Planning, developing and implementing sustainable environmental education curciculum

This study aims to prepare, develop and implement a sustainable environmental education curriculum for primary school fourth grade students with the idea that a sustainable environmental education curriculum will make a significant contribution to increasing students' environmental knowledge, awareness and beliefs. In line with the main purpose of the study, it was aimed to increase students' level of achievement of learning outcomes, their opinions and self-efficacy towards sustainable environmental education with the curriculum developed with the ADDIE model. Design-based research method and nested mixed method were used in this study. The participants consisted of primary school 4th grade students studying in a central primary school in the Aegean Region in the 2023-2024 academic year and their families. The data were collected using the achievement test, self-efficacy and opinion scales for sustainable environmental education developed by the researcher and semi-structured interview forms for teachers, students and parents. Quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS version 24.0 and qualitative analyses were coded in MAXQDA 24.4.1. The findings of the study show that the sustainable environmental education curriculum significantly increased students' environmental knowledge, awareness and beliefs. As a result of the program, significant and positive changes were observed in students' views, beliefs and behaviors towards the environment. These results reveal that both the continuity and the scope of the sustainable environmental education program are effective in achieving the targeted learning outcomes. For this reason, it is recommended that the sustainable environmental education program should not be limited to the primary school level and should be applied to a wider audience in order for individuals to develop environmentally friendly behaviors to increase environmental awareness.