Secondary school students' approach to environmental problems in the framework of environmental education in schools in Turkey: The case of Karasu

Today, with the increase of modernization and industrialization, environmental problems in our country and in the world have accelerated. This situation is a harbinger that very compelling factors may arise for future generations. Therefore, it will be possible to provide individuals with an awareness of environmental problems and a sense of responsibility in protecting the environment with an effective environmental education. The aim of this study is to determine the effects of secondary school students' attitudes towards environmental problems of environmental education. In this study, the 'Environmental Problems Scale' was applied to 500 students, 291 female and 209 male, selected by stratified sampling method from all secondary education institutions in the Karasu district of Sakarya in the academic year of 2020-2021. The scale consists of four sub-scales as "awareness of environmental problems", "environmental consciousness", "environmental awareness" and "environmental education". It was examined whether the students 'views on environmental problems and environmental education differ in terms of gender, class level, school type, parents' education level and family income. The data obtained were analyzed in the SPSS program. Since the results did not show normal distribution, Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis H Multiple Comparison Test were used, which are non-parametric techniques. Between which groups there was a significant difference, it was determined by Post Hoc test. Regression analysis was conducted to see if there was a relationship between environmental education and other subscales. When the results are evaluated, the school type of the students and the education level of their parents do not cause a significant difference in the subscales, while the gender, grade levels and income status of the families cause a significant difference. Environmental education; While it could not find a significant effect on environmental consciousness and environmental awareness, it was determined that it had an effect on environmental awareness.