Elementary school teachers' needs about the environmental education

Abstract

In this study, we examined elementary school teachers' needs for environmental education (EE) in order to effectively implement EE in the elementary school. The participants were 113 elementary school teachers in Chungcheongnam-Do. Twenty items were adapted from the Environmental Education Needs test, and the teachers were asked to respond to each item on a 5-point Likert scale. For the items of the subcategory of EE training, teachers' preferences between the on-site and the online training were also asked. Although the teachers showed relatively strong needs for most items of both the subcategories of EE service and EE training, they exhibited stronger needs for the items related to the services and/or the content of training readily applicable to EE classes. Teachers preferred the online training to the on-site training in most items whereas their preferences to the on-site training tended to be relatively high in the items such as the use of local nonformal EE site, the development and the use of outdoor EE site, and the EE teaching strategies. Educational implications for the effective EE are discussed.