Effects of environmental education through camping experience on students’ knowledge and attitude regarding wetlands / Jaya Mary Asirvatham

The study was conducted to determine if environmental education camp has an effect on the level of knowledge and attitude regarding wetlands. The result of this study was based on a questionnaire survey of pre-test and post-test groups which consisted of 206 students, who attended the education camp. Participants of the camp were primary and secondary school students from 10 states which were segregated into Eastern, Northern and Southern zones of Peninsular Malaysia. The study examined the demographic profile, pre-camp knowledge and attitude of students regarding wetlands, students’ expectations and perception of the environmental education camp. Students’ pre-camp environmental knowledge was significantly influenced by level of education (p<0.05), with upper secondary school students (Form 4, 5 and 6) showing higher environmental knowledge on wetlands as compared to lower secondary and primary school students. The results showed significant interaction effects between gender and location of school (rural or town) on students’ pre-test knowledge with town males showing the lowest scores as compared to the rest (p<0.05). The study also showed that on a zonal basis, the students from the Eastern Zone (states of Pahang, Kelantan and Terengganu) had the lowest pre-test scores of knowledge as compared to those from the other two zones. The pre-camp students’ attitude level varied by location of schools with rural area students showing higher positive attitude towards wetlands issues as compared to their urban counterparts. Town males again showed significantly the lowest score for attitude level (p<0.01). Students’ pre-camp expectation of the camp’s programme was significantly influenced by level of education (p<0.05) with lower secondary level students and upper secondary level students showing higher expectation on the camp’s programme as compared to the primary level students. Correlation analysis revealed that students’ pre-test knowledge was positively correlated with students’ pre-test attitude (r = 0.32, p < 0.05) and students’ frequency of involvement in environmental activities (r = 0.16, p = 0.02), while pre-test attitude was not significantly correlated to students’ frequency of involvement in environmental activity (r= 0.08, p = 0.24). The Wilcoxon matched pair test between pre-test and post-test students showed highly significant differences in knowledge (p<0.01), attitude (p< 0.001) and v participants’ perception (p