Knowledge and misconceptions about the lithosphere and pedosphere among 9th grade primary school students in Slovenia

By interfering with nature, humanity has caused changes in many natural processes. Over time, people began to become aware of these changes and the consequences they bring. Environmental education plays an important role in this, its purpose is to educate people about the importance of sustainable development and prudent handling of natural resources. The effectiveness of environmental education, which also includes environmental chemistry, has not yet been investigated in our country. The purpose of the research was to check how well Slovenian 9th graders know concepts related to the lithosphere and pedosphere. It was also investigated which topics in this field the students have the most problems with misconceptions and in which areas the biggest deficit of knowledge. A quantitative research approach was used in the research, and it was based on a causal non-experimental method of empirical pedagogical research. 503 9th grade elementary school students from 8 different regions were included in the research. For the purposes of the research, the students filled out a questionnaire in written form, which determined the level of individual interest and self-image of the students in the field of knowledge of the lithosphere and pedosphere, and solved a written knowledge test, which determined the level of knowledge about the content of the lithosphere and pedosphere and misconceptions in this field. When analyzing the data, it was found that the students achieved at least 50% of all possible points on the knowledge test, and the average achievement of the students was poor. A normal distribution curve shows that the data is slightly skewed to the right. It was found that the final grade in the 8th grade in the subjects of chemistry, biology and physics has a statistically significant effect on the students' knowledge of the lithosphere and pedosphere. Spearman's coefficient showed a positive correlation, which means that as the grade in these subjects increases, so does the number of points achieved on the knowledge test. Pupils from the posavska region achieved the most points on the knowledge test, who were also found to have the highest level of individual interest in learning these subjects. The lowest scores on the written knowledge test were obtained by students from the primorska region, who also showed a low interest in learning content about the lithosphere and pedosphere. Regarding the level of individual interest, it was also found that this has a statistically significant effect on the number of points achieved on the knowledge test, while the students' self-esteem does not have a statistically significant effect on the number of points achieved. On average, male students scored more points than female students on the written knowledge test, and showed a slightly higher level of individual interest in learning content about the lithosphere and pedosphere. When identifying possible misconceptions of students, it was found that more misconceptions occur in tasks at higher cognitive levels. There were no statistically significant differences between the genders in the number of misconceptions