New Perspectives in Science Education

Edition 13

Accepted Abstracts

Comparison of the Main Determinants Affecting Environmental Literacy Between Singapore, Estonia and Germany

Volkan Hasan Kaya, Institute for Science Education, University of Bremen (Germany)

Doris Elster, Institute for Science Education, University of Bremen (Germany)

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to determine the variance of the main factors affecting the environmental literacy of the fifteen-year-old students studying in Germany to estimate these literacy outcomes. The relational model, which is one of the quantitative research approaches, has been adopted in this study. Through the relational model, it was tried to determine the main factors affecting the environmental literacy averages of the countries in the sample and the degree of the effect of these factors. As a research design, a survey method that provides the opportunity to work with a large sample was used. In this study, the universe was 15-year-old German, Singapore and Estonia school students. Its sample consists of 6,504 German students, 6115 Singapore students and 5587 Estonia students. The data are based on findings of the PISA 2015 of students, which were published on the official PISA site (http://www.pisa.oecd.org). In this study researchers used Environmental Literacy Scale developed by Kaya and Elster.  Besides, in this study, a scale was developed by the researchers to determine the basic factors affecting environmental literacy. In the light of selected factors, it is concluded that all three countries have a low but significant relationship between environmental literacy and the factors. Although the students in Estonia have more factors that effect on environmental literacy, it is also seen that the total variance ratio is lower than the other two countries. Although the factor affecting environmental literacy is less in Germany, the variance rate is about the same as that of Singapore. It is the "extra curricula activities" factor that is associated with the curriculum that has the most significant positive impact on environmental literacy among all three countries. This factor has the greatest positive impact on environmental literacy among students in Germany compared with Singapore and Estonia.

Keywords: Comparative Study, Science Education, Environmental Literacy, Literacy;

References

[1] Kaya, V. H. and Elster, D. (2017a). German Students’ Environmental Literacy as a Starting Point for Science Teacher Education, International Teacher Education and Accreditation Congress Abstract Book, Paper 113- 114.
[2] Kaya, V.H. and Elster, D. (2017b). Change in the Environmental Literacy of German Students in Science Education between 2006 and 2015, The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, Special Issue for INTE 2017, 505-524.
[3] Loubser, C.P., Swanepoel, C.H. and Chacko, C. P. C. (2001). Concept Formulation for Environmental Literacy, South African Journal of Education, 21 (4).
[4] McBeth, W. and Volk, T. L. (2010). The National Environmental Literacy Project: A Baseline Study of Middle Grade Students in the United States, The Journal of Environmental Education, 41(1), 55–67.
[5] Modupe, O. D. (2012). A Dummy Variable Regression on Students’ Academic Performance, Transnational Journal of Science and Technology, 2(6), 47-54.
[6] Morrone, M., Mancl, K. and Carr, K. (2001) Development of a Metric to Test Group Differences in Ecological Knowledge as One Component of Environmental Literacy, The Journal of Environmental Education, 32:4, 33-42.
[7] OECD. (2016). PISA 2015 PISA Results in Focus, Retrieved 29.07. 2017, 09.36 from https://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisa-2015-results-in-focus.pdf.
[8] Ozturk, G., Tuzun, Ö.Y. and Teksoz, G. (2013). Exploring Environmental Literacy Through Demographic Variables, Elementary Education Online, 12(4), 926-937.
[9] Roth, C. E. (1992). Environmental Literacy: Its roots, evolution and directions in the 1990s., ERIC Clearinghouse for Science, Mathematics, and Environmental Education, Columbus, Ohio.
[10] Wisconsin Department of Public Administration. (1991). Environmental Education. A Guide to CurriculumPlanning (Authors: Engleson, D.C. and Yockers, D.H.),  Wisconsin State Dept. of Public Instruction,Madison.
   
 

 

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