secondary school students’ key concepts and drawings · pdf fileenvironment”...

Address for correspondence:Dr. Serkan TimurCanakkale Onsekiz Mart UniversityEgitim Fakultesi (17100)Canakkale, TurkeyTelephone: +90 (286) 217 13 03Fax: +90 (286) 212 07 51E-mail: [email protected]

Secondary School Students’ Key Concepts and Drawings aboutthe Concept of Environment

Sirin Yilmaz1, Serkan Timur2 and Betul Timur3

1Faculty of Education, Abant Izzet Baysal University, Bolu, 14000, TurkeyE-mail: [email protected]

2Faculty of Education, Onsekiz Mart University, Canakkale, 17100, TurkeyE-mail: [email protected]

3Faculty of Education, Onsekiz Mart University, Canakkale, 17100, TurkeyE-mail: [email protected]

KEYWORDS Environment. The Concept of Environment. Environment-related Drawings. Secondary SchoolStudent

ABSTRACT The purpose of the present study is to determine the elementary school secondary level students’environment-related key concepts and drawings. The study was carried out with 171 (88 females, 83 ma les)students from three different schools in the city of Sakarya in 2012-2013 school year. Out of the participants, 35were fifth grade students, 40 were sixth grade students, 54 were seventh grade students and 42 were eighth gradestudents. Though the study was a qualitative one, open-ended questions developed by the researchers were used tocollect data and content analysis was employed for the analysis of the data. The analyses revealed that the mostcommonly used environment-related concepts are “tree, flower, and forest”. When the students’ drawings wereanalyzed, they were grouped under four main headings as ‘‘Model 1, the environment as a place where animals/plants live-a natural place”; ‘‘Model 2, the environment as a place that supports life”; ‘‘Model 3, the environmentas a place impacted or modified by human activity”; and ‘‘Model 4, the environment as a place where animals,plants, and humans live” .Among these, the most frequently encountered one in the students’ drawings was ‘‘Model3, the environment as a place impacted or modified by human activity”. Moreover, the students’ drawings were alsoanalyzed in relation to gender variable, and it was found that the drawings of female students exhibit more varietythan the drawings of the male students. In light of the findings of the study, some suggestions were made forresearchers and further research.

INTRODUCTION

The concept of environment is perceived indifferent ways in different cultures. There is nogenerally agreed definition of environment.Though the scope of the definition of the con-cept of environment should be quiet compre-hensive; in general, environment can be de-scribed as all of the biotic and abiotic (social,cultural, historical, climatic and physical) fac-tors affecting living things or groups of livingthings throughout their life time. Environmentsurrounding a living thing is a place where itconducts every type of social, biological, cul-tural and economic activities and meets nutri-tional, reproductive and sheltering needs. Envi-

ronment encompasses all the living and non-living things and the physical, chemical and bi-ological factors affecting them (Yucel and Morgil1998; Shepardson et al. 2007; Yildiz et al. 2008).

Fig. 1. Possible model of environment (Shepardsonet al. 2007)

Particularly as of 19th century, with the ad-vancements in the field of technology and the

PROCESSES

NATURAL SYSTEMS MADE SYSTEMS

Environmental issues,problems and incidences

© Kamla-Raj 2013 Anthropologist, 16(1-2): 45-55 (2013)

46 SIRIN YILMAZ, SERKAN TIMUR AND BETUL TIMUR

developments in industry, people started to beconfronted with many global and local environ-mental problems. When the environmental prob-lems reached to a level threatening the human-nature balance, greater attention was paid toenvironmental issues and more efforts were madeto find solutions to these problems. It was rec-ognized that the problems could only be over-come with the cooperation of governments, ex-perts and individuals and education could playan important role in this regard. Therefore, forthe first time, environmental movements wereemphasized in a conference held in Stockholmin 1972 and the idea of environmental educationwas mentioned in Switzerland. Then, followingsome works performed in the field of environ-mental education, in Environmental EducationConference held in Belgrade and Tiflis Declara-tion issued in 1978, importance and objectivesof environmental education were mentioned(Mamat and Mokhtar 2010; Gautreau and Binns2012). According to Tiflis Declaration, the gen-eral objective of environmental education is tocreate a world society that is aware of the envi-ronmental problems and attempts to solve theexisting problems and prevents the potential oneswith the required information, attitude, motiva-tion and interpretations in cooperation and toattach great importance to the education of indi-viduals with environmental literacy (Mamat andMokhtar 2010; Gautreau and Binns 2012; Er-dogan et al. 2011). In line with this objective,nations started to include environment-relatedlearning outcomes in their education programsto inform individuals about environmental is-sues and instill positive attitudes and behaviorstowards environment in their citizens (Geok etal. 1998; Carrier Martin 2003; Shepardson et al.2007; Tuncer et al. 2007; Ulucinar Sagir et al.2008; Esa 2010; Gautreau and Binns 2012).

Every individual has a right to live in ahealthy and balanced environment and it is theduty of every individual to develop and protectenvironment and contribute to the solutions ofthe environmental problems. Students havesome prior knowledge before attending any ed-ucational institution. This prior knowledge canbecome barriers preventing students from ob-taining and constructing new information (Mint-zes et al. 1998; cited in Bahar 2003). Hence, be-sides traditional teaching methods, alternativeteaching methods and techniques can be em-ployed to present environmental topics to stu-

dents. Renewed science and technology courseteaching programs aim to integrate environmen-tal education to inform students about environ-mental issues and make them environmentallyliterate people. Therefore, education is closelyassociated with the fulfillment of tasks and re-sponsibilities that should be assumed by indi-viduals to solve environmental problems. Cre-ation of environmental awareness in individualsstarts with education and is closely connectedwith the prior information of individuals. Withinthe renewed teaching programs, environmentaleducation is given through the incorporation ofenvironmental objectives into the main disci-plines and sub-disciplines of environment.When the elementary education program is ex-amined, it is seen that within the framework ofthe courses of life sciences, environment edu-cation is given under these units “HealthGrowth” and “Living Things in our Environ-ment” in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade life sciences cours-es; “World of Living Things”, “Diversity of Liv-ing Things”, “Man and Environment” in 4th

grade; “Diversity of Living Things”, “Man andEnvironment” in 5th grade; “Living Things andLife”, “Diversity of Living Things”, “Man andEnvironment” (Water and Water Pollution, Airand Water Pollution) in 6th grade; “Diversity ofLiving Things”, “Man and Environment” (Soiland Soil Pollution, Matter Cycle), “Heat (Fuelsand Environment) in 7th grade; “Structure ofMatter”, “Reproduction of Living Things andHeritage”, “Man and Environment” (Causes ofEnvironmental Destruction, Residues andWastes), “Earth and Underground Resources”(Main Gases Polluting the Air and Elimination oftheir Sources, Purification of Water) in 8th grade(Soran et al. 2000; Unal and Dimiski 1999; Yuceland Morgil 1998). Children’s environmental per-ceptions are one of the issues extensively in-vestigated in the past and being investigated atpresent. The research emphasizes the fact thatstudents’ interests in and attitudes towards en-vironment have undergone positive change andthey have become more conscious (Palmer 1995).

Research conducted in America and Englandreports that children aged 4-6 years old alreadyhave some information about environment andcan explain the concept of recycling and someother basic environmental concepts. Some oth-er studies also reveal that there is an improve-ment in students’ environmental knowledge(Bonnet and Williams 1998).

SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ KEY CONCEPTS AND DRAWINGS 47

When the studies looking at students’ envi-ronmental key concepts and drawings are ana-lyzed, it is seen that there is a lack of research.Bonnet and Williams (1998) carried out 50-minutesemi-structured interviews with 5-6 years oldchildren in England to investigate their environ-mental attitudes and perceptions. In a similarway, Shepardson et al. (2007) investigated theenvironmental models in the minds of 1182 stu-dents in America in relation to grade level andplace of residence (city center, slum areas, ruralareas) by using the open-ended questions de-veloped by the researchers.

The purpose of the present study is to de-termine the secondary school students’ envi-ronmental key concepts and the models in theirdrawings of environment.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Model

The present study employed one of the qual-itative research designs, case study. A case studydeals with a few topics concerning to one maintopic holistically within its own borders.

Current topic that is dealt within its own bor-ders in a case study is an empirical study meth-od that is used when boundaries between phe-nomenon and current context is not obvious withcertain lines, and more than one source of evi-dence or data are available (Yildirim and Simsek2008).

Participants

As indicated in Table 1, the study was car-ried out with 171 (88 females, 83 males) studentsfrom three different schools in the city of Sakaryain 2012-2013 school year. Out of the participants,35 are fifth grade students, 40 are sixth gradestudents, 54 are seventh grade students and 42are eighth grade students.

Data Collection Tool

Open-ended questions developed by theresearchers were used to determine the students’environmental key concepts and drawings. Inorder to ensure that the data reflect the realityand that the research findings contribute to thevalidity, the topic to be researched was attempt-ed to be analyzed as unbiased as possible. Forthis purpose, the open-ended questions devel-oped to collect data were exposed to the scruti-ny of 3 academicians that are experts in scienceand environmental education. In line with thefeedback taken from the experts, new questionswere added and the existing ones were revisedand some of them were discarded.

Data Analysis

Content analysis was employed to analyzethe collected data. Content analysis is a tech-nique used to conceptualize the written data andcollect the emerging concepts under appropri-ate themes by logically sequencing them (Yildi-rim and Simsek 2008). The students’ environ-mental key concepts, detectable grammar rulesand symbols were analyzed. Raw data obtainedfrom the key concepts written by the studentswere coded and categorized through inductiveanalysis. Classifying the data under the deter-mined categories made them meaningful for thereader. Coding and categorization operationswere repeated by one of the researchers. In thisway, unnecessary coding were discarded basedon the problem statement and purpose of thestudy and new coding were added where theywere needed. For the labeling of the categories,the researchers worked together. As a result, ta-bles where the opinion of every participant couldbe seen were created and these tables are pre-sented in the finding section. In the analysis ofthe students’ drawings, classifications (models)developed by Shepardson et al. (2007) were used.

FINDINGS

For each question asked, the data obtainedfrom the participants are presented in tables. TheStudents’ Key Concepts Stated for the Conceptof Environment. The students’ key conceptsfor environment are presented in Table 2.

Table 1: Student profile

Grade level Gender TotalFemale Male

5th grade 1 9 1 6 3 56th grade 2 2 1 8 4 07th grade 3 2 2 2 5 48th grade 1 9 2 3 4 2Total 8 8 8 3 171


Table 2: The students’ key concepts for environment

Theme Concepts 5th grade 6th grade 7thgrade 8thgrade Total

Human Human 3 5 1 9Child 2 1 3People polluting the earth 1 2 3Happy people 1 1 1 1People playing 1 1

Pollution Pollu tion 3 1 2 1 5Air pollution 1 4 4 2 1 1Water pollution 1 2 2 2 7Soil pollution 1 4 5Environmental pollution 3 7 1 0Garbage 1 4 7 8 2 0Solid waste 1 2 3Exhaust 2 1 2 5Factory waste 1 1 2Factory smoke 1 2 2 5Pollu ted environment 3 3Light pollution 1 1Noise pollution 1 1Water pollution 1 1 2 2 6Global warming 1 1Ozone layer depletion 1 1 2Plastic bottle 1 1Plastic 1 1Poisonous gas 1 1

Living Things Living thing 3 3Endangered living things 1 1 2

Plants Plant 2 4 1 1 8Grass 2 3 4 3 1 2Flower 6 1 4 1 0 7 3 7Tree 9 1 7 2 2 2 0 6 8Vegetable/fruit 2 2

Animals Animal 4 7 8 2 2 1Insect 6 4 1 1 1Butterfly 1 2 1 1 5Bird 1 3 1 5

Nature Nature 6 8 1 6 6 3 6Naturalness 1 1 2Natural disaster 3 1 1 5Voice of nature 2 2Natural living habitat 3 1 4Order 1 1River 3 3 4 1 1 1Sea 4 7 3 1 0 2 4Lake 3 5 7 1 0 2 5Mountain 2 3 2 3 1 0Moon 1 1Cloud 1 1 1World 1 1 2Universe 1 1Sun 1 1 2 1 5Air 2 1 3Fertilizer 1 1Clean air 4 4 2 1 0Season 1 1Oxygen 1 1Water 3 1 1 5Forest 6 6 7 8 2 7Soil 1 2 2 5Green area 3 1 3 1 8Earth 1 1Nature trip 1 1


Some excerpts from the students’ responsesare presented below to give some examples oftheir key concepts:

‘‘When I hear the word “environment”, I re-member the concept of beauty, people throwtheir wastes on ground, factories dump theirwastes into rivers and exhaust gases emitted bycars …. If none of them did not happen, every-thing would be more beautiful..’’ (Student 1, 5th

grade).

‘‘… Trees, grass, flowers, sun, cloud, moon,star come to my mind ..’’ (Student 2, 6th grade)

‘‘What comes to my mind is environmentalpollution ...’’ (Student 3, 6th grade).

‘‘When I hear the word “environment”, trees,houses, flowers, insects, human beings androads come to my mind. Of course, all of theseare beautiful … I want environment to be clean,without waste and dust.’’ (Student 4, 7th grade).

‘‘… Factory wastes, human wastes, exhaustgas emitted by cars, littering, global warming

Natural phenomena 2 2Natural life 2 2Diversity 1 1Picnic 1 2 3Chopped trees 1 1Wind 1 1Burnt forests 1 1

Construction House/building 7 3 6 1 6Garden 1 1 2 1 5Dam 1 1Street 1 1 1Bridge 1 1Park 1 1 1 3Picnic area 1 1Road 1 1Technology 1 1

Protection Environmental protection 3 2 5Protection of nature 1 1Garbage can 1 2 3Garbage collection 1 1Recycling 1 1 2Clean future 4 4

Environment Hygiene 2 3 2 7Clean environment 6 4 7 5 2 2Pollu ted environment 3 2 1 6Place of residence 5 2 1 8Peaceful environment 2 2

Living/Life Living/life 1 1 3 2 7Family 2 1 1 4Feelings 1 1Happiness 1 2 3Health 1 1 2Healthy life 2 2Illness 1 1Freedom 1 1Society 1 2 3Social life 1 1Friends 1 1Course 1 1Teacher 1 1War 1 1

Harmful Substance Alcohol 1 1 2Tobacco 2 2

Possession Car 2 4 6Total 116 175 202 144 637

*Each student used more than one concept in their responses.

Theme Concepts 5th grade 6th grade 7thgrade 8thgrade TotalTable 2: Contd...


and water pollution come to my mind... (Student5, 8th grade).

The key concepts used by the students todefine the concept of environment are present-ed in Table 2 under the related themes. The con-cepts written by the students are subsumedunder these themes: “Human beings, livingthings, pollution, plants, animals, construction,protection, environment, living/life, harmful sub-stances, and possession’. When Table 2 is ex-amined, it is seen that each student used morethan one concept to define the concept of envi-ronment and these concepts varied dependingon the grade level. While the concepts usedvaried depending on grade level, the highestvariation was observed for 7th and 8th graders.The sequence of the concepts most frequentlystated by the students are as follows: Tree(f=68), Flower (f=37), Nature (f=36), Forest (f=27),Lake (f=25) and Sea (f=24). In addition to theseconcepts, many other concepts such as tech-nology, recycling, ozone layer depletion, globalwarming, and environmental pollution were

among the concepts stated by the students. It isseen that the concepts stated by the studentswere mostly collected around the themes of Na-ture (33 concepts) and Pollution (19 concepts).Under these two themes, there is a more varietyof concepts when compared to the others. Whenthe other themes were examined, it was foundthat they have a similar variety of concepts.Under the heading of harmful substances, thereare only two concepts mentioned which are al-cohol and tobacco.

The Students’ Drawings of Environment

Examples of students’ drawings are as fol-lows.

When the students’ drawings of environ-ment were classified, the data presented in Ta-ble 3 were obtained. When the students’ draw-ings were analyzed, they were classified underfour different models. It is seen that each modelhas some sub-headings. The analyses conduct-ed revealed that the highest number of draw-

Table 3: Classification of the students’ drawings of environment

Theme 5th grade 6th grade 7thgrade 8th grade TotalK E K E K E K E

Model 1: A Place where 3 3 4 4 6 2 1 1 2 4 Place Where animals/plants Animals/Plants live Live, a Natural Natural place, 3 4 3 1 3 1 1 1 6 Place nature

Living and nonliving 1 1 1 1 1 5 Cycling of matter 1 1 Energy transfer

Model 2: Supports animal life Supports Life Supports human and 4 1 2 7

animal/plant lifeSupports human life 1 1 Supports animal/ 1 1 1 3 plant lifeSupports human and animal life 1 1

Model 3: A Place were only 2 1 1 3 2 1 1 1 1 Place Impacted people live or Modified by (Builtenvironment) Humans

Pollu ted environment 9 6 1 0 6 1 6 9 7 1 5 7 8Model 4: A Place where 5 1 1 4 5 3 4 3 2 6 Place Where animals, plants, Animals, andpeople live Plants,and Humans LiveTotal 2 3 2 1 2 3 2 2 3 3 1 6 1 4 2 1 173*Some drawings of the students include two or more models


Fig. 2. 7 th grade student’s drawing

Fig. 3. Model 1. The environment as a place where animals/plants live - A natural place


Fig. 4. 8 thgrade student’s drawing. Model 3: The environment as a place impacted or modified byhuman activity

Fig. 5. 7th grade student’s drawing. Model 3: The environment as a place impacted or modified byhuman activity


Fig. 6. 6 thgrade student’s drawing. Model 1: The environment as a place where animals/plantslive - A natural place

Fig. 7. 7 thgrade student’s drawing. Model 4: The environment as a place where animals,plants, and humans live


ings is subsumed under Model 3: The environ-ment as a place impacted or modified by hu-man activity (f=89), this model is followed byModel 1: The environment as a place whereanimals/plants live - a natural place (f=466),Model 4: The environment as a place whereanimals, plants, and humans live (f=26) andModel 2: The environment as a place that sup-ports life. When Table 2 is examined, it is seenthat only drawings suitable for the sub-headingof energy saving are missing under the headingof place where animals and plants live and onlydrawings suitable for the sub-heading of placewhere animals live are missing under the head-ing of place where living is going on. When thestudents’ drawings were analyzed according togender, it was found that though the drawingsof male and female students of 5th grade (fFe-

male=23, fMale=21), 6th grade (fFemale=23, fMale=22),and 7th grade (fFemale=33, fMale=16) are similar, thedrawings of the female students exhibit morevariety. However, the drawings of the 8th grademale students (fMale=21) show more variety thanthe drawings of 8th grade female students (fFe-

male=14).

DISCUSSION

In this study, secondary school students’key concepts and drawings about environmentfocused on tree, flower, forest, nature, lake andsea. The reason for these concepts being themost popular among the students can be be-cause these are the concepts frequently illus-trated in textbooks of the students, some otherconcepts are not mentioned in these books, theschools where the study was conducted are lo-cated in city centers and students do not havemany opportunities to be in natural environ-ments.

Bonnet and Williams (1998) investigated thestudents’ environmental concepts and percep-tions, and found that the concept first comingto their mind is the concept of nature.

Students’ drawings mostly focus on Model3: Place The environment as a place impactedor modified by human activity. The reason forthis concentration on this heading can be be-cause the schools are located in city center, thestudents cannot find many opportunities to bein nature, and there is a lack of environmentalillustrations in their textbooks and materials.

Shepardson et al. (2007) studied the envi-ronmental drawings and found that the students’drawings concentrate on Model 1: The envi-ronment as a place where animals/plants live -a natural place.

CONCLUSION

The present study looked at the secondaryschool students’ key concepts and drawingsabout environment. The analyses conductedrevealed that the most frequently mentionedconcepts of environment by the students werefound to be tree, flower, forest, nature, lake andsea.

When the students’ drawings of environmentwere analyzed, it was found that the drawingsmostly focus on Model 3: Place The environ-ment as a place impacted or modified by hu-man activity.

When the drawings of the students wereexamined according to gender, it was found thatthe drawings of the female students of 5th, 6th

and 7th grades exhibit more variety when com-pared to the drawings of the male students. Onthe other hand, the drawings of 8th grade malestudents show more variety.

RECOMMENDATIONS

In light of the findings of the present study;it can be argued that

Some certain key concepts come to the forein the responses of the students and the num-ber of other concepts is relatively low. In orderto create environmental concepts in the mindsof students, students should be taken to fieldtrips and proper learning environments shouldbe created for students parallel to the subjectsof the courses,

The number of the environment-related learn-ing outcomes in science and technology courseteaching programs should be increased and morevisuals and illustrations should be included inthe textbooks,

Alternative techniques and methods, anima-tions, simulations allowing one to one interac-tions, and teaching software programs shouldbe used in teaching of environmental issues,

Alternative assessment techniques such asmental maps, structured grids and descriptivebranched tree should be used to relate the is-


sues to each other and during evaluation pro-cesses;

TUBITAK projects should be encouraged toenhance students’ environmental perceptions,awareness, knowledge and attitudes;

And students and teachers’ environmentalliteracy should be improved.

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