The effect of ecology based education on ecological footprint awareness of secondary school students

The aim of this study is to increase the ecological footprint and environmental awareness values of secondary school students within the scope of ecology-based trainings. The research was carried out with 67 secondary school students in a private school within the boundaries of Kepez District of Antalya Province during the first semester of the 2017-2018 Academic Year (18 weeks). The research was conducted with one - group pre - test and post - test application using experimental design model which is one of the quantitative research methods. Just before the ecology-based trainings, the Ecological Footprint Awareness Scale was applied to all students who participated in the research as a pre-test. During the study (18 weeks), ecology-based trainings were applied to the students, and after the trainings, the "Ecological Footprint Awareness Scale, which was previously used as a pre-test, was applied once again as a post-test and examined whether there was a significant difference between the two tests. Quantitative data in the study were analyzed by using IBM SPSS Statistics 21.0 program with frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean, dependent groups T test and One-Way ANOVA. The reliability analysis of the scale was made by calculating Cronbach's Alpha Coefficient and it was found to be 0.941. Whether the data of the pre-test and post-test results within the scope of the research showed normal distribution was determined by using Kolmogorov-Simirnov and Shapiro Wilk tests In addition, Pearson Correlation Analysis was conducted to examine the relationship between the pre-test and post-test mean scores of the Ecological Footprint Awareness Scale, which was tested for normality, with the grade level variable. In order to see the effect of grade levels on the mean scores, linear regression analysis was performed and histogram showing the normality of the data and scatter plots showing the linearity of the data were included. As a result of the study, high statistical significant difference was found between pre-test and post-test averages of the scale used within the scope of ecology-based trainings (p<0,01)*. According to the pre-test and post-test results of Ecological Footprint Awareness Scale, a high level of statistically significant difference was found in the sub-dimension of food, transportation, housing and water consumption (p<0,01)*. Similarly, a statistically significant difference was observed in the wastes sub-dimension (p<0,05)*; while no statistically significant difference was found in the energy sub-dimension (p>0,05). In addition, the pre-test and post-test mean scores obtained from the scale did not show a statistically significant difference according to the gender variable. The pre-test means obtained from the scale were statistically significant between the 5th and 8th grades according to the grade level variable. Although there was a significant difference in favor of 8th grade (p<0,05)*, it was found that the post-test averages did not show a statistically significant difference according to the grade level variable (p>0.05). As a result of the findings, it was seen that the ecology-based trainings had possitive effects on the environmental and the ecological footprint awareness values of secondary school students, and the trainings served the purpose of the research. Keywords: Ecological Footprint, Ecological Footprint Awareness, Ecology Based Education, Environmental Sustainability