The paper on the ANALYSIS OF SCHOOL TEACHERS’ ATTITUDES ON THE IMPORTANCE OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION GOALS was presented at the 15th. Simposium Kimia Analisis (SKAM-15) in Bayview Beach Resorts, Penang on September 10-12, 2002

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SIMPOSIUM KIMIA
ANALISIS 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 OF
ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
GOALS
ARBA'AT HASSAN
Yayasan Pendidikan Labuan
Tingkat 16 (A1), Menara Utama
Kompleks 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 interrelationships
A 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
classroom
Involving people of all ages
A 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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PURPOSES
The 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 problem
B. Conduct library search for the topic
C. Write research questions related to the issue
D. Summarise collected secondary information
E. Write letters for information and interview resource people
F. Plan a data collection strategy
G. Develop, pilot test, and revise a survey instrument
H. Collect survey data
1. Organise data into tables, charts, graphs, etc.
J. Interpret findings, conclusions, inferences, & recommendations
K. Produce a final written issue investigation report
L. 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
χ SD
5 4
Frequencies*
3 2 1
1 4.54 0.65 80 40 8 1 0
2 4.61 0.64 88 34 5 2 0
3 4.54 0.70 84 32 12 1 0
4 4.36 0.77 67 45 14 3 0
5 4.33 0.72 59 55 13 2 0
6 4.40 0.75 71 39 18 1 0
7 4.38 0.76 66 46 12 3 2
8 4.33 0.77 65 41 21 1 1
9 4.30 0.77 61 45 21 1 1
10 4.27 0.79 59 48 18 3 1
Table C: χ, 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 1
A 4.78 0.53 108 14 7 0 0
B 4.41 0.86 80 23 22 3 1
C 4.05 0.95 53 39 28 9 0
D 4.24 0.99 72 26 21 10 0
E 4.19 0.99 66 28 22 10 3
F 4.21 0.90 61 38 22 6 2
G 3.98 0.98 49 38 29 11 2
H 4.41 0.80 77 29 22 1 0
I 4.54 0.74 87 27 13 2 0
J 4.35 0.82 71 33 22 2 1
K 4.27 0.94 69 31 19 8 2
L 4.35 0.84 72 34 19 4 0
12 4.63 0.63 89 30 7 1 2
13 4.42 0.84 79 29 17 4 0
14 4.43 0.74 71 41 13 2 2
14 4.43 0.74 71 41 13 2 2
15 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
4.63
4.42
4.43
4.30
1
2
3
4
5
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
GOAL STATEMENTS
MEANRESPONSES
Fig 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 clarification
opportunity: 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