Environmental awareness of younger school - age students

U svome diplomskom radu „Ekološka osviještenost učenika mlađe školske dobi“ željela sam provjeriti odnos učenika prema okolišu. Ciljevi rada su upoznati učenike s vrstama onečišćenja okoliša, osvijestiti odgovorno ponašanje učenika prema okolišu te provjeriti ekološku osviještenost učenika mlađe školske dobi. U teorijskom se dijelu rada definira pojam ekologije, ekološke osviještenosti, okoliša, održivog razvoja; podjela ekologije te njezina povezanost sa zaštitom okoliša i zaštitom prirode. Opisuju se različita onečišćenja okoliša te se analiziraju zadaci odgoja i obrazovanja za okoliš u Nastavnom planu i programu osnovne škole Republike Hrvatske. U empirijskom se dijelu rada izlažu rezultati istraživanja provedenog u Osnovnoj školi „Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić“ u Slavonskom Brodu na uzorku od 181 učenika. Instrument istraživanja je anketa kojom sam ispitala ponašanje učenika u situacijama vezanima za ekološku svijest njih samih, ali i njihovih obitelji. Rezultati su pokazali da većina učenika pravilno postupa u danim situacijama iako u nekim situacijama još treba poraditi na ekološkoj svijesti. Provedenom radionicom sam pokušala utjecati na odgovorno ponašanje učenika prema okolišu te ih upoznati s problemima s kojima se svakodnevno susrećemo. Smatram da sam cilj istraživanja postigla i zaključujem da su anketirani učenici ekološki osviješteni te da njihovu svijest i dalje trebao poticati i razvijati kroz različite aktivnosti i promjene u odgojnoobrazovnom sustavu.In my graduate thesis „Environmental awareness of younger school-age students“ I wanted to check how younger school-age students behave towards environment. Main goals of this thesis were to teach students about the types of environmental contamination, to awake responsible behaviour of students toward environment and to check environmental awareness of younger school-age students. In the theoretical part of my graduate thesis you can find definition of ecology, environmental awareness, environment and the sustainable development, also, you can find information about division of ecology and it's connection with environmental protection as well as the protection of nature. Here are described different environmental contamination and the analysis of the tasks of environmental education in curriculum in the Republic of Croatia. In the empirical part of the thesis the results of the research conducted in elementary school „Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić“ in Slavonski Brod were presented. I questioned the students about their behaviour and behaviour of their families in the situations that are connected with the environmental awareness. The results showed that most of the students properly behave in the given situations although there is some space to work on their environmental awareness. I wanted to influence responsible behaviour of students toward environment with the prepared activities and to introduce them with the environmental problems that we see every day. In my opinion, I achieved the goals of my graduate thesis and I think that the surveyed students have a great deal of environmental awareness that should be more encourage and develop through various activities and changes in educational system