2010 arbaat & zaid relationship beeen envtl education

7/31/2019 2010 Arbaat & Zaid Relationship Beeen Envtl Education

1/8

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION ACTIVITIES AND

ENVIRONMENTAL PRACTICES AMONG STUDENTS: A CASE STUDY IN KUALA

JENGAL PRIMARY SCHOOL, TERENGGANU, MALAYSIA

Mohd Zaid Ismail Arbaat HassanUniversiti Kebangaan Malaysia Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

[email protected] [email protected]

ABSTRACT

Goals of environmental education among students can be achieved through activities outside theclassroom. Through various activities held continuously, awareness, attitude and environmental practiceswill be increased. The purpose of the study was to identify the relationship between environmentaleducation activities and environmental practices among students. Samples were 30 students and 2teachers from Kuala Jengal Primary School, in the state Terengganu, Malaysia. Data were gathered fromNature Club (NC) and Malaysian Nature Society (MNS), interviewing teachers and questionnaires studentsthrough Nature Club . The questionnaires contain 10 items regarding to environmental practices amongstudents. Responds were based on 3 points Likert Scale (1= Never; 2=Sometimes; 3= Always).The datawere analyzed using descriptive statistic involving frequency dan percentage. The data were also analyzedusing inference statistic involving correlation between environmental education activities participated andenvironmental practices. The data from NC and MNS found that the students were actively involved in allactivities and interview showed that high environmental awareness among students. The result fromquestionnaire showed that environmental practices among students were more than 70% (3= Always).There was strong relationship between activities participated and environmental practices among studentswhere the value of r is 0.607 (p=0.01). From these results, researcher made conclusion that environmentaleducation in that school is proudly implemented and environmental practices depend on activities

participated. Nevertheless, a lot of related activities should be held and all school citizens should beinvolved.

Keywords: Environmental Education (EE), Nature Club (NC), Malaysian Nature Society (MNS),

environmental practices, awareness

INTRODUCTION

Environment has strong relationship with life and mans activities. Most of human activities have impact onenvironment and environment influenced the survival of humans. This is because the interaction andinterdependence between human and environment is a reciprocal (Jekayinfa & Yusuf, 2005). Therefore, allactivities conducted should consider the effect on the environment and good practices to increase thequality of environment.

The effective way to promote environmental awareness and attitudes are through education. Thiscan be done by integrating environmental education at the early age or at primary school. According to

Rosnani (2007), students should be able to become environmental citizen who are sensitive toenvironmental problems when they are inculcated with good environmental practices at the early age. Theywill become leaders in the future who concern about the environment where the destiny of the environmentrelies on them. Hungerford et. al. (1998) said good environment depends on world citizen and human ispart of the environment.

Environmental education is one of the factors for preventing environmental problems (Mosothwane,2002; Ozden, 2008). Furthermore, it also promotes understanding, awareness and skills towards solvingenvironmental problems. Palmer and Neal (1994) defined environmental education as:

1
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


2/8

i) education about the environment, which builds awareness, understanding and the skillsnecessary to obtain the understanding.

ii) education in (or from) the environment, where learning occurs outside of the classroom,e.g. in nature

iii) education for the environment, which has objectives related to nature conservation andsustainable development.

School is the right and suitable place to start the teaching of environmental education. Introducingenvironmental education into school curriculum would enhance a quality environment, as citizens would bemade environmentally conscious (Mosothwane, 2002). Environmental education can be used in many formsincluding nature camps,writting essays, community gardens, nature trails and outdoor activities for children.

In Malaysia, formal environmental education is not only taught in the classroom by infusing it invarious subjects like Science and Geography but also practiced outside the classroom in the co-curricularactivities called Kelab Pencinta Alam (KPA) or Nature Club (NC). The Club was launched in August 1991by the Ministry of Education. At the beginning, there were only twelve schools involved in the club fromKlang Valley but presently the membership of the club increased to 300 all over Malaysia. The purpose ofestablishing the club was to promote deep understanding about environment and to foster environmental

friendly attitude among school citizen (Buku Panduan Kelab Pencinta Alam, 2009). Through the club,students are given opportunities to actively involved in various activities and environmental practices .

Among the activities involved are jungle tracking, recycling, making compost, workshops, seminars andcamping. At the national level, there are programs for teachers and students such as workshops forteachers and students and special projects like Conserve Our Wetland Project, School River Basin andWater Quality Monitoring Project, Peat Swamp Study, Research and Adoption Program, Eagles ObsevationWeek and so on. Through these activities,students are able to know the current issue relating to theenvironment, find new friends and change ideas among them.

In the long term, the club plays an important role in promoting environmental education in schoolsespecially through the involvements of the members in conserving the environment, development anddistribution of materials as well as teaching strategies in environmental education. Most importantly, it isexpected to fulfill the aim of the environmental education in fostering environmental sensitivity and interestin nature and promoting a responsible lifestyle. The main objective of environmental education is to promoteawareness, knowledge, skills and participation towards a better quality of the environment among worldcitizens (Arbaat, 2006; Arbaat et. al, 2009). By participating in the activities outside the classroom, it ishoped that students will exhibit good environmental practices because it was found that students who wereexposed to outdoor activities showed their improvement in knowlegde, attitudes and practices compared tothose in traditional classes or in classroom (Ajiboye & Silo, 2008; Carrier, 2009).

The study intended to determine the relationship between environmental education activities andenvironmental practices among students in primary school. The research questions is whether there is arelationship between environmental education activities and environmental practices. The school selectedin the study was Kuala Jengal Primary School in Dungun, Terengganu. The nature club of the school wasrecognised to be actively participated in most activities held by Malaysian Nature Society (MNS). Theschool was situated in rural area near to waterfall and sorrounded by rivers and untouched forest whichoffers diverse flora and fauna in the District of Dungun, Terengganu.

METHODOLOGY

The study used the data of activities that were collected from the school Nature Club(NC) and MalaysianNature Society (MNS). Besides, interview with two club advisor teachers was also conducted. The teachersinterviewed were also coordinator of environmental education at the state level.

2


3/8

The study was conducted quantitatively using survey method about environmental practices amongstudents. The samples were 30 students who were the members of the school Nature Club (NC). Theinstrument used was the questionnaires consisted of two sections. Section A was about the background ofstudents including number of activities participated. Whereas section B was about the environmentalpractices among students. There were ten items regarding to environmental practices among students.Theresponds were based on 3 points Likert Scale (1= Never; 2=Sometimes; 3= Always). The questionnaireswere distributed to students and data were gathered. Then, the data were processed and analyzed usingdescriptive statistics to find the value of frequency and percentage. The data were also presented in termsof bar charts . Inference analysis was analyzed using SPSS version 11.5. The study used PearsonCorrelation to identify the relationship between the environmental activities participated with theenvironmental practices among students.

RESULTS

Data collected from Schools Nature Club and Malaysian Nature Society (MNS)

Until July 2009, the number of Schools Nature Clubs registered with Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) were380 schools. In Terengganu, there were 31 schools registered with MNS and among them were fewschools participated actively including Kuala Jengal Primary School. The school was the first school in

Terengganu participated in Nature Club since 2005.

The activities held in 2009 where students from the school participated in most of the activities areillustrated in Table 1. The findings indicate that environment education is actively implemented in theschool. Some activities involved the participation of students and teachers and some of them involvedteachers only. The programs that involved students and teachers were in the form of camping andawareness camp.

Table 1: Reports of Nature Club Activities 2009

PROGRAMS VENUE ACTIVITIES

Nature Club Camping Tanjung Tuan, Melaka Eagle observation

Students Facilitators Workshop Turtles Sanctuary Centre,Kerteh, Terengganu

Speech : Turtles country heritage

Nature Club Workshop Taman Negara, Tanjung Piai Speech : Marine Ecosystems

Planting trees program School Green the school area in group

Monitoring of water quality River of Dungun Monitoring water quality

Workshop for coordinators Ulu Gopeng, Perak Speech

1-day program in conjunction withEagle Observation week Tanjung Tuan, Melaka

Forest Ecology Peat Swamp Ecology

Environmental awareness camp Teluk Ketapang, Gong Badak Speech

Source : Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) dan Nature Club Kuala Jengal Primary School (2009)

3


4/8

Interview with Schools Nature Club advisor teachers

Based on the study, after getting involved in all activities, most students got high awareness towardsenvironment. Their attitudes also become more positive according to their participation in activities held in

school such as planting trees, cleanliness program, building science park and so on.

Opinions from two advisor teachers of Schools Nature Club were sought through interview. Below are thefindings obtained from the interview :

Teacher A

Many students like to join the club because it offers fun learning to them but membership is limited. Theyare very interested to get involved in various activities. In addition, after joining the club they will getmembership card. After getting involved in activities, their awareness and attitude towards environment arevery positive. Cleanliness become their culture and always offer themselves to any cleanliness programsuch as cleaning school area and hostel. One of the programs that makes them become excited is plantingtrees or greening school area in group.

Teacher B

Kuala Jengal Primary School was the only school in Terengganu given opportunities to involve in WaterQuality Competition at international level. They were provided with water quality monitoring kit to test thePH and oxygen level in water. The school is suitable with the competition because it is situated betweentwo rivers.

Findings from questionnaire about good environmental practices among students

a) Number of activities participated

Table 2 shows the number of activities participated by students. From the table, it shows that most studentstook part in more than four activities from seven activities held annually. The highest percentage ofinvolvement is 13.3% or ten students involved in five activities.

Table 3: Number of activities participated by students

Number of activities Frequency Percentage

4 5 16.75 10 33.36 9 30.07 6 20.0

Total 30 100

b) Environmental practices among students

Table 3 shows the percentage for environmental practices level among students. Findings from this studyshowed that the environmental practices were proudly practiced. In each items, students showed higherpercentage or exceeding 70% except for item seven. It described their level of awareness and attitudetowards environment because of their participation in activities held either in school, state, national orinternational level. Figure 1 shows the percentage of environmental practices in bar chart presentation.

4


5/8

Table 3: Percentage of environmental practices

No. Items1

(%)

2

(%)

3

(%)

1 I always separate my waste product such as paper, tin, glass and so on. 3.3 16.7 80.0

2I recycle old newspaper

3.3 13.3 83.3

3I use shower pipe when washing my fathers car

3.3 20.0 76.7

4I use shower when taking bath

0 10.0 90.0

5 I turn off pipe when brushing my teeth 3.3 13.3 83.36 I turn off lamp/computer/air conditioner when not in use. 0 6.7 93.37 I use both side of paper when writing. 6.7 20.0 73.3

8I use handkerchief to avoid using tissue paper.

3.3 10.0 86.7

9 I ensure my school and house area always clean by using rubbish ban. 0 0 100.0

10I use rechargeable battery without cadmium

16.7 30.0 53.3

(1= Never; 2= Sometimes; 3= Always)

Items

Never Sometimes Always

Figure 1: The percentage of environmental practices among students.

5

Percentag

eofstudents

(%)


6/8

Relationship between participation in environmental education activities and environmentalpractices.

Finding shows relationship between the participation of students in environmental activities andenvironmental practices was strong. Table 4 indicates the correlation value (r) is 0.607. This value showsstrong correlation each other.

Table 4: Correlation between participation in environmental activities and environmental practices.

N R P

Environmental education

activities 30 0.607 0.00Environmental practices

Significant at level 0.01

DISCUSSION

The limitation of the study was in the selection of the samples. The sample involved the students fromSchools Nature Club in Kuala Jengal Primary School, Dungun, Terengganu only. Finding from the datashowed that this school was actively participated in all environmental education activities held by MNS. Allactivities were held outside the classroom where they were given opportunity to involve and feel the realsituation in learning environmental education. Learning was more fun outside the classroom rather thanapplying traditional learning in the classroom situation which is highly teacher dominated. This is in line withthe findings of Ajiboye and Silo (2008) where according to them, students were more involved and learnedbetter in civic clubs because they were exposed to many activities.

Finding obtained from interviews with two advisor teachers showed that they found their studentswere very interested, aware and feel responsible towards keeping environmental clean after being exposedto various and continuous environmental activities in nature club. The good results might be attributed to thefact that environmental concepts were well discussed in the activities. The more activites they engaged, themore understanding, knowledge and skills they gained. The findings supported the study by Jeronen et. al.(2008) about environmental education in nature schools in Finland. In their study, they found that activities

like nature trip, game or playing, inquiry learning and story telling had increased environmental sensitivityamong students. Normally such activities conducted during camping and workshop outside the classroom.

The results of the relationship between environmental education activities and environmentalpractices among students showed that the students performed very well in their practices towardsenvironment. It indicated that environmentals education activities was directly proportional to environmentalpractices among students. In the other words, students who involved in majority of environmental activitiesdemonstrated good environmental practices. This was clearly shown from their responses to the most of thequestionnaire items where majority of the students showed good environmental practices. The percentageis exceeded 70% except for the the last item, about using rechargeable batteries and without cadmium.This was because they were not exposed to that kind of batteries as they lived in rural area and far fromtown. However, for the item about ensuring the cleanliness of school and house using rubbish bans, thepercentage was 100%. This revealed their awareness and attitude toward environment after participatng ina lot of activities in nature club.

Even though the school is situated far from town, the students were very concern aboutenvironment. The result showed opposite findings from Ozden (2008) in his study on student teachers inTurkey where those who were living in big cities had more positive attitudes towards environmental issuesthan student teachers living in villages. The reason might be, in this study, the situation of the school wasstrongly related to the environment in terms of its sorrounding. The school is sorrounded by vegetation andnear to the river where the environment is maintained naturally compared to the schools located in town orbig cities. Therefore, they love environment they live so much and have a good feeling to sustain it. In

6


7/8

addition, both their advisor teachers were experience, involved in many environmental education programsand as environmental coordinators in state level.

The implication is that the students participated in schools nature club will become good generationwho are sensitive to environmental issues. This generation will eventually gain high knowledge, awareness,skills and participation in environmental issues as stated in environmental education goals. The continuousexposure to environmental education activities outside the classroom or in nature club is one of theapproaches to promote awareness and attitudes towards environment. According to Arbaat et. al (2009),learning where the people are directly involved with nature such as exploring to nature places andenvironment education centres considered as learning by doing is believed to be highly meaningful andremembered longer by the students.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the findings in this study, reseacher proposed the same study to other schools in Malaysia inorder to compare with the data findings to this school in terms of awareness and attitudes towardsenvironment. The experimental study is also proposed to ensure either the awareness, attitudes and goodenvironmental practices among students really come from their active participation in nature club or vice-

versa. Further studies can also be conducted to compare the environmental awareness and attitudesamong students by taking into account the gender factor. According to Carrier (2009), environmentalbehaviour and attitudes of male students is better than female students when exposed to the activitiesoutside the classroom. Researcher also suggest that the Ministry of Education to review the curriculum ofenvironmental education by adding various activities outside the classroom rather than to infuse intoexisting curriculum. This can be done by making environmental education as a single subject.

REFERENCES

Ajiboye J. O. & Silo N. (2008). Enhancing Botswana childrens environmental knowledge,attitudes and practices through the school civic clubs. International Journal of Environmental

& Science Education, 3(3),105-114.Arbaat Hassan (2006). An analysis of school teachers, attitudes on the importance ofenvironmental education goals. Malaysian Journal of Analytical Science, 10(2), 303-312

Arbaat Hassan, Kamisah Osman & Susan Pudin (2009). The adults non formal environmenteducation (EE): Scenario in Sabah, Malaysia. Science Direct. Procedia Social and BehavioralSciences. 1(2009) , 2306-2311

Buku Panduan KPA(2009). Buku Panduan Kelab Pencinta Alam Untuk Guru Penasihat.Malaysian Nature Society

Carrier S. J (2009). Environmental education in the schoolyard: Learning styles and gender. TheJournal of Environmental Education. Spring 2009, 40(3),2-23.

Hungerford et. al. (1998). Investigating and evaluating environmental issue and actions skilldevelopment modules.A Curriculum Development Project Designed to Teach Students Howto Investigate and Evaluate Science-Related Social Issues.

Jekayinfa, A.A. & Yusuf, A.R. (2005). Teachers opinions on the infusion of environmentaleducation in the Nigerian primary school curriculum. A paper presented at the annualconference on Innovation and Challenges in Education . Moi University, Kenya.

Jeronen, E., Jeronen, J. & Raustia, H.(2009). Environmental education in Finland-a case study ofenvironmental education in nature school. International Journal of Environmental &Science Education. 4(1),1-23

Mohd Zohir Ahmad & Nordin Abdul Razak (2007) .Diges Pendidik. 7(2).44-49Mosothwane, M. (20020. Pre-service teachers conceptions of environmental education. Research in Education. 68, 26-40Ozden, M. (2008). Environmental awareness and attitudes of student teachers : An empirical

7


8/8

research. International research in Geographical and environmental education. 17(1), 40-55Palmer, J & Neal, P. (1994). The handbook of environmental education. London : RoutledgeRosnani Ibrahim (2007), Warga Alam. Era Hijau, Jabatan Alam Sekitar Malaysia.3(2). 5-8

8

2010 arbaat & zaid relationship beeen envtl education

Documents