Middle school students' environmental literacy levels and identify attitude towards environment: Example of Sakarya

The objective of this study is to identify the environmental literacy level and attitude towards the environment of middle school students. The research sample consists of 1331 randomly chosen middle school students, who received formal education during the 2018-2019 academic year of study in Sakarya. In terms of research methodology, a combination of both quantitative and qualitative measures is being applied during this study. For the purpose of data collection, three data collection tools have been designed and used, namely the "personal information form", the "environmental literacy level measure" and the "environmental attitude measure". First, the data set is tested for normal distribution, as the tests used during the analysis depend on this. Normally distributed data is analyzed using t test and ANOVA, whereas Mann Whitney U and Kurskal Wallis H tests are applied for data that is not normally distributed. Levels of environmental literacy and environmental attitudes are measured for each district of Sakarya separately and for Sakarya as a province. These values were compared according to the demographic variables stated in the personal information form. In the data analysis process, the statistics software Statistical Packag for the Social Sciences is used. While the research results reveal a moderate literacy level for the province of Sakarya as a whole, the environmental attitude of middle school students is found to be at high-level. In terms of determinants of environmental literacy level, this research identifies several factors significantly influencing this measure. They include academic achievement, parental education status, education situation at BILSEM, monthly income, having heard the word "environmental literacy", talking and discussing about environmental issues within the family, sources for acquiring knowledge about environmental pollution and the confidence in scientists to solve environmental issues. Other factors like class level and gender, do not have a significant influence on the measure. Concerning the determinants of environmental attitude, this research finds out thatclass level, number of siblings and previously having dealt with an environmental survey do not significantly influence the measure. However, gender, monthly income, academic achievement, education situation at BILSEM, having heard the word "environmental literacy", parental education status, talking and discussing about environmental issues within the family, sources for acquiring knowledge about environmental pollution and the confidence in scientists to solve environmental issues are factors that significantly influence the environmental attitude measure. The environmental problems that students consider important, the most important ones out of them, the reasons behind them and opinions on possible solutions are discussed in detail in the findings section. Keywords: Environmental literacy, Environmental attitude, Environmental problems, Environmental education.