Application of Environmental Education Knowledge Outside Classroom Teaching

Abstract

The formation of children’s attitudes to the environment starts as early as pre-school, and elementary school education then gives students the opportunity to learn about environmental problems, and helps to develop responsible thinking about environmental protection. Many activities can provide opportunities during and outside of school hours. In our study, we examined which environmental protection topics teachers in the lower grades deal with outside of the classroom, where they are typical, and in how many lessons they appear. The survey was conducted using a questionnaire among teachers teaching in ten schools in the counties of Szabolcs-Szatmár Bereg and Hajdú-Bihar. Our results show that in the subjects taught by the surveyed teachers, knowledge of environmental protection is also present in addition to environmental studies, mostly in Hungarian language and literature, technology and lifestyle, and visual culture subjects in all four grades. The interviewed teachers use environmental protection topics in a larger number of lessons in the classroom than outside the classroom. Outside the classroom, teachers mostly teach the relevant environmental protection topics in sports, technology and planning, ethics, and environmental knowledge. Those teachers who responded spend the most hours working outside of school in the forest school programme. The most common environmental protection topics are: air and water pollution, waste collection, and the everyday life of birds and trees.