The Effect of Context-Oriented Science Education on the Environmental Attitude and Performance of Elementary School Students

Naeemi, Maryam; Larijani, Maryam

doi:10.30473/ee.2025.71869.2759

The Effect of Context-Oriented Science Education on the Environmental Attitude and Performance of Elementary School Students

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Maryam Naeemi ¹
Maryam Larijani ²

¹ Assistant Professor, Department of Educational Sciences, Payam Noor University, Tehran, Iran

² Associate Professor, Department of Educational Sciences, Payam Noor University, Tehran, Iran

10.30473/ee.2025.71869.2759

Abstract

Pro-environmental behavior is one of the significant and important factors in protecting the environment. This behavior is dependent on different factors like individual factors, environmental knowledge and attitude, as well as social, economic, and cultural factors. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the impact of context-oriented science education on the environmental attitude and performance of primary school students in Arak city. The present study was a semi-experimental study with a pre-test–post-test with control group design. The statistical population included all female students in the fifth and sixth grades of elementary school in Arak city. The research sample included 50 female students in the fifth and sixth grades of elementary school who were selected based on the research entry criteria and through a purposeful method and were randomly assigned to two groups of 25 in a multi-stage experimental group (mean age: 11.50±0.51) and a control group (mean age: 11.50±0.48). The data collection tool included Dunlap's et al. (2001) environmental attitude questionnaire and Harun et al. (2011) environmental performance questionnaire, which were answered similarly by students in the pre-test and post-test. The experimental group underwent context-oriented science education for 7 weeks, two sessions per week, each session lasting 60 minutes. Data were analyzed through one-way analysis of covariance in SPSS software version 25. The results showed that by controlling the pre-test score, there was a significant difference between the environmental attitude and environmental performance test scores of the two experimental and control groups in the post-test (p=0.001). Therefore, teaching science in a context-oriented way can be an effective strategy for improving the environmental attitude and performance of fifth- and sixth-grade children in Arak city.

Keywords