The present study purposed to develop an environmental education program centering on experiential learning using local learning landscape as a ground of environmental education, to reconstruct and practice the program as an optional curricular activi...
The present study purposed to develop an environmental education program centering on experiential learning using local learning landscape as a ground of environmental education, to reconstruct and practice the program as an optional curricular activity, and to cultivate learners’ environmental sensitivity.
The research period was from February to November 2008, and the subjects were 32 fifth graders who had high potential for the cultivation of environmental sensitivity and were able to understand the experiential activities of local learning landscape and the locality. In designing the class, optional curricular activities were put mostly in Saturday and 2 hours’ environmental experience activities were executed in every second week.
Based on previous research on environmental sensitivity, we classified the elements of environmental sensitivity cultivation into five types (time spending in natural environment, interaction with pleasant people in a natural open space, bond between natural phenomena and the self, the effect of an indirect role model, experience in the loss of natural habitat or environment), and reflected them in the development of the experiential environmental education program, and the operation of the program was focused on creating situations for the five types of conditions.
Local learning landscape was divided into four categories in the development of the program, and the results of experiential activities in the program were also organized according to the four types of landscape. The four types of learning landscape were landscapes inside the school, which were classroom landscape, school forest and pond, the forest on the hill at the back of the school, the Gyeongan River flowing in front of the school, and the prepared ground for natural learning.
For the validity of the program, we composed the program, referring to the teaching plans and methods in the evaluation frame of school environmental education programs among the evaluation frames of experiential environmental education programs in previous research. After an experiential environmental education program was developed, it was analyzed with experiential activities through the five senses, and was analyzed based on the teaching plan area among the evaluation frames of experiential environmental education programs, and through this, the adequacy of the experiential environmental education program was secured.
The program was executed in a way that it becomes comprehensive experiential learning based on previous research on experience. The contents of the program was composed so that the four types of local learning landscape are explored as activities before experience, activities through field visits are made during experience, and what have been found, thought, and felt during experiential activities are expressed freely in various forms after experience. The researcher’s understanding and analysis of the cultivation of environmental sensitivity were explained and presented qualitatively based on detailed expressions observed in the participants’ works rather than focused on quantitative changes.
In the results of applying the developed experiential environmental education program, the contents of cultivated environmental sensitivity are classified according to the type of learning landscape as follows.
First, among landscape experiential activities within the school, classroom landscaping and conversation with plants cultivated the ecological sensitivity that feels the preciousness of life. Activities such as school plant map drawing, wild flower drawing, and insect tracking helped the participants view the landscape, which they had seen indifferently before, meaningfully with a new eye and personalize natural environment around. Experiential activity at the school fence construction site was practiced as a meaningful experience although the site was not there when the program was developed. Witnessing that forsythia, sycamore, ginkgo tree, etc. were disappearing with the progress of the fence construction, the participants showed empathic feelings such as regret for the trees, misery of sycamore, sorrow for forsythia that could not expect to see next spring, etc.
Second, nature friendly sensitivity was cultivated through experiencing the forest on the hill at the back of the school continuously through spring, summer, and autumn, and interacting with friends through the medium of nature in natural environment.
The empathic sensitivity was formed on trees as experiential activities through forest landscape during summer established a bond between the participants and trees. By experiencing natural things in summer, the participants felt the richness and generosity of nature. In addition, nature friendly sensitivity was learned from ancestors through traditional plays using natural things.
As to the contents of the cultivation of environmental sensitivity through forest experiential activities during autumn, in the process of giving a name to the hill at the back of the school through a class discussion, sensitivity personalizing natural landscape was expressed well through the discussion. The participants’ sensitivity to wild animals was maximized in their works describing the process that they decided in the class discussion to feed wild animals with acorns they collected from the school playground, prepared and distributed feed, and lastly, checked empty feed boxes.
Third, through the local river landscape experience program, the participants experienced construction sites and heavy equipment around the Gyeongan River, oily substances floating on the river, and bad smells, and expressed their serious responses to the river pollution and their mind to preserve the river clean.
Through the environmental festival on the theme of the local river, the participants attempted an integrated approach to social environmental education and school environmental education. Through rafting experience, they experienced the Gyeongan River intimately and internalized ancestors’ nature friendly sensitivity, and through the activity of drawing and writing on the theme of the Gyeongan River, they showed a participative attitude toward the campaign for reviving the Gyeongan River.
Fourth, through experiential activities with the prepared natural learning landscape, ecological sensitivity was cultivated to earth, beach, and forest.
Summing up the results above, in order to cultivate responsible environmental behavior, which is the ultimate goal of environmental education, we need to execute environmental education in elementary school focused on the cultivation of environmental sensitivity, which is an affective area, and environmental sensitivity as an affective quality is cultivable through comprehensive experiences. In order to attain substantial results from comprehensive experiential activities, school operators and teachers should desire and make efforts to utilize local learning landscape, which is highly accessible to learners, as a ground of environmental education.