Ecological awareness of elementary school students regarding waste issues in Zadar and Maribor

Rastući problemi stvaranja i zbrinjavanja otpada postaju središte rasprava na svjetskoj i europskoj sceni, koje vode pronalaženju rješenja i mogućnosti nošenja s problemima koji su poprimili globalne razmjere. Jedan od bitnih čimbenika koji bi trebao utjecati na svijest budućih donositelja odluka jest i odgoj i obrazovanje za okoliš i održivi razvoj. Škole bi svojim primjerom trebale živjeti dobru praksu gospodarenja otpadom kako na lokalnoj, tako i na europskoj razini. Ovim se radom pokušalo ispitati koliko su učenici razredne nastave (treći razred osnovne škole) stekli teoretskog znanja i iskustva te na koji način vrednuju probleme vezane uz okoliš i otpad. Sudjelovanjem dviju škola iz Zadra (Republika Hrvatska) i triju škola iz Maribora (Republika Slovenija), dobili smo reprezentativan uzorak na kojem smo ispitali postoje li razlike u sve tri skale procjene (opća znanja, iskustvo, vrednovanje) među odgovorima učenika u ta dva grada.The growing issues of waste generation and disposal are the focus of debates on the global and European scene. This results in efforts to find solutions to dealing with these global issues. One of the key factors that should influence the awareness of future decision makers is education for the environment and sustainable development. Schools should set an example by implementing good waste management practices, both locally and at European level. The goal of this paper was to examine elementary school students' (third grade elementary school) theoretical knowledge and experience gained through education, and their understanding of environmental and waste issues. We obtained a representative sample by including two schools from Zadar (Republic of Croatia) and three schools from Maribor (Republic of Slovenia). The results were used to examine whether there are differences in the three evaluation scales (common knowledge, activities and evaluation) between student responses in these two cities