Assessment of Environmental Literacy of Students and operational challenges of Environmental Education in Secondary Education

With attention to importance of environmental problems, the main objective of the present study was to assess the environmental literacy of secondary students and problems of environmental education from the viewpoint of teachers. The statistical population this study consisted of all high school students in Lenjan in Isfahan province in the academic year of 1365-96 (8920) and 615 high school teachers. The sample size was determined using the Cochran formula. The sample size of the students was 1067 and the sample size of teachers was 147. A multistage cluster method was used for sampling. Data were collected by two researcher-made questionnaires. The results and findings of this research showed that high school students in affective domain have required environmental literacy, but in cognitive and performance domains they have not required knowledge and skill. In addition, this study showed that the most important practical problems of the environmental education were the lack of facilities, instructional time, and the lack of communication and interaction of schools with external environmental centers. Obviously, the proper performance of the educational system in the environmental education curriculum requires that these problems and challenges be resolved.