UpperpPrimary Science Curriculum and Studenst and environmental awareness ,attitudes and Practices:the cace urban of alamata and rural Schools
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Date
2009-06
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Addis Ababa Universty
Abstract
The purpose 0/ this study was to examine the extent of inlegralion 0/ EE in upper primmy school natural science
clirriculum and to analyze the level ql slue/ems ' envirol1l11enla/ awareness, altitude and behavioral actions. To
achieve the purpose, the EE {hemes were examined in planned, practiced and learned curriculums by employing a
descriptive case sluely research design. The data co/lecling instruments were: document analysis, observation
checklists, interview guiele questions, criteria referenced lests, environmental attitucle & behavioral scales. For this
study fwa schools in each of urban Gnd rural werec/os were seleCled randomly then equal number of students were
selected in the sample schools. The total numbers 0/ respondents were 240 grade eight students & 12 natural
science teachers. The slUdems were selec/ed by stralified random sampling technique but teachers were taken by
available sampling technique .. For dala analysis both qualitative & quantitative methods were used and for
statistical analysis both descriplive & in/erential statistics were employed. The results of the study revealed that,
though allempts were made to inlegrale EE in planned curriculum documents of Ihe Ihree natural sciences, the
extem of;,,;egralion of the three dimensions of EE (i.e. education about, in andfor /he environment) were notfollnd
proportional because Ihe documents were found focl/sing on integration of cognitive component of EE than the
psychomotor and affective componenlS of EE. Particularly, the ultimate goal of EE that is education for the
environment was found ignored in chemistlY and physics documents and given vefY lit/Ie room in biology
docllments. In addition to this school practices' for the integration of EE dimension were found worse than the
responses found in the docwnenl , because teachers' awareness and competency to apply methods pertinent to EE
teaching learning process were found to be low for that they had neilher trained nor oriented how EE could be
incorporaled and taught in the classroom instructions. Moreover, school facilit ies and other educational activities
were not supplementing the EE teaching learning processes. Students' were found having vefY low environmental
awareness because {heir cumulative mean value was below 50 percent (47.47%). With regard to environmental
awareness students had shown dispariO' in residence location, parenl lileracy level and school type but their
variation by sex and age lvere insignificant. Generally, urban school &Iiterate parent background students were
found having relatively beller environmental awareness than rural & illiterate parent background students In
addirion to (his, witholft significant difference by location, se""(, age and parent literacy level all students'
enVirOI1lJk, :tal altiwdes were found to be posilive 10lVards utilizing the environment, moderate toward appreciating
the environment & negative towards protecting the environment. On Ihe other hand, without significant difference
all students' environmental behavioral actions (participations for solving environmental problems) werefound to be
poor and environmentally unfriendly practice. In addition to this EE knowledge of students was found to be a
negative prediclorfor studenls' altitude towards utilizing the environment; a positive predictor for students' altitude
towards protecting and appreciating the environment but ilwas not found as a significant predictor for students'
environmental behavioral actions. The total contribution of the independent variables (informal sources of EE) to
students' environmental knOlvledge, allitude and practices wasfound to be low. That is, theforlllal source ofEE that
were integrated il1 the curriculum documents and instructionalproceses were considered as major source of EE of
students. From the above findings, the general conclusion drown was that integrated EE in documents, practices,
and their learning outcomes were not found effective & in line with the national intentions of EE for pril11wy
schools . Finally, based on Ihe findings and conclusions the recommendations given were: the need for local
®ional level cooperation & concerted effort among curriculum developers, teachers, teacher training
institutions, other environmentally aclive stakeholders slIch as health, agriculture etc so as to achieve their
common 6)(11 EE; strengthening qf teachers pre-service and in service programs of EE; and strengthening of
informal sources £E such as media, club andfamily
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Keywords
Education