A study done by Oztaz and Kalipi (2009) was aimed at detecting basic environmental education knowledge of 248 Turkish prospective teachers. A questionnaire was administered during the first month of their final academic year. The findings of that research indicated that the prospective teachers had very limited environmental knowledge.
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The study also showed that the subjects did not possess the underlying ecological and environmental concepts related to it. Goodwin & Goodwin, 1987 have debunked the notion that boys and girls argue differently. Kuhn (1992) also states that she found no sex or age difference in the ability to employ skills necessary to engage in argumentation. She however claims that an individual’s educational achievement will determine the result to develop these ability.
In itself argumentation is all about reasoning and critical thinking of informal logic (Jimenez- Aleixandre, Rodriquez & Duschl, 2000). Maloney & Simon (2006:1820) indicates that “reasoning, evaluating, and justifying are the skills employed in resolving arguments, and for children it can be developed through decision-making activities that are sources of evidence.” In addition they also claim that prior studies have shown that school teaching has tended to spend limited time on developing argumentation skills among learners. Simon et al (2006) investigated teaching of argumentation in secondary schools. The results indicated that in developing the ability to understand and implement argumentation, teachers need to pay close attention to learners’ ways of viewing things.
Starvidou and Marinopoulos (2001) studied primary learners’ conceptions of water and air pollution in Greek. They found that that the learners knew very little about the causes and sources of water and air pollution and its harmful effects on humans in a questionnaire given to 11-12 year-old students. The results showed that the students realized how acid rain is formed and that air pollutants and waste are materials that can interact chemically with other substances when they get into the atmosphere or water. As pointed out by Stavridou and Marinopoulos (2001) the majority of the learners involved in their study regarded the phenomenon of water pollution as a local event without seeing the global picture.
Shodh, Samiksha, aur Mulyanka (2009) explored a study on environmental pollution among grade six and seven students in India. A structured interview was done with 30 students from a government school who were willing to participate in the study and who had to come from the same educational and home environment. The findings indicated that the majority of the students had a sound understanding of air pollution. The grade six students’ knew that smoke from factories, vehicles, and houses pollutes the air. 93% of the students partially knew about water pollution. The majority of the students knew that pesticides pollute water and only 20% knew that fertilizers used to increase the production of food grains also pollute water. Most of the grade six students were aware that air pollution has an effect on the lungs.
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Most of the grade seven students partially understood that polluted water cause diseases. Nearly all of the students partially had an understanding on how to control water and soil pollution. Some however, held the misconception that to avoid pollution solid waste should be dumped deep in the ground to prevent the upper soil from being polluted. In other words they were not aware that underground pollutants could still contaminate underground water.
A study conducted by Chu et al (2007) investigated Korean children environmental literacy levels affecting their environmental literacy. An instrument measuring knowledge, attitude ,behaviour and skills were given to grade three students. The findings indicated that the correlation between attitude and behaviour is much higher than between knowledge and behaviour. The study also reveals that over 90% of the children had positive attitudes regarding clean air and water and that they were aware of air and water pollution, seeing that these stories have been integrated in their curriculum. The study also revealed that gender, parents’ school background, and the sources where the children got their information affect all the categories of environmental literacy tested.
Mohapatra and Bhandauria’s (2009) findings of a study to determine Indian secondary level grade 10 students’ alternative conceptions of water pollution showed a number of misconceptions held by the students e.g. many of the students did not see any relationship between sewage, pesticides and soil erosion and water pollution. A study done by Yurttas and Sulun (2010) aimed at determining the nature of the conceptions that grade eight learners held about the most important environmental problems in Turkey and the world. An interview consisting of multiple choice questions and closed- ended questions was administered to the learners. According to the results air pollution was seen as the most serious problem followed by water pollution. Global warming, unplanned urbanization and waste were furthermore viewed as the most important environmental problems in Turkey while global warming, thinning of the ozone layer and acid rain are considered as the most important environmental problems in the world.
Tikka et al. (2000) have argued that an educational milieu is not sufficient in developing positive attitudes of students, other than their involvement in environmental activities as well as their individual awareness are also fundamental aspects in shaping environmental attitudes. Malkus and Musser (1997) imply that once students achieved the basic understanding and positive attitudes regarding environmental issues, students will be more concerned about the environment.
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It seems that the more knowledgeable children are with regard to environmental issues, the more they are likely to respect it. A study by Fazio & Zanna (1981) has revealed that environmental education should not be to comprehend the chemical-biological causes of stream pollution, but the awareness in society which look upon the polluted stream as a problem. They further mentioned that the problem lies in society and not in the environment.
They argue further that children are giving scientific knowledge on environmental concerns, as well as issuing them with empirical encounter with nature, but they are not provided with the social, cultural, economic and political knowledge and encounters.