Abstract
The Status of Environmental Concepts in 2018 Middle School and High School Programs in Turkey
This study aims to investigate the status of environmental education concepts in middle
school science and social studies programs; high school biology and geography programs
in updated 2018 programs. To this end,, environmental issues, programs’ objectives
related to environment, time allocated for environmental concepts and the percentage
of this allocated times were investigated. Document review, one of the most common
qualitative reserach technique, was used as method of this study. Content analysis of
the programs prepared by Turkish Ministry of Education was utilized. The shortcomings
and the positive aspects of the programs was documented for an effective environmental
education. When analyzing the contents of all 4 programs in terms of subject-related
purposes included in this study, it is noted that only two of the 18 objectives in education
social studies program, four of the 10 objectives in the science program, only one of the
10 objectives in the biology program and 6 of the 15 objectives in geography program
contain environmental issues. Based on these findings, since environmental issues
are constantly changing, school programs should be updated as well in order to raise
students’ environmental awareness. The common feature of the programs is that there is no
selective or compulsory courses named as “Environmental Education”. In addition, most
of the objectives of programs included in this study are based on superficial knowledge.
For an effective environmental education, it is recommended that learning by doing or
experiential activities be added lesson plans and programs to raise awareness of students
for environmental issues.
Keywords
Environmental Education, Biology Program, Geography Program, Social Studies Program, Science Program
