environmental education

Environmental education is one of the major concerns of environmental activists. Education is therefore important because it encourages desirable behaviors and increases the awareness of people in society. In the meantime, environmental education refers to the creation of harmonious and compatible behavior patterns with nature and understanding the relationship between man and his environment. In environmental education, it is necessary to bring children to a level where they can think well, see problems and issues and find solutions for them. In order to reach such a position, it is necessary to consider four important principles: 1) sensitizing children to the issues around them, 2) creating motivation to solve problems, 3) teaching critical thinking, 4) finding solutions in the education process. On the other hand, environmental education is considered a way to create and acquire environmental literacy. Environmental literacy means knowing environmental patterns and processes. In this context, there is a codified environmental education program under the title "Children's Place in the Environment" (ACPE) curriculum, which has six units. This program provides basic elements about the environment for teachers to teach students. The first unit includes respect for living organisms, the second unit is to preserve the soil, the third unit is to protect and renew the ecosystem, the fourth unit is to protect aquatic animals and plants, the fifth unit is to preserve natural resources, and the sixth unit is to achieve a sustainable society. The review of theoretical literature and previous research shows that the studies conducted so far did not analyze the content of the first and second year textbooks on a case-by-case basis, and each from a specific perspective with the aim of promoting biological literacy and paying attention to the environmental patterns of teaching. Examined the general this research, by examining previous studies and analyzing them, tries to examine and analyze the contents of the first and second year primary school textbooks from the perspective of environmental education.

In this research, the books of the first and second year of primary school have been examined based on the approach of environmental education and with the method of content analysis. The first year of primary school has five textbooks; let’s write Farsi, read Farsi, experimental sciences, mathematics and teaching Quran, which is also added in the second year of elementary school. In this research, the analyzed society is the textbooks of the first and second year of elementary school, compiled in 2010, which are all counted. The unit of analysis is images and written text. The reason for choosing textbooks is that textbooks are the most important and widely used educational media used in the education system. This educational medium has a more fundamental role in countries with a more centralized system and facilitates the learning process.

In order to answer the research question, all the books were analyzed and pictures and texts related to the environment were recorded. Surveys showed that topics related to the environment are mainly limited to introducing animals, elements of nature, introducing plants, referring to the beauty of nature, expressing feelings towards nature, referring to natural foods and enjoying nature. be On the other hand, educational sentences are very few and do not stand out significantly. The findings of the research show that in the textbooks of the first year, the names and images of animals are the most frequent, so that 239 cases in the three books "Let's write Persian", "Read Persian" and "Experimental science" were about animals. 95 items were dedicated to the names and images of plants, and the sky and its elements and water, river and sea were also discussed from the aspect of introduction. In the math book, there are 31 pictures of animals for teaching addition or subtraction, 30 pictures of flowers and plants, 18 pictures of fruits and 3 pictures of life in the village. In the books of the second grade of primary school, the situation is somewhat different. Because unlike the books of the first year, which mostly introduce animals, plants or single words, in the books of the second year, the child is faced with coherent texts that intend to convey a message. Names and images of animals, names of fruits, introducing elements of nature, referring to the beauty of nature and giving importance to green spaces are such. The general content of the second Farsi book, read and write, is similar to writing. Enjoying nature, pictures of nature, animal life in the forest, pictures of butterflies, ants or the relationship between flowers and butterflies, learning words related to nature such as mountain, sea and forest, taking care of trees, branches and flowers, helping Animals, description of water and its sound, description of rainbow and presenting an image of happiness of parents in the heart of nature next to a river are the general concepts presented in the book. Key sentences are mainly mentioned in the science book of the second year of primary school. At the beginning of the book, the introduction of animals and their habitats is illustrated, and in one section, the topics of land and soil are mentioned. The contents related to land and soil are somewhat compatible with the objectives of the "Children's Place in the Environment" curriculum. In the second grade book of Heavenly Gifts, nature is mentioned as a heavenly gift that children are happy to have. In this book, there are beautiful pictures of flowers and plants, trees, forests, insects, clouds, and the sky, which give students a good feeling.

In the reviewed books, the creation and strengthening of a supportive attitude towards the environment has been brought up in an emotional way, and the beauty of nature has been mentioned in several cases. While not much attention has been paid to how to deal with the environment, and environmental issues, how to deal with them, creating sensitivity towards the surrounding environment, increasing the skill of recognizing issues and participating in solving environmental issues are at a very low level. are located In general, it can be said that the goals of environmental education, such as creating sensitivity towards the environment, creating participation in the improvement and preservation of the environment, the ability to identify and solve environmental problems, have not been realized in these books, and only superficial content has been presented. Enough of the environment and its issues. However, awareness of the elements of the environment and nature has been addressed to some extent. But it seems that the introduction of elements of nature does not necessarily lead to correct behavior and dealing with nature, and the analyzed books do not have the ability to motivate and think critically among students.

The aim of the current research was to analyze the content of the primary social studies curriculum with regard to the environmental education components of the Wisconsin model, and the content analysis method was used.  The unit of analysis was the sentences and pictures in the book.  Wisconsin's five standards include questioning and analysis skills, knowledge of natural processes and systems, investigation of environmental issues, action and decision-making skills, and citizenship and civic responsibility, which were examined.  The population and the sample were the same due to availability and included all the contents of the social studies books of the primary course approved by the Ministry of Education in the academic year of 1402-1401.  The findings showed that the most amount of attention paid to the environmental components in elementary social studies textbooks was in the fourth, fifth, sixth and third grades respectively.  In addition, the books pay the most attention to environmental education according to the five Wisconsin standards, respectively, related to citizenship and civic responsibility, action and decision-making skills, environmental issues investigation skills, knowledge of natural processes and systems, and questioning and analysis, while the least attention is paid to questioning and analysis skills and Most of them have been focused on citizenship and civil responsibility.

The aim of the current research is to determine the components of environmental literacy education in the elementary school based on the lived experiences of teachers. This research was conducted with a qualitative research approach and using the phenomenology method. The statistical population of the research was elementary teachers, the head of the educational group, and the leaders of the second year of elementary school, whose selection method was purposeful and of the snowball type. A total of 21 people were interviewed. A semi-structured interview was used to collect data. The data from the interview was analyzed using thematic analysis method. The validity of the analysis was ensured by using the homogeneity of findings and the feedback method of participants and non-participating experts. The result of the article shows that the components of environmental literacy education in the second year of elementary school include the components of learning in the objective text, linking concepts, providing skill capabilities and awakening people's conscience; Identifying the basic components in environmental literacy education can be a framework and guidelines for determining the path and strategy in the field of goal setting, content production, teaching methods and evaluation methods in environmental education in the second period of elementary school and based on that curriculum designers and elementary teachers to develop curriculum elements in environmental education and To improve the quality of environmental education, take appropriate measures.

Environmental education plays a crucial role in preserving, honoring and improving the environment as well as reducing ecological problems, through the formal education system as the most important culturalization body, by improving the level of knowledge, culture and insight of the society. The current research aims to investigate effective educational methods in environmental education in schools.In a descriptive-survey applied research in 2022-2023 academic year, data were collected using a researcher-made questionnaire. The research tool was based on the Likert spectrum, the validity of which was confirmed by experts, and its reliability was obtained through Cronbach's alpha equal to 0.89. The teachers and curriculum planners of the elementary and middle school courses of Ilam city formed the statistical population of the research; where the sample size of 300 and 22 based on the Morgan table and stratified sampling method with random assignment were obtained, for the teachers of the two courses and curriculum planners, respectively. Data analysis was done by t-test  in SPSS software. From the teachers and planners’ point of view on different educational courses, the optimal methods of teaching environmental concepts were effective in each of the elementary and middle schools. The psychological characteristics of students in each educational levels can explain such attitude difference. Improving the quantity and improving the quality of educational programs depends on the way of teaching/learning as well as the application of proper educational methods that are suitable for the audience or student.

Most of the problems in the environment are due to a lack of sufficient knowledge and cultural weakness in the relationship between man and nature. This issue is in fact a kind of cultural problem, so it requires national and international efforts to strengthen the culture of environmental protection at different levels of society, especially in children.One of the most important concepts that a child interacts with during his or her influential years is nature. The direct and indirect experiences of nature have been one of the most important factors in the physical, perceptual, emotional, and even moral development of human beings. The researches show that children spend a large part of the day watching TV and playing computer games. It is estimated that between 15,000 and 30,000 species become extinct each year, and many species are endangered.This reduction in diversity indicates a widespread decline in species populations and the disappearance of familiar ecosystems to children. On the other hand, education is a kind of long-term investment and of course valuable for society and the key to development. Therefore, strengthening the curiosity and cultivating the scientific spirit in children and adolescents is something that guarantees the scientific and technological progress of the country. Since one of the most sensitive and widely used issues that all members of society face throughout their lives in the environment, therefore, education related to it is very important. This study was conducted with the aim of creating environmental concerns, understanding, and impact of students in schools in Delfan and Selseleh districts.

In the present study, the statistical population was selected from all primary school students in the central and Kakavand districts (Delfan and Selseleh cites), and then a stratified proportional to the volume of 252 students was selected. In order to collect data, 504 standard questionnaires were distributed in pre-test and post-test. For this purpose, environmental skills training in primary schools was prepared using photos, videos, animations, PowerPoint, flashcards, posters, etc.Based on this, an estimate of the biodiversity of the regions was made first. In the next step, 252 randomly selected students filled out the pre-test questionnaire and after getting acquainted with the environmental issues and plant and animal species that were identified and evaluated, completed the post-test questionnaire.At the first, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and Shapiro-Wilk test were used to evaluate the normality of the data. Indicators based on information theory were used to assess biodiversity. The results were analyzed using the Wilcoxon test and Shapiro-Wilk test and evaluated by box chart. Also in this study for statistical analysis of differences in the subgroups of students' gender (girl or boy), students' place of residence (city or village), and students' educational level (preschool, first grade, second grade, third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade and sixth grade Mann-Whitney test was used.

According to the results of the Wilcoxon test, a significant difference was observed between pre-test and post-test results. However, there was no significant difference between the sexes of the students in the pre-test. According to the results, the level of skills enhancement of urban students was higher than students living in rural communities, but in the post-test stage compared to the pre-test stage, the result changed. One of the reasons for this increase in post-test changes in the rural student community is the possibility of potential talents due to skills development, but in the urban student community, this potential is not possible due to access to educational facilities at a higher level of the village.According to Figures 3-5 and 3-6, the level of knowledge of students in preschool to sixth grade is relatively increasing. Comparison of the fifth and sixth grades shows that the range of changes in the post-test stage is much smaller than the pre-test stage. This indicates an increase in the level of knowledge due to the test at higher levels, but according to the results obtained in the pre-test and post-test stages in preschool students, the first and second amplitude of changes in the post-test stage is greater than the pre-test stage.The difference in the level of education was such that the third grade can be considered as a prerequisite for teaching environmental skills training among male and female students and rural and urban communities. Understanding the importance and necessity of public environmental education becomes apparent when one considers the fact that environmental education increases public knowledge and awareness of the environmental consequences of human activities, which develops the skills necessary to preserve the environment throughout life and creates a sense of responsibility for the general public to achieve a healthy environment and a commitment to preserving the environment for future generations and achieving this important goal and sustainable development requires environmental education.

In general, education to increase insight, knowledge, awareness, and skills in the development of environmental literacy is a major task for researchers in a community. Many sections of society, such as home, family, school, community, workplace, interest groups, and the media, can play a key role. Achieving the necessary environmental literacy is the main task of our schools. Environmental education is a tool for developing environmental literacy. As a society, we need to know to what extent environmental education in schools is appropriate for achieving skills enhancement in an environment that is becoming increasingly complex. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to the following:- The third grade can be considered as a prerequisite for teaching environmental development skills among male and female students and rural and urban communities. Therefore, if local governments and decision-makers want to provide skills development training, especially in the field of environment, they can consider this training from the elementary third. Establishment of green schools in different parts of the west of the country, especially Selseleh and Delfan regions (due to high biodiversity and readiness to accept environmental sciences)  Inclusion of environmental protection and protection issues in the textbooks of students of all levels of education, especially primary school. Organizing training workshops on environmental issues for teachers, villagers, village elders, and especially mothers.

Environmental Education (EE) is a broad concept that addresses a range of methodological, thematic, and audience issues. Over the past three decades, environmental educators have sought to provide distinctive goals, definitions, standards, and guidelines to help educators and facilitators understand how to differentiate environmental education from other educational practices and how to make it effective.Environmental education is a very important discipline for achieving sustainable development (SD), because it as been identified as the prerequisite for any effective and long-term action is to explain the principles, frameworks and principles to achieve sustainable development. One of the obstacles to the successful implemention of Sustainable Development Plan and achieving maximum effectiveness results is scattered, simple and incorrect perceptions of the concept of environmental education, its function and dimensions among people. Chapter Thirty-six of Agenda Twenty-One (Rio de Janeiro, 1992) introduces public participation as the introduction to sustainable development and public education as the introduction to participation. This transnational international document emphasizes that content must include environmental education and sustainable development.Many paragraphs of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development statement (Rio de Janeiro 2012) repeatedly emphasize that people are at the center of sustainable development and that member states must commit to providing environmental education in order to achieve the goals of sustainable development. These trainings are vital because they promote the development of social capital and environmental insight, and expose people to a social transformation approach with their rights and responsibilities, and move from unsustainable one-dimensional economic development to far-reaching sustainable development.Despite the fact that books, articles, national and international transcendental documents in the field of environmental education are now available, a comprehensive definition of this concept to cover all theoretical and scientific aspects, and a theory or conceptual model that determines features, strategies, executive arms and results is not available. This study aimed to fill this gap and provide a comprehensive approach to the field of effective environmental education.

The present research has been done by documentary method with an explanatory-analytical approach. In this regard, the analysis of national and international documents, articles and books in the field of environmental education continued to the point of theoretical saturation. The findings of this study led to the presentation of clear theoretical and practical definitions of effective environmental education, and the presentation of the conceptual model of "effective environmental education". In this conceptual scheme, an attempt was made to integrate facts, descriptions, analyzes, and interpretations, and to clarify existing criticisms, characteristics, strategies, executive arms, and results of effective environmental education. Finally, suggestions were provided based on the findings.

Many experts believe that the best way to strengthen the values of the environment in society is to provide environmental education. In this regard, the present article has been done with the aim of creating a discourse and in response to the question of what is effective environmental education. Because education has a social and moral commitment, learning environmental teachings, provided they are applied and problem-oriented, leads to individual activism and a sense of responsibility and intergenerational commitment. Without striving for quality and efficient education to institutionalize ethical principles, achieving sustainable development will also be impossible.The results of this study are in line with the results of the World Conference "Science for the 21st Century, a New Commitment", which comprehensively examined the future orientation of science and education in communities and people's expectations. Therefore, effective education equipped with moral restraints or in other words "ethical education" is recommended.The results of this study indicated that in the theoretical dimension, effective environmental education could be defind an intertwined set of perceptions, interpretations and analyzes related to the process of transmitting insights, attitudes and active actions . In the executive dimension, effective environmental education includes categories such as macro planning by policy makers and officials, production of content and application of knowledge received by learners at different levels of society. Effective education can be policy-making, teaching and guidance, as well as conducting research.The authors of this study, along with Mehr Mohammadi (2013), who cites a problem called Hyperfactualism, as quoted by David Easton, argue that no organization wants a cluttered mass of information and an over-indulgence in facts unless in the form of an intellectual framework that enables people to study or ask better questions and interpret observations. In this regard, in the field of research in effective environmental education and to avoid the problem of hyper-realism, efforts were made to consolidate facts, descriptions, analyzes, interpretations and criticisms in the form of a comprehensive conceptual model, so that the characteristics, strategies, executive arms and the resuls of environmental education become more transparent.As shown in the conceptual model, effective environmental education has five characteristics, nine strategies and five executive arms; the interaction of all these cases will deliver effective environmental education. The result of effective environmental education is also shown in the development of learners' ecological identity, increasing social capital, educating ecological citizens and creating a platform for citizen participation in social management. Finally, due to the vastness of the field of environmental education research and the lack of research to theorize and provide conceptual models in this field, researchers and experts are advised to focus on each of the dimensions of effective environmental education in future research. Finally, recommendations were provided to all involved groups. For example, it is recommended to policy makers in scientific institutions to allocate parts of their expertise and budget to research projects that specifically focus on the basic principles of environmental education and research that seeks to increase the effectiveness of this process to achieve sustainability in quantitative and qualitative methods. Environmental facilitators in environmental education centers such as nature schools are advised to try to give learners the power of analysis by conveying a general and inferential view, so that they can make the right decisions in accordance with the principles of sustainability in various situations. Educators in all public and private institutions, organizations and agencies that are responsible for the serious task of environmental education are recommended to benefit from the experiences of others while sharing their experiences presenting articles, lectures and other formats.

The aim of this study is to teach the benefits of using new and renewable energies and familiarize students with how to produce biodiesel through easy and effective experimental design. Biodiesel is one of the types of biofuels, new and clean energy from biomass resources, which can be easily provided in order to compensate for the reduction of fossil energy resources and sustainable development and help the environmental pollution crisis, and can be used without changing diesel engines. This fuel is renewable and biodegradable, with less emissions and greenhouse gases, because of these benefits students should be familiar with this new fuel and how it is made. Considering that the document of fundamental evolution in education has paid special attention to the issue of natural resources and familiarizing students with environmental teaching and environmental education, for this purpose, in this article, while introducing biodiesel, an experiment with simple and available materials to prepare biodiesel design. It is easily implemented by students. The ingredients used are vegetable oil purchased from the store, alcohol and a strong base such as sodium hydroxide. In this experiment, the reaction in different conditions in terms of temperature, process time and the ratio of alcohol to oil was examined in the laboratory to obtain the highest efficiency. In this experiment, biodiesel was obtained in optimal conditions with a yield of 96%.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the Teachers' and professors' Viewpoints on the Current Status of Environmental Education in the Secondary School Curriculum. The current study is an applied and qualitative-quantitative research with exploratory design. The statistical population consisted of all teachers of six educational districts of Isfahan (2259), 329 of which were selected by random sampling method and 15 professors (curriculum planning, literature, educational technology, philosophy, sociology, Management) of Markazi, Isfahan, and Yazd Provinces were selected by purposeful sampling. In order to collect data, a researcher-made questionnaire consisting of 41 items was obtained using document analysis results. The results showed that the current status of environmental education in terms of curriculum elements (purpose, content, teaching-learning method, evaluation) in the teachers' group has the highest average with 4.15 related to teaching-learning methods and the lowest average with 3.98 related to the purposes and evaluation of environmental education curriculum. In the teachers' group, the highest average with 4.11 was related to the content and the lowest average with 3.92 was related to the purposes of environmental education curriculum.