학교 숲을 활용한 체험 환경교육이 초등학생의 환경의식 함양에 미치는 영향

Effects of Activity-Oriented Environmental Education Program on Improvement of Elementary School Students’ Environmental Consciousness

The purpose of this study is to identify the effects of activity-oriented environmental education program using school forests on the improvement of elementary school students’environmental consciousness. For this purpose, this study selected two 4th-grade classes(81 students) at an elementary school in the capital area, one for an experiment group and the other for a control group. In order to examine the change of students’ environmental consciousness according to class method, the researcher developed and applied an activity-oriented environmental education program using school forests to the experiment group for 12 weeks, and traditional environment education to the control group. The results of this study were summarized as follows. First, according to the pre-test and post-test on the control group, traditional education had negative effects on elementary school students’ environmental consciousness. Second, according to the pre-test and post-test on the experiment group, the activity-oriented environmental education program using school forests had positive effects on elementary school students’ environmental consciousness. Third, according to the post-test on the control group and the experiment group, the activity-oriented environmental education program using school forests improved elementary school students’ consciousness of environmental protection and ecosystem, so it was effective in fostering their environmental consciousness.