Emphasizing local features for effective environmental education Environmental attitudes of elementary school students living in ancient Halicarnassus Turkey

2011-01-01
Bas, Meltem
Teksöz, Gaye
Ertepınar, Hamide
Ancient Halicarnassus, the site of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, has become famous since the 1980s as one of the major tourism centers of Turkey. Although the contribution of Ancient Halicarnassus to Turkey’s economy increases as the number of tourists visiting the area increases, the area's historical, cultural and environmental values have been depleted. Ancient Halicarnassus still hosts the Mausoleum, but it does not get enough care it deserves as far as sustainable use of natural resource is concerned. Developing environmental education (EE) may enhance environmental attitudes among local people and is one potential way in which to help preserve Ancient Halicarnassus. Moreover, as suggested by Prof. Dubos in the United Nations Conference on the Human and Environment, developing positive environmental attitudes should begin at home. Therefore, this study attempted to define environmental attitudes among primary school children living in the ancient town, in line with the local features of the area, and to direct the attention of EE researchers and decision makers to the importance of local features in developing effective EE and a sustainable future. Environmental attitudes among primary school students in Ancient Halicarnassus were analyzed by means of grouping percent frequencies of each item of Environmental Attitude Questionnaire (EAQ) into 3 categories, “items agreed on”, “items disagreed” and “items difficult to decide”. It was found that it was easy for the participants to agree with general terms related to the environment. However, the participants found difficulty agreeing on items that require some background knowledge of environmental issues and those items related to the human- environment - development relationship. It was inferred, as a conclusion, that the reason the participants experience difficulty agreeing on such items is a lack of knowledge on environmental issues, which results in difficulty making a choice between environment and economy.
Science Education International

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Citation Formats
M. Bas, G. Teksöz, and H. Ertepınar, “Emphasizing local features for effective environmental education Environmental attitudes of elementary school students living in ancient Halicarnassus Turkey,” Science Education International, pp. 119–132, 2011, Accessed: 00, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/78455.