Knowledge of environmental issues : where pupils acquire information and how it affects their attitudes, opinions, and laboratory behaviour

Abstract

Tuula Asunnan kasvatustieteellinen väitöstutkimus osoittaa selvästi, että tiedotusvälineet ovat luonnontieteiden opettajien ohella yläasteikäisten koululaisten tärkeimmät ympäristöasioita koskevan tiedon lähteet. Tulos asettaa suuren haasteen kemian ja muidenkin aineiden opettajille ja tutkijoille sekä tiedotusvälineille. Näiden tulisi ympäristöasioihin liittyvien uhkien ohella tuoda esiin myös tieteen saavutuksia, jotta oppilaiden asenteet kemian opiskelua ja kemian teollisuutta kohtaan kehittyisivät myönteisemmiksi. - Jos kemian ja yleisemminkin luonnontieteiden opetuksen yhtenä päämääränä on kasvattaa ympäristövastuullisia ihmisiä, on opetuksen ja oppimisen avainkysymyksenä nähtävä ympäristömyönteisten asenteiden ja ympäristöopetuksen pedagogiikan kehittäminen. Koska ympäristöasenteet kehittyvät myös koulujen opetusohjelmista riippumatta ja koska tutkimus selkeästi osoittaa tiedotusvälineiden suuren roolin oppilaiden tietolähteenä, tulisi opettajien entistä enemmän kiinnittää huomiota myös oppilaiden medialukutaidon kohottamiseen, Asunta päättelee.

This study concentrates on the area of environmental education and environmental attitudes and behaviour. The main purpose of the study is to pay attention to the environmental knowledge of students as well as to explore the environmental concerns, attitudes and behaviour of Finnish secondary level students in order to be able to educate environmentally concerned and aware students through developing teacher training. As a comparison the environmental knowledge, attitudes and self-reported behaviour of students of one German school were studied. Promoting environmental awareness as well as an environmentally responsible lifestyle can only be realised through information, and therefore students' main information sources on certain general environmental issues were studied and analysed. The changes during the years 1994 to 2000 were examined. Four schools in Finland representing different areas participated in this study and, against the background of the Bologna agreement on the equalisation of education in European countries and in order to gain some international perspective in this study, one large school from Frankfurt-am-Main was included. In this study teacher interviews, two written questionnaires as well as classroom observation and videotaping were used to acquire information. The pupils involved included secondary level pupils, meaning class grades 7, 8 and 9 in Finland and grades 8, 9 and 1 in Germany. The total amount of 883 students (243 German and 640 Finnish) participated in the main part of the study, which consisted of two types of written questionnaire. These written tests were introduced in 1994-1996 and 2000. The German students only took part in the written tests. The study clearly stated that the main important information sources on environmental issues for secondary pupils are mass media and science teachers. It also proved that environmental concepts are very familiar to students and that most students have slightly more confidence in the information gained from television than from their science teacher. According to the study, the difference between schools in Finland concerning students' general environmental attitude was almost significant. This difference was mainly due to two schools in Central Finland. It was quite astonishing that students' environmental attitudes in the country school proved to be more negative than in the suburban school. The very alarming finding in this study was that students' attitudes towards studying chemistry, as well as towards chemistry and the chemical industry in general, have become more and more negative during the five-year period of this study. In general boys' attitudes towards chemistry and the chemical industry were more positive than girls'. Within those German students representing just a random sample from one school in Frankfurt-am-Main boys' attitudes seemed to be significantly more positive than girls' in both the 1996 and 2000 studies and the difference has increased since the girls' attitudes have become more negative, just like in Finland. The general negative attitude towards studying chemistry has grown in both countries. The study gave no evidence that either a positive environmental attitude or positive general environmental behaviour leads to environmentally responsible behaviour in the chemistry laboratory.