The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a carbon-neutral environmental education program, developed on the basis of the 2015 Revised Practical Arts Curriculum, on elementary students’ environmental literacy.
The research question to ...
The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a carbon-neutral environmental education program, developed on the basis of the 2015 Revised Practical Arts Curriculum, on elementary students’ environmental literacy.
The research question to achieve this study are as follows. How can a carbon-neutral environmental education program be systematically developed in alignment with the 2015 Revised Practical Arts Curriculum? (2) What effect does this program have on elementary students’ environmental literacy?
The participants were two fifth-grade classes from an elementary school located in Gyeongsangbuk-do. A total of 15 instructional sessions were implemented for the experimental group using the carbon-neutral environmental education program developed in this study. Environmental literacy was assessed through pre- and post-tests using the Environmental Literacy Assessment for Elementary Students developed by Mi-Ri Nam et al. (2021). Data were analyzed using SPSS 30.0, and t-tests were conducted to examine differences in environmental literacy between the experimental and comparison groups.
The major findings of the study are as follows.: First, the carbon-neutral environmental education program enhanced the three domains of environmental literacy—knowledge, practice, and attitude. Second, the experimental group demonstrated statistically significant improvements across all subdomains of environmental literacy compared to the comparison group. Within-group analyses further confirmed significant gains from pre- to post-test with in the experimental group, indicating the effectiveness of the program. Third, after the implementation of the program, students showed increased willingness to engage in carbon-neutral practices and exhibited positive behavioral changes related to environmental literacy.
These findings suggest that a carbon-neutral environmental education program based on the 2015 Revised Practical Arts Curriculum has a positive effect on enhancing elementary students’ environmental literacy.
Key words : Practical Arts, carbon-neutral environmental education, , environmental literacy.