Environmental education in teaching Geography

U današnje doba čovjek svojim djelatnostima i modernizacijom sve više mijenja okoliš što često ima štetan učinak i negativne posljedice, kako za okoliš tako i za zdravlje ljudi i kvalitetu življenja. Zbog toga je odgoj i obrazovanje za okoliš od velike važnosti za naš budući život i buduće generacije te ono mora započeti što ranije. Tijekom osnovnoškolskog i srednjoškolskog obrazovanja učenici o zaštiti prirode i okoliša uče najviše kroz nastavne predmete prirode i biologije, a zatim i geografije. Detaljnom analizom predmetnog kurikuluma Geografije dani su ishodi i količina sadržaja o okolišu, tj. zaštiti okoliša u nastavi geografije. Proveden je anketni upitnik i intervju o zastupljenosti nastavnih sadržaja ove tematike i obrađivanju istih. U anketiranju je sudjelovalo 100 nastavnika geografije osnovnih i srednjih škola Republike Hrvatske, a u intervjuiranju 4 nastavnika. Rezultati su pokazali da su sadržaji u nekim razredima zastupljeniji, a u nekima manje ili ih gotovo nema. Ispitanici su podijeljeni, no više od polovice njih smatra da je predmetnim kurikulumom Geografije zastupljeno dovoljno sadržaja o zaštiti okoliša. Ispitanici su dali razne ideje za aktivnosti i oblike rada kojima se ostvaruju ishodi i obrađuju sadržaji o zaštiti prirode i okoliša.In today’s age, man is increasingly changing the environment through his activities and modernization, which often has harmful effects and negative consequences for the environment as well as for people’s health and quality of life. This is why environmental education is of great importance for our future life and future generations, and it must start from an early age of human life. During primary and secondary school education, students learn about nature and environmental protection mainly through the subjects of nature and biology, but geography plays an equally important role in this. A detailed analysis of the subject curriculum of Geography gives the results and the amount of content taught to students about the environment, i.e. the protection of the natural environment in the teaching of geography. A survey questionnaire and an interview were conducted on the representation of the teaching and processing contents of this topic. The survey was comprised of 100 geography teachers from primary and secondary schools in the Republic of Croatia, and 4 teachers gave an interview. The results showed that the curriculum contents are more prevalent in some classes and less or almost absent in others. The respondents were divided, but more than half of them still believe that the Geography curriculum contains enough content on environmental protection. The respondents gave various activities and forms of work, which are used to process content and achieve outcomes on nature and environmental protection