solving particular environmental issues in which the ecological and social implications of the solutions are considered.

Table B: Environmental Education Goal Statements

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6. Students gain an understanding of the roles played by differing human values in solving environmental issues.

7. Students develop those skills which will enable them to identify and investigate issues using both primary and secondary sources of information.

8. Students develop those skills which will enable them to analyse environmental issues and the associated value perspectives with respect to their ecological and cultural implications

9. Students develop those skills which will enable them to identify alternative solutions for particular issues and to evaluate those solutions with regard to their ecological and cultural implications.

10. Students develop those skills which will enable them to identify and evaluate their own value positions related to particular issues and to the solutions proposed for those issues.

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11. Students are provided with opportunities to apply, those skills in investigating and evaluating environmental issues and their solutions in the following manners:A. Identify the environmental problemB. Conduct library search for the topicC. Write research questions related to the issueD. Summarise collected secondary informationE. Write letters for information and interview resource people F. Plan a data collection strategyG. Develop, pilot test, and revise a survey instrumentH. Collect survey data1. Organise data into tables, charts, graphs, etc.J. Interpret findings, conclusions, inferences, & recommendationsK. Produce a final written issue investigation reportL. Present the issue investigation to others

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12. Students are provided with opportunities to participate in the valuing process in order to examine their own values with respect to both quality of life and quality of the environment.

13. Students develop those citizenship skills which will enable them to take appropriate action/s (persuasion, consumerism, legal action, political action, ecomanagement, etc.), either individual or group, for the purpose of solving, partially solving, or assisting in solving particular environmental issues.

14. Students are provided with opportunities to apply citizenship skills in making decisions concerning appropriate environmental action strategies to be used with respect to particular environmental issues.

15. Students are provided with opportunities to take citizenship action on one or more environmental issues.

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RESULTS►Respondents were asked to indicate their perceptions concerning the 15 variables in Table B

► Likert scale: a five-points scale:

5 = A Complete Extent 4 = A Moderate Extent 3 = A Little Extent 2 = No Extent 1 = Do Not Have Knowledge

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►Collected data were analyzed using Statistical Analysis System (SAS)►Missing responses & responses “1=Do Not Have Knowledge” were dropped in computation of χ and SD►Reports in frequency counts are shown in Table C

►180 ADMTQ questionnaires distributed, 129 (72%) were returned

►Findings are shown in Table C and Fig. 1

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Goal Statements

SD5 4

Frequencies*

3 2 1

1 4.54 0.65 80 40 8 1 02 4.61 0.64 88 34 5 2 03 4.54 0.70 84 32 12 1 04 4.36 0.77 67 45 14 3 05 4.33 0.72 59 55 13 2 06 4.40 0.75 71 39 18 1 07 4.38 0.76 66 46 12 3 28 4.33 0.77 65 41 21 1 19 4.30 0.77 61 45 21 1 1

10 4.27 0.79 59 48 18 3 1

Table C: , SD, and Frequencies of Responses To the Extent of Importance of Environmental Education Goals (n = 129)

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11 4.32 0.86 72 30 21 5 1A 4.78 0.53 108 14 7 0 0B 4.41 0.86 80 23 22 3 1C 4.05 0.95 53 39 28 9 0D 4.24 0.99 72 26 21 10 0E 4.19 0.99 66 28 22 10 3F 4.21 0.90 61 38 22 6 2G 3.98 0.98 49 38 29 11 2H 4.41 0.80 77 29 22 1 0I 4.54 0.74 87 27 13 2 0J 4.35 0.82 71 33 22 2 1K 4.27 0.94 69 31 19 8 2L 4.35 0.84 72 34 19 4 0

12 4.63 0.63 89 30 7 1 213 4.42 0.84 79 29 17 4 014 4.43 0.74 71 41 13 2 214 4.43 0.74 71 41 13 2 215 4.30 0.83 65 41 18 4 1

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4.54 4.61

4.54

4.36

4.33 4.40

4.38

4.33

4.30

4.27 4.32 4.

634.

424.

434.

30

1

2

3

4

5

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15GOAL STATEMENTS

ME

AN

RE

SPO

NSE

SFig 1: Analysis of Goal Importance

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►Mean responses: “the moderate” (4.27) to“the complete extent” (4.63)

►Highest means: 12=value clarificationopportunity: 4.63; 2=individual impact: 4.61; 3=cultural impact: 4.54 and 1=ecology concept: 4.54

►Lowest mean: 10=value clarification opportunity: 4.27

DISCUSSIONS

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►The grand mean for goal statement 11=investigation and evaluation processes: 4.32

► 120 (94.57%) respondents indicated sub goal statement 11A=problem identification important, said “a complete” or “moderate extent” with the highest mean: 4.78.

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►No responses were made either to “no extent” or “do not have knowledge.” ►The lowest mean, 3.98, received by sub goal statement 11G=survey instrument ►The distribution of responses tended toward higher scale, with 87 (67.44%) teachers responded to “a complete” or “moderate extent.” Eleven (8.53%) teachers indicated “no extent” and two (2.0%) said they “do not have knowledge.”

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►Majority teachers considered goals for environmental education very important

►Mean responses ranged from "moderate" (4.27) to “a complete extent," (4.63).

►Highest mean, 4.63, received by goal statement 12=value clarification opportunity

►Lowest mean, 4.27, received by goal statement 10=evaluate value position

CONCLUSIONS

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►122 (94.57%) respondents said sub goal statement 11A=problem identification was important from “a complete” to “moderate extent,” with highest mean: 4.78.

►87 (67.44%) teachers said sub goal statement 11G=survey instrument, was important from “a complete” to “moderate extent,” with lowest mean, 3.98

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RECOMMENDATIONS

3. Conduct regular training, in-service courses, workshops, seminars, update teachers' skills and evaluation methods, and develop new teaching and learning techniques.

1. Revise environmental education goals by Ministry of Education and Curriculum Dev Centre.

2. Incorporate additional goals into national curriculum (esp. Level III: Investigation and Evaluation Level; and Level: IV: Environmental Action Skills of Training and Application)

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4. Replicate same study at all levels to present a total picture of environmental education needs and accomplishments.

5. Replace or substitute subject Alam dan Manusia with a similar subject in the school curriculum to provide knowledge, awareness, and participation.

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THANK YOU