PROFIL LITERASI ALAM SEKITAR MENGIKUT FAKTOR DEMOGRAFI PELAJAR SEKOLAH MENENGAH DI TAWAU, SABAH: ENVIRONMENTAL LITERACY PROFILE ACCORDING TO DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN TAWAU, SABAH

AHMADI ABD WAHAB; MOHAMMAD TAHIR MAPA

doi:10.51200/ejk.v27i1.3639

Authors

AHMADI ABD WAHAB Fakulti Sains Sosial dan Kemanusiaan, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Jalan UMS, 88400 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah
MOHAMMAD TAHIR MAPA Fakulti Sains Sosial dan Kemanusiaan, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Jalan UMS, 88400 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.51200/ejk.v27i1.3639

Keywords:

Literasi alam sekitar, responsible environmental behavior, pendidikan alam sekitar, tingkah laku alam sekitar, pelajar sekolah menengah, Environmental literacy, environmental education, environmental behavior, high school students

Abstract

Deklarasi Tbilisi yang diadakan pada tahun 1977 telah membawa perubahan penting dalam pelaksanaan Pendidikan Alam Sekitar (PAS). Lima objektif utama PAS yang disepakati dalam deklarasi tersebut merangkumi elemen kesedaran, pengetahuan, sikap, kemahiran dan penglibatan. Sementara itu, Literasi alam sekitar (LAS) pula merupakan matlamat dalam kurikulum Pendidikan Alam Sekitar (PAS) di peringkat sekolah. Setelah 43 tahun deklarasi tersebut diperkenalkan, kajian menyeluruh diperlukan untuk menyediakan data tentang tahap literasi alam sekitar pelajar sekolah menengah di Malaysia. Ia penting untuk menilai keberkesanan amalan PAS dan seterusnya menilai pencapaian matlamat membentuk tingkah laku bertanggungjawab alam sekitar dalam kalangan pelajar. Justeru, kajian ini dilaksanakan sebagai langkah awal untuk mengenal pasti profil tahap domain LAS pelajar mengikut faktor demografi (aliran) dalam kalangan pelajar sekolah menengah di Tawau, Sabah. Seterusnya menilai profil tahap komponen LAS pelajar mengikut aliran. Akhirnya, rumusan keseluruhan tahap LAS mengikut aliran pelajar turut dinilai dalam kajian ini. Responden kajian melibatkan 12 buah sekolah menengah kategori bandar. Seramai 328 orang pelajar tingkatan empat terlibat dalam kajian ini. Data dikumpul menggunakan borang soal selidik dan dianalisis menggunakan perisian IBM SPSS 25. Hasil kajian mendapati literasi alam sekitar mengikut aliran menunjukkan bahawa pelajar aliran sains tulen dan kemanusiaan mempunyai tahap yang sangat baik dalam domain kemahiran dan afektif alam sekitar. Namun demikian, mereka hanya mencapai tahap baik dalam domain pengetahuan dan tingkah laku alam sekitar. Secara keseluruhannya, tahap LAS mengikut aliran pula menunjukkan bahawa pelajar aliran sains tulen mencatat SM = 70.9 berbanding pelajar aliran kemanusiaan SM = 72.3. Berdasarkan skor tersebut, secara keseluruhannya tahap LAS mengikut aliran adalah dalam kategori sederhana. Justeru, bagi mencapai tahap LAS yang tinggi, pendidikan alam sekitar di sekolah perlu diperkasakan.

The Tbilisi Declaration of 1977 resulted in significant improvements in the field of environmental education (PAS). The declaration’s five key PAS goals include elements of knowledge, attitude, skills, and participation (behavior). Meanwhile, at the school level, Environmental Literacy (LAS) is a priority of the Environmental Education (PAS) curriculum. After 43 years after the declaration, a comprehensive study is needed to provide data on the level of environmental literacy among Malaysian secondary school students. It’s important to assess the effectiveness of PAS practises and, as a result, the achievement of the objective of fostering environmentally responsible behaviour in students. As a result, this analysis was carried out as a starting point in determining the LAS domain level profile of secondary school students in Tawau, Sabah, based on demographic factors. Then, assess the students’ LAS component level profiles. Finally, a description of the overall degree of LAS was evaluated in this report. The research included 12 secondary schools in the urban category as respondents. This research enlisted the participation of 328 form four students. Questionnaires were used to collect data, which was then analysed using IBM SPSS 25 software. The study’s findings revealed that students in the pure science and humanities streams had excellent levels of environmental literacy in the domains of environmental skills and affectives. However, they only achieve a good level of environmental knowledge and behavior. Overall, the level of LAS by stream showed that pure science stream students recorded SM = 70.9 compared to humanities stream student’s SM = 72.3. Based on those scores, overall the level of LAS by stream is in the moderate category. As a result, environmental education in schools must be improved in order to reach a high standard of environmental literacy.

Author Biographies

AHMADI ABD WAHAB, Fakulti Sains Sosial dan Kemanusiaan, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Jalan UMS, 88400 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

MOHAMMAD TAHIR MAPA, Fakulti Sains Sosial dan Kemanusiaan, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Jalan UMS, 88400 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

References

Buchanan, J., Pressick-Kilborn, K., & Maher, D. (2019). Promoting environmental education for primary school-aged students using digital technologies. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 15 (2). https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/100639

Erdogan, M. (2009). Fifth-grade students’ environmental literacy and the factors affecting students’ environmentally responsible behaviors. Middle East Technical University.

Haliza Abdul Rahman. (2017). Usaha dan cabaran dalam mengaplikasikan pendidikan alam sekitar dalam sistem persekolahan di Malaysia. Asian Journal of Environment, History and Heritage, 1 (December), 61–70.

Hollweg, K., Taylor, J., Bybee, R., Marcinkowski, T., McBeth, W., & Zoido, P. (2011). Developing a framework for assessing environmental literacy. North American Association for Environmental Education, 122.

Igbokwe, B. (2016). Environmental literacy assessment: Assessing the strength of an environmental education program (EcoSchools) in Ontario Secondary Schools for Environmental Literacy Acquisition. University of Windsor Ontario, Canada.

IPCC. (2014). Climate Change 2014: Synthesis report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental

Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team, R.K. Pachauri and L.A. Meyer (eds.)].

Kukkonen, J., Kärkkäinen, S., & Keinonen, T. (2018). Examining the relationships between factors influencing environmental behaviour among university students. Sustainability (Switzerland), 10(11). https://doi.org/10.3390/su10114294

Lay Yoon Fah, & Anuthra Sirisena. (2014). Relationships between the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviour dimensions of environmental literacy: A structural equation modeling approach using smart pls. Jurnal Pemikir Pendidikan, 5 (1992), 119–144.

McBeth, W. (1997). A historical description of the development of an instrument to assess the environmental literacy of middle school students. In Dissertation.

McBeth, W., & Volk, T. L. (2010). The National Environmental Literacy Project: A baseline study of middle-grade students in the United States. The Journal of Environmental Education, 41 (1), 55–67. https://doi.org/10.1080/00958960903210031

Negev, M., Sagy, G., Garb, Y., Salzberg, A., & Tal, A. (2008). Evaluating the environmental literacy of Israeli elementary and high school students. The Journal of Environmental Education, 39 (2), 3–20. https://doi.org/10.3200/JOEE.39.2.3-20

Norshariani Abd Rahman. (2016). Knowledge, internal, and environmental factors on environmental care behaviour among aboriginal students in Malaysia.

International Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 11 (12), 5349–5366.

Paço, A., & Lavrador, T. (2017). Environmental knowledge and attitudes and behaviours towards energy consumption. Journal of Environmental Management, 197, 384–392. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2017.03.100

Salwati Yaakub. (2013). Pembinaan dan pengesahan instrumen literasi alam sekitar pelajar sekolah menengah. Universiti Sains Malaysia.

Salwati Yaakub & Zurida Ismail. (2009). Environmental literacy of Malaysian secondary school students. Third International Conference on Science and

Mathematics Education (CoSMEd) 2009.

UNESCO. (1977). Tbilisi Declaration. Intergovernmental Conference on Environmental Education, 3(1).

Veisi, H., Lacy, M., Mafakheri, S., & Razaghi, F. (2018). Assessing environmental literacy of university students: A case study of Shahid Beheshti University in Iran. Applied Environmental Education and Communication, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/1533015X.2018.1431163

Williams, R. D. (2017). An assessment of environmental literacy among Oklahoma public high school students and the factors affecting students’ environmental literacy.

Wong, C. A., Syamsul Herman Mohammad Afandi, Ramachandran, S., Ahmad Shuib, Chan, J., & Lian, K. (2017). Environmental literacy among year 5 primary school children in east coast division, Sabah, Malaysia Borneo Tourism Research Centre, Faculty of Business, 35, 20–26. https://doi.org/10.5829/idosi/wasj.seiht.2017.20.26