Recently, Korea’s interest in environment protection is increasingly growing, and Korea realizes the seriousness of environmental pollution and national movement to minimize the effect is arising. As part of the movement, the need of environmental education in elementary schools is on the rise. This study aims to develop integrated environmental experience programs allowing students to have experience activities in forests, rivers, and seas that they can approach easily around them and to have environmental education through various plays. In addition, the study purposes to compare general educational education programs in actual education in terms of the effect of the program on students’ environment attitudes.
This study was conducted to 50 fourth graders in two classes of S elementary school in Busan, and the 25-student comparative group had the normal educational education program that is mostly being performed in actual education while the 25-student treatment group had the survey on environmental attitude after a class using an integrated environmental experience program.
The survey content is about environmental attitudes, and it consists of six subjects such as general environment, environmental pollution, energy, water resources, recycling, and animal protection and has 7 or 8 items by each subject which is divided into eight sub-items including sensibility, belief, values, spontaneity, criticism, patience, attention and interest.
The findings are as follows.
First, the integrated environmental experience program has a more positive effect on environmental attitudes than the general educational program. In particular, it is really effective about the topic of animal protection among students’ environmental attitudes.
Second, the integrated environmental experience program has a more positive effect on values and interests than the general environmental education program.