Compare the effects of teaching environmental issues by participatory image-concept method and conventional method on learning, retention and nature relatedness (NR) of fifth grade students

This study aims to investigate and compare the effect of implementing the teaching model of partnership image concept and common method of teaching on learning and retention of environmental concepts and the amount of naturalism among students of elementary school fifth grade. The methodology of a survey was semi-experimental with pretest and posttest carried out for the control group. The population included elementary fifth-grade students in the city of Mahidasht, Kermanshah in the school year of 1391-92 and the sample included 38 persons in two classes and was chosen according to principle random assignment of subjects in groups. In both groups (treatment and control) the subjects witnessed the concept of human relation and the environment using the method of concept image based on based on partnership and common methods, respectively. To collect data, the teacher-made test of learning, retention and the scale of having relation with nature by Nesbit and et al (2009) were used. The validity was confirmed based on the idea of experts’ and the reliability was calculated according to a retesting method as well as correlation equal to 79%. The survey results showed that the learning and retention functionality of students taught with partnership image concept model were higher than other group and in terms of naturalism; the treatment subjects had the more positive viewpoint on nature than the control group.