Journal of Natural Environment

The impact of virtual environmental education on attitude and pro-environmental performance of primary school female students

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Master of Educational Sciences, Karaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran

2 Assistant Professor of Educational Sciences Department, Karaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran

3 Associate Professor of wood and paper Sciences department, Karaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iran

Abstract

Many environmental threats are the consequences of human behavior. The solution to reducing the environmental problems is environmental education and changing human behavior. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of virtual environmental education on the attitude and pro-environmental behavior of primary school female students. The study was quasi-experimental with pre-test and post-test. 60 students were selected through a multistage sampling method from female students of primary schools of Abyek city for the 2019-2020 educational year, and they were then randomly assigned to the control and experimental groups. The environmental education was instructed with the experimental group during 12 sessions, three times per week. The data were collected using the standard environmental attitudes and environmental behaviors questionnaires. The reliability of the questionnaires was calculated through Cronbach alpha (0.85 and 0.82 respectively for environmental attitudes and environmental behavior, respectively). The ANCOVA test was used for analyzing the information. The results revealed a statistically significant difference between the pre-test and post-test of the experimental group not only in environmental attitudes but also in their pro-environmental performance (P<0.01). The findings confirmed that age-specific environmental education plays a crucial role in enhancing the environmental attitude and performance of the students so that it can be recommended as a preventive strategy against the environment destruction.

Keywords

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Journal of Natural Environment
Volume 74, Issue 3
September 2021
Pages 505-516