Impact of outdoor educational activities on pupils’ environmental knowledge and attitude in selected primary schools in Ibadan, Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated the impact of outdoor educational activities and the interaction effect of location of pupils’ residence and gender on pupils’ knowledge of, and attitude, to selected environmental issues and problems. Treatment had significant main effect on pupils’ environmental knowledge (F (1,471) = 137.37; p<0.05) and attitude to environmental issues and problems (F (1,471) = 23.35; p<0.05). Pupils exposed to outdoor educational activities performed better in knowledge (X=19.59; SD = 1.78) and attitude (X=26.61; SD =.30) than their counterparts in the control group. Location of pupils’ residence had no significant effect on their knowledge and attitude. Pupils from the indigenous areas obtained higher environmental knowledge (X=17.89; SD=7.6 E-02) than those from planned areas (X= 17.67; SD = -.1424) and pupils from the planned areas had higher environmental attitude score (X=26.39; SD = 8.3E – 02) than their counterparts from the indigenous areas (X=26.26; SD = -4.4 E-02). Gender was found to have significant main effect on pupils’ environmental knowledge (F (1,471) = 27.45; p<0.05) and attitude (F (1,471) = 17.18; p<0.05). Female pupils performed better (X=18.58; SD =.77) than their male counterparts (X=17.22; SD= -.59) in environmental knowledge. Similarly, females performed better in environmental attitude (X=26.52; SD =0.21) than their male counterparts (X=26.15; SD = -0.16). Outdoor educational activities with discussion proved more effective at improving pupils’ knowledge and attitude of environmental issues and problems.