An assessment of the environmental knowledge of Standard Five and Seven pupils

The general environmental knowledge o f 757 Standard Five and 358 Standard Seven pupils was assessed by means o f a self-devised test. For this purpose a sample which consisted o f pupils from twelve schools was selected. The sample included children from diverse cultures in different geographical areas and from both ‘departmental ’ and private schools. By means o f an analysis o f variance it was ascertained that significant differences in knowledge exist among the subgroups in the sample. Pupils from different cultures, types o f schools and genders differ significantly in environmental knowledge. Although Standard Seven pupils know signi­ ficantly more than Standard Five pupils, the achievement levels o f both groups were relatively poor. In conclusion some recommendations aiming to improve this level o f knowledge are suggested.


Introduction
The environmental problems o f a country such as the RSA are not so much related to the environment itself as to poor decision making with regard to the environment.O n e o f the reasons for poor decision making is a lack o f basic environmental knowledge. Stuart (1984:142), for example, sees ignorance as the greatest threat to the environment.This threat may be counteracted by environ mental education (EE) with the aim o f producing environmentally literate citizens.
Environmental literacy should not, however, be seen as being synonymous with environmental k n ow ledge only.A ccording to Hurry (1982:64) environmental literacy involves aw areness o f the total human environment; know ledge o f envi ronmental problem s; acquired attitudes and values which lead to positive environ mental behaviour; and participation in solving or preventing environmental pro blems.

Koers SH<3) 1993:341-352
Although environmental literacy thus involves more than environmental know ledge, knowledge is an important aspect o f being environmentally literate, be cause it also relates to other aspects o f environmental literacy, namely aw areness and attitude, and can be formulated as follows: Although aw areness is not dependent upon the possession o f knowledge about the environment, it will be enhanced by such know ledge (Clacherty, 1992: 27).
Thus knowledge is seen as an important component (apart from attitudes, skills and locus o f control), in determining environmental literacy and therefore responsible environmental behaviour (Ram sey & Hungerford, 1989:29;M onroe & Kaplan, 1988:38).Not surprisingly, Dispoto found that up to 40 percent o f people's environmental activity could be explained in terms o f their knowledge (Caduto, 1983: 14).

Som e stu d ies assessing environm ental know ledge
Studies assessing environmental knowledge o f pupils elsew here in the world often found that it w as disappointing.One such an assessm ent o f 12th-grade pupils w as done in the Dominican Republic (Roth & Perez, 1989:10-14).It was ascertained that the average perform ance o f the pupils in a know ledge test w as, in general, rather low with an average o f 51% correct response rate.On average boys did significantly better than girls.This finding w as consistent with some other studies (Berroa & Roth, 1990:24).
In a study by Brody and Koch (1989/90:25) in which 4th-, 8th-, and 1 lth-grade students' know ledge and understanding o f marine science and natural resource issues was determined, it was also found that the level o f understanding o f basic principles and concepts w as disappointing.Likewise, the overall level o f ecologi cal knowledge o f randomly selected Dominican Republic citizens betw een the ages o f 14 and 64 years w as low (Berroa & Roth, 1990:27).
Not surprisingly Gigliotti states that environmental education over the previous decades has produced citizens who are emotionally charged "but woefully lacking in basic ecological knowledge" (Gigliotti, 1990:9).

Infusion o f environm ental education into cu rricula
Environmental know ledge o f pupils may be improved by means o f short courses such as those presented by the various EE-centres in the RSA.In this respect it w as found that a five day residential earth education program (called Sunship Earth) increased the ecological knowledge o f 5th-and 6th-grade classes in A ustralia (Keen, 1991:30, 31).However, this program did not result in any sig nificant change in pupils' attitudes.Another course, the HAT (Issues Investiga tion and Action Training) w as more successful.It prom oted not only specific knowledge but also the skills and beliefs critical to environmental literacy at 7thand 8th-grade level (Ram sey & Hungerford, 1989:30 & 32).
If the abovementioned short courses w ere successful in positively influencing the environmental know ledge and attitudes o f participants, infusion o f EE into the curricula o f primary and secondary schools may result in developing environ mental literacy in pupils -provided that teachers themselves are environmentally literate.It is therefore praisew orthy that the D epartment o f Environment Affairs (1989:7) recommended that the objectives o f environmental education be inte grated into the curricula o f primary and secondary schools.This recommendation has also been made by several South African authors (Clacherty, 1992:29;Knott-Craig, 1980:26;Stuart, 1984:145;Viljoen, 1987:13;Viljoen, 1988:11). Loubser (1991), who accentuated the importance o f infusing EE into school curricula, consequently designed a didactic model for environmental education in the formal school system in the RSA.O f the many variables that influence learning ... the learner's relevant back ground knowledge and his or her existing internal conceptual framework are two of the most important (Brody, 1990/91:26).

Although environmental education is essentially an a p p ro a ch
This principle o f going from the known to the unknown is also stressed by Hurry (1982:52).

Aim
The purpose o f this study w as to address the following questions: The remainder o f the article records the attempt to answ er these questions.

M ethodology
For the purpose o f this study, a test containing 55 items on general environmental knowledge was developed.The items covered the natural as well as the manmade environment.In accord with the test o f Roth and Perez (1989:11) it con centrated on the following concepts: natural resources, ecology, population, culture, pollution/erosion.These concepts w ere described in brochures obtained from the Department o f Environment Affairs.The test items were presented as statem ents and children were requested to indicate if these statements were true, false or whether they did not know.
O nce the items were selected, the test w as evaluated by tw o panels o f specialists -lecturers from universities (three) and environmental educators at environmental education centres (five).Subsequently some changes w ere made and questions added on the man-made environment, for example the social and economic environment.Thereafter a pilot test was done on two groups o f Standard Five pupils, namely an Afrikaans and an English speaking group.In total 22 pupils w ere involved in the pilot test.Only then w as permission obtained for using the test in different schools from diverse cultures.

Sam ple and the ad m inistering o f the test
The -white, city suburb, Afrikaans speaking pupils (N=97); -white, city suburb, English speaking pupils (N = l 76): and -white, Afrikaans speaking pupils in a rural area (N=85).
Pupils from the Standard Seven subgroups w ere comparable with regard to socio economic background.In this regard they were also com parable to the white, primary school group.
In most cases the researcher administered the test herself.However, in three instances a teacher w as selected by the principal to adm inister the test during school hours using Science or Guidance periods.W hen the test w as administered in a black primary school, black Sotho speaking teachers translated the items into Sotho for the children as they were completing them.

S tatistical an alysis
Eventually the following statistical analysis w as done: Item a n a lysis -to assess the degree o f difficulty and the discrimination value o f each o f the items in order to determine which o f the items w as un suitable.Thereafter the results o f one item w ere disregarded.The Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient w as calculated.The reliability thus obtained is equal to the averages o f all possible bisection reliability coefficients.This reliability is also equal to the reliability obtained with the Kuder-Richardson formula 20.The final Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient w as 0,85.
F requ en cies -to assess the average percentage obtained in the test for different groups and subgroups o f pupils.It is clear from Table 1 that, as expected, the average score o f the w hite Standard Seven pupils is higher than that o f white Standard Five pupils.Although this difference is significant on the 5% level it is smaller than expected.It is also clear that the average scores o f both groups are rather low, namely 58% and 60%.

Geographical area
The average scores o f the Afrikaans speaking Standard Five and Standard Seven pupils from urban areas were com pared with the average scores o f their peers from a ru ral area.The objective w as to establish if significant differences exist in average environmental knowledge o f similar groups who reside in different geographical areas.The results appear in Table 2.

Language
To ascertain w hether white, city pupils from different language groups signi ficantly differ in environmental knowledge, the average test scores o f the A frikaans and the English speaking Standard Five and Seven pupils were compared.The results appear in Table 3. Table 3 indicates that in the Standard Five group the A frikaans sp eak in g diildicn scored on average only one percent higher than the English speaking children.This difference is not statistically significant.However, in the Standard Seven group the Afrikaans speaking children achieved an average o f four percent higher than the English speaking children.This difference is significant on the 5% level.

C ulture
By means o f F-tests the average scores obtained by the six Standard Five subgroups in the urban areas w ere com pared to see if significant differences exist.These subgroups w ere as follows: white-Afrikaans; whiie-E nglish; black-Sotho; Indian; coloured', and Private school (d iverse cu ltu res) groups.Table 4 indicates the result.It is clear from Table 4 that significant differences (on the 1% level) do exist between diverse culture subgroups.The following comparison throw s some light on some o f the differences that exist.

Private and public schools
The average test score o f the Standard Five pupils from an interracial private school was calculated and compared with the average scores o f pupils from primary schools o f the white, black, Indian and c o lo u red D ep artm en ts o f Education.All these w ere city schools.The results are as shown in Table 5.
T ab le 5. D ifferences in av e rag e sco res ob tain ed by S ta n d a rd Five p upils in a p riv a te school an d in d e p a rtm e n ta l schools o f d iffe re n t cu ltu res (u rb a n a re a ) When studying Table 5 it becomes clear that significant differences in average scores (on the 5% level) exist between the private school subgroup and the black, Indian and coloured school subgroups.The difference in averages between the private school subgroup and the black school children w as 16%; betw een the private school pupils and the Indian school pupils 10%; and betw een the private school children and the coloured school children 18%.
Surprisingly, the average test scores o f botli age groups o f pupils who belong to EE-clubs are only marginally higher than the average scores o f those who do not belong to these clubs.The differences in averages are, therefore, not significant.

C on clu sion s and discussion
From the above results certain important conclusions may be made:

R ecom m endations
K now ledge o f the environment and its problems is an aspect o f environmental literacy.The results obtained by this study suggest that pupils do not seem to have adequate basic knowledge about the environment.Therefore, in order to aid the development o f environmental literacy in pupils, issues such as ecology, population, pollution, culture and natural resources should be addressed in the curriculum.However, it must be stressed that positive behaviour tow ards the en vironment will not result from a mere increase in factual information about these concepts.On the other hand, constructive behaviour tow ards the environment will certainly not ensue without the necessary know ledge about environmental problems and their possible solutions.
When infusing factual information into the curriculum o f a ll subjects but more specifically o f subjects such as Biology, Science and Geography, pupils' back ground know ledge should be taken into account so as to be able to move from the known to the unknown.In this regard it is recommended that the difference in general environmental know ledge among diverse groups should be taken into ac count.
, the curriculum should also include a component o f knowledge.It then seems advisable to assess what pupils o f all ages and cultures already know and to use this as a basis for the development o f the curriculum.

*
W hat do Standard Five and Seven pupils o f different subgroups know about the environment?* Do the subgroups differ significantly in environmental know ledge?The specified subgroups consisted of: Standard Five and Standard Seven pupils, Koers 58(3) 1993:541-352 pupils from different geographical areas, diverse culture groups, pupils from private and public schools, boys and girls, pupils belonging to EE-clubs and those who do not belong to such clubs.
study involved a sample o f twelve schools which included nine primary schools (757 Standard Five pupils) and three secondary schools (358 Standard Seven pupils).The group o f Standard Five pupils included the following subgroups: 107 white, Afrikaans speaking pupils from an affluent suburb and 80 white, Afrikaans speaking pupils from a low socio-econom ic area, (N=187); white, English speaking (N =l 36); speaking from a rural area (N = l 20); 18 girls from a private girls' school and 46 boys from a private boys' school (N=64).These children were from diverse cultures.Because o f practical considerations and time constraints it w as decided to include only three Standard Seven subgroups in the research.The subgroup presented the following: to determine if significant differences in average per formance exist amongst the different subgroups o f the sample.An assessment o f the environmental biowledge o f Standard Five and Seven pupils

T
ab le 4. F -value o f a v e rag e scores o f six S ta n d a rd Five u rb a n su b g ro u

*
Standard Five as well as Standard Seven boys know significantly more about the environment than girls o f the same age.Traditional sex roles which orient boys outdoors and tow ards the natural sciences, and girls in doors and tow ards the human sciences may influence learning about certain aspects o f the environment.*Aconclusion arrived at in this study w as that children who belong to EEclubs do not know significantly more about the environment than children who do not belong to these clubs.More research is needed on the actual functioning o f the different kinds o f clubs and on their activities to explain this rather surprising conclusion.
When Table2is studied, it becom es clear that no significant difference in average test perform ance exists between same age Afrikaans-speaking children in urban or in rural areas.
T ab le 2. A verage test scores ob tain ed by w hite, A frik a a n s sp eak in g S ta n d a rd Five an d Seven pupils o f d iffe re n t g eo g rap h ical a re a s

*
In accordance with previous studies to assess environmental knowledge, this study found that the general environmental knowledge o f pupils is rather poor.The reason for this may be because, up to now, environmental content has not been infused into al! the curricula o f primary and secondary schools in the RSA.Although there is a statistically significant difference in environmental know ledge between Standard Five and Seven pupils for both Afrikaans and Eng lish speaking children, this difference in knowledge is less than may be ex pected.Once again the reason for this may be because no systematic infusion o f appropriate environmental content for each cognitive phase, has been made.Diverse cultural groups in Standard Five may differ significantly in environ mental knowledge.This is indicated by the significant difference in environ mental knowledge among Standard Five pupils from mixed culture private schools and pupils o f the same age from black Sotho speaking, Indian and coloured Departments o f Education.In general white, Indian and private school pupils may be from more privileged environments with easier access to television programs about the environment as well as to magazines and newspapers.This could in turn influence environmental knowledge.
* * Afrikaans speaking children o f the same age but from different geographical areas do not differ significantly in general know ledge about the environment.*